If you are a certified mermaid and want to share your passion with future mermaid student you can enroll Mermaid Instructor Training Course for you to train to be a professional Mermaid Instructor.

We are offering SSI Mermaid certification. After the session you can offer SSI Mermaid course and train your future mermaid students to be a good mermaid in pool and open water.

SSI Mermaid Instructor Training Course:
Pre requisite

• Min age: 18 years old
• Have certification in SSI mermaid program and
• snorkel instructor or equivalent from recognized training agency
• Have CPR first aid and oxygen provider certification. 

Duration: Minimum 32 hours ( 4 - 5 day)

Requirement for completion:

• Successfully complete all academic and practical application session as outlined in the instructor manual for mermaid instructor training course including academic presentations and pool presentation.
• Complete and pass final theory exam
• Complete mermaid water fitness evaluation
  • Tread water 15mins without any aids
  • Swim 700m non stop within 20mins using mask fins and snorkel
  • Underwater swim 25m using mask fin and snorkel
  • Perform a full surface rescue of an unconscious swimmer for a total distance of 50m using monofin or mermaid tail

Active status SSI mermaid instructors may teach supervise and issue certification:

• SSI Try mermaid
• SSI Mermaid
• SSI Ocean mermaid
• SSI Mermaid model specialty
• SSI Mermaid explorers
• Snorkel diver

 
SSI professional additional material:

• Mermaid instructor kit (training material and certification in digital)
• SSI Professional Registration & Initial Year Renewal fee

with this activation candidate will get assess to SSI mermaid program including free program sponsored by SSI like snorkeling, Try Mermaid.

Mermaid Instructor Training  course Fee: RM5500 (price for 2023)
Please take note you need to have SSI mermaid certification before attending the mermaid instructor course. Please arrange with any SSI mermaid instructor to complete your certification. You can also do it with us.

And CPR First aid and Oxygen provider you can addon RM650

Fees Include the SSI Mermaid Instructor kit, Registration fee and initial renewal fee and mermaid instructor trainer fee and pool entrance fee for 5 day

THERE’S a saying among freedivers that they are all lousy swimmers.
While swimmers move fast in water, freedivers – those who dive underwater without breathing apparatus – do quite the opposite; they dive vertically into the deep blue and hold their breath for as long as they can. When they sense that the oxygen in their lungs is starting to deplete, they swim upwards and breathe again.
Syafidatul Azua Shafii, 38, does this for leisure and also for a living. A freediving trainer, she currently holds the national record for freediving, at 41m without fins, which she accomplished at the International Association for the Development of Apnea (AIDA) Freediving World Championship in Limassol, Cyprus in September.
That’s about three minutes of holding her breath underwater – 90 seconds diving down and 90 seconds going up again. She can go down to 61m with a monofin (that looks like a mermaid’s tail) or 51m with bi-fins (fins with long blades).

Read full article here:

We have good news to all our students and other certified freedivers in Malaysia.

We will now offer refresher program for everyone that need to refresh your freediving knowledge and skills.

In all our freediving program we will have theory component, practical session and also water session. This apply to all from beginner to Deep/professional program and also in our specialty program.

​We know you have been away or not practicing your freediving skills for months or maybe for years, we will start to offer refresher program for you to restart again your freediving training.

We also would like to improve on our services to our students, We have restructured all our freediving course to train our students to be a quality freediver. There will be many additional topic we will introduce to our course. 

Note:
1. Level 1 Refresher will be automatically added into your Level 2 theory session.
2. Refresher program only open to freediver who has completed your freediving course training. We will not talk every topic into detail as the topic has covered during Level 1/level 2 course. 
3. session will be online via google meet/zoom

If you have been freedive for few years you know we do not have many options here in Malaysia to train our deep freedive. It is not because we don't have depth, a lot of area is still unexplored, facilities, man power or logistics are one of the things that add to the extra cost to pay. In the end it is almost same if we can travel out, stay for 2 weeks or month and train our depth there compared to train in Malaysia. 

