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Mari-Ann Kucharek

AIDA Courses and certifications

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AIDA Courses and certifications

I offer group and private courses, as well as certifications & crossovers with the freediving organisation AIDA, training students from basic through to instructor level. I also offer personal training and coaching. My main focus  is to help you achieve comfort and freedom in the water, so you stay safe, inspired and capable of independently developing your skills further. 

If you decide that you’d like to dedicate more time and energy to your personal training just get in touch to discuss the time-frame that suits you best.

I normally begin with a casual interview by email followed by a video-call to assess your overall goals, the course level you need and to discuss the more specific problem, training technique or depth you want to pursue. Whether you’re taking a formal course, or personalised training, the focus for each session is to define and work on the techniques you most need, and to encourage you in your progress.

You can use my specialised Breathwork training sessions at any level of the AIDA training journey to take yourself deeper psychologically and emotionally. Read more about them here.

Prices for private or group sessions are based on your level of experience.

AIDA 1 Introduction to Freediving

An introduction to freediving skills that will prepare you for depth. Designed to provide practical techniques for safe freediving and increase your confidence underwater.

You will learn how to breathe correctly before you freedive and on surfacing, the importance of relaxation for improving your breath-hold and to understand the differences in equalisation techniques. You will also be introduced to duck dive, better finning, and basic partner work and safety techniques.

Duration: 1 & ½ days

  • 4 hours of theory
  • 2 hours of dry practice
  • 1 Open water day
  • Practical dry exercises
  • Certification fee included

AIDA 2 Beginner

The main objective of AIDA 2 is to become more familiar and less reactive to the unfamiliar sensations of the deeper pressure environment creates in us and to develop a set of mental skills that will allow us to approach depth with confidence. It deals more specifically with safety at depth, and will develop your skills in Static and Dynamic apnea.

Duration: 3 days

  • 2 theory sessions and exam
  • 2 days on the open water, (depth, static and dynamic training).
  • Comfortable progress to 20m
  • Certification fee included
  • Boat fees not included

AIDA 3 Intermediate

This course, as well as teaching the principles of specific and non-specific training, CO2 & O2 tables, deep safety and rescue skills, will improve your confidence, teach you how to exploit the power of relaxation and increase your performance to enjoy longer, deeper dives.

At this level we establish a protocol for each freedive so progress to depth becomes a consistent, and instinctive mental and physical response.

“Project the game ahead of you, 3 seconds at a time.”

The purpose of sequencing each stage of the freedive is to help concentrate your mind on each moment and take your mind off of the goal of depth. This sequence of ‘building blocks’ sets up the freedive from the first part of the descent, culminating in the free-fall or ‘sink phase’ and then the return. This structure, trained to proficiency is the groundwork for progressing to the depth of your choice.

Duration: 3 & 1/2 days

  • 2 theory sessions and exam
  • 2 days open water
  • 1 confined water session
  • Comfortable progress to 28m
  • Certification fee included
  • Boat fees not included

AIDA 4 Advanced

If you choose to continue on to this course you would have committed more fully than at any other level, to both the mental and physical challenge to ‘dive into yourself’.

Included are the more highly skilled strategies for depth including ‘mouth-fill’, ‘RV’ Residual Volume dives, and Variable Weights for inurement to pressure at depth and continued familiarisation with the ‘free-fall or ‘sink phase’ as the essential ingredient for energy efficiency. In addition to this, the course touches on certain more profound aspects of sports psychology and discusses lifestyle, and the dietary and nutritional changes that are beneficial to freediving.

By this stage, you will have understood the principles of structure inherent in each freedive, its precise mechanical skills combined with the ‘no-mind concept of, ‘concentration – de-concentration’, first coined by the queen of freediving, Natalia Molchanova, dependent on total relaxation.

You’ll learn the rules that govern freediving, the discipline of the practice and finally, to relinquish form, ‘let go’ and fall into a state of flow.

Duration: 5 days

  • 1 day Theory & exam
  • 4 days Open Water
  • Comfortable progress to 40m
  • Certification fee included
  • Boat fees not included

AIDA STAGE Instructor Assistant

As a result of the high performance levels required to become an instructor we recommend that after completing the advanced level an aspiring freedive instructor should take the time to develop the skills necessary to train for safety and comfort at depth as well as dedicating equally as much time to becoming a keen and strong observer and communicator to be able to qualify as a more than just competent teacher.

The Instructor Assistant Stage course duration is based on acquiring those skills, being assessed on them at intervals and on completing the requirements.

Please contact me for more detailed information.

AIDA IT Instructor Training

The Instructor Training intensive course is to work towards the required minimum level of personal performance established by AIDA, in the determined number of days, to familiarise each instructor with all the levels of courses and procedures and promote an understanding of the ethics of instruction.

The course does not allow for specific depth training. Each applicant should arrive capable or close to the training depth of 50m required by AIDA. The purpose of this course is to teach how to improve your teaching skills and does not guarantee that the instructor in training achieves the depth required for completing the certification.

Duration: 9-12 days and 40 hours of learning

  • 3-days minimum Open Water
  • Req. Depth: 50m
  • Certification fee included
  • Boat Fees not included
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Get In Touch

Maria-Teresa Solomons
La Paz, B.C.S.
Mexico
Email: [email protected]
Phone: +52 612 157 2004