During covid-19 season, due to restrictions to travel out, in the end we have no choice instead of keep exploring for training locations in Malaysia. Based on our research and experience this new location will be one of the best options we can add into considerations on choosing place for training depth in Malaysia. The new training location we would like to write today is Merang.

​

Merang is located in Terengganu. It is 20 minutes away from airport in Kuala Terengganu and if you take bus to travel, the bus station to Merang is not far away and you have many options of taxi or e hailing car for you to do land transfer to Merang.

Near to Merang location there are island with deep area, here we are talkin to 40-50m area for you to train your deep freedive. To freedive to 40-50m area will take days to progress and to find a location where you can comfortably train and also do your work get access to internet, access to area with variety of healthy meals, variety of accommodation to suit your style and needs, Merang can be best location to add in your list as you can travel to Kuala Terengganu, city centre to find all your needs.

Talking about depth, yu can find 50m area in Yu island or even 30m area closer to Bidong Island. so all this island you can do daytrip and closer to mainland and will give you flexibility to plan for your trip.

Check our training videos for our instructor group in Merang this year. After being hiatus for few months, we take this opportunity to train again. We managed to find 50m depth however we just stick to 40m dive site as this is enough for our training during this trip.

Freediver always choose freediving location with clear water visibility with endless depth, calm water, no current, with underwater marine life and colourful coral to swim, easy access to reach, healthy food to find and beautiful island scenery to relax and calm our mind. Either you want to train with line to get deeper or to do it leisurely to enjoy the beauty of tropical underwater, Malaysia also have good freedive site where you can enjoy for both purpose. Here is the list of freediving site in Malaysia where you can explore:
In East Malaysia, there are few island you can explore for freediving. Sabah is known for many beautiful island for diving/ snorkeling.

East Malaysia

1.Sipadan / Mabul / Sibuan Island (Sabah)
Sipadan is definitely a must visit place for freediving. The island is unique because the only oceanic island rising from more than 600m from sea bed like an atoll in Malaysia. Around the island is full with different dive site where you can go for school of barracudas, trevally, jack fish, bumphead, sharks, and turtles. Sipadan also surrounded by wall of colourful coral and it will drop until sea bottom. We can only do daily trip to Sipadan, and you can choose to stay in Mabul or Semporna.
 
In Mabul, ideal for doing your freediving course, or go fortraining and also for recreational. The island surrounded by beautiful diving site with great depth for all level from beginner to master. You can also try freedive under the oil rig which turn to a resort.
 
If you stay in Semporna, Sibuan Island will be the best to do your freediving courses and training. With 40m depth we can find from the shore and good visibility all year round, it is definitely the best location for training.
 
2.Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park (Sabah)
If you travel to Kota Kinabalu, you can check Mamutik Island or Sepanggar with less than 10 minutes boat ride. If you have more time to travel, can check Mantanani island for more clear water and best island experience.
 
Recommended: Beginner level
Freedive Centre: Apnea Odyssey KK
Freediving Certification: SSI Freediving
 
In Peninsular Malaysia, there are many island you can go for freediving too. The east coast from north to South is full with white sandy beach and crystal clear water and beautiful island. However between November until February is monsoon season. You can plan your freediving activity between March to October. 
 
Peninsular Malaysia

3.Tioman
 
Tioman Island one of favourite destinations for snorkelers and scuba divers. You can find beautiful coral and colourful fishes just from the shore or you can do boat hoping and explore thhe dive site around Tioman. Many of the dive site you can find swim through and many of topical marine life. If you never try freediving before, Tioman can be a good place to start. Just take short vacation while experience the island life with the sea or jungle view and complete your freedivng course. You can also go for training to go deeper as deep as 40m or just go for leisure and explore the beauty of Tioman’s underwater.
 
Recommended: Beginner to Master level
Freedive Centre: Freedive Tioman
Freediving certification: Aida/ Apnea Total/ Molchanovs
 
4.Aur/Dayang Island
Aur and Dayang Island located in the south of Peninsular Malaysia is good site for freediving training and master course. Here you can find great depth more than 50m and there are many dive site for recreational too. The island is chosen to grow Giant Clam and you can find in few dive site around the island. You can also go hiking while you in the island and experience the top view of the island or watch sunrise.
 
Recommended : Beginner to Master level
 
5.Tenggol Island
Tenggol island is famour for whale shark sighting. For freediver, it has an ideal condition to train for master course as deep as 40m in the bay area and protected from wind. In Tenggol also you can find many ship wrecks to explore and many cave and swim through to explore.
 
Recommended: Beginner to Master level
 
 
6.Bidong Island
If you stay in Merang, you can do daytrip to Bidong Island for snorkeling or freediving. You can also go for freediving course or training. Bidong is famous for the history of the island and also now become a research centre for local university. Bidong definitely best alternative for your freediving activity if you want to stay in mainland.
 
Freedive Centre:
Agency: AIDA, Molchanov, PADI
 
7.Lang Tengah / Redang Island
Lang Tengah and Redang will be good location for your freediving photo or for your social media post for crystal clear water. Redang Island will be good location to start your freediving course with good visibility and accessible to swim from shore. In Lang tengah you can go for advanced level. There are house wreck from shore you can swim and freedive. It is advisable to take boat with the resort due to boat traffic.
Freedive Centre: Dolphin Lee Aquatic (Redang)
Agency: PADI Freediving
 
Freedive Centre: Lang Tengah Island Resort
Agency : AIDA and Padi freedive
 
8.Perhentian Island
Located in the North east coast peninsular Malaysia. You can easily travel by taking boat from Kuala Besut jetty. Perhentian always become attraction of snorkelers and scuba diving or travel destination to family and friends. You can go for freediving here and suitable for beginner to advanced level.
 
Freedive Centre: Freedive AndRasa
Agency:  Molchanovs
 
9.Payar Island
Located in the West coast of Peninsular Malaysia, is the easy access to travel from Langkawi or Penang. Payar always become destinations for snorkelers, scuba divers who visit Langkawi. During monsoon season in east coast is best to check this island for training and also for recreational. There are many underwater marine life you can see here like grouper and colourful coral. Payar island best for beginner level of freediver as you can easily get 15m depth from shore.

2020 was a challenging year to many of us. For freediving it also hit us by limited our training and traveling to the island. many of us now has to start from scratch again to make progress in freediving. 

For freediving there are many elements involved where all our diver can master. We are very ambitious to educate our freediver about our sea and also in more depth about freediving specialty like no-fins, monofin and also safety aspects like an emergency responder. To see our freedivers become well rounded diver will be our objective this year. 

​With the Free SSI Specialty Marine Ecology we encourage all our diver to upgrade their knowledge and experience into specialty freediver. As minimum as Basic Freediver, if you complete two specialty program including ecology program you can earn Specialty Freediver. We take this chance to encourage our students to go for Training Techniques. To suit with current lock down condition in Kuala Lumpur, we encourage our student to do training Technique program where we structure it to suit with stay at home program. you can complete 5 academic sessions online and compete 2 pool session after MCO. we also package it with Level 2 program to widen our diver's knowledge in freediving. For Level 2 freediver, they can complete 2 freediving Specialty to earn Advanced Freediver.

We also our offering Level 3 program now to prepare our freediver to progress their deep dives. Level 3 is the last level in Freediving education. It is very important for us to educate our freediver to get proper knowledge and enugh experiences before they progress in their 30-40m dive. we are focusing our Level 3 diver now to build up their stamina and prepare for pool training after MCO and candidates can logged their freedive training and see their progress.

We have good news to share. We are expanding our operations to Kota Kinbalu. Now you can learn to freedive or continue your freediving education or continue your training or train to be an instructor. We provide program from beginner to instructor level.

Once again, I had opportunities to share my experience in freediving. Recently I was invited as a speaker in DRT show in Kuala Lumpur to talk about two topics in freediving. As the interest in freediving now become popular in our region, so to reach more people and give them exposure how to start is the best topic i can think of to talk in an event like this. Thank you so much to all my followers that try to make time to attend my talk. hopefully we will see again in any freediving events.

Apnea Odyssey for the first time organise it's first Freediving Instructor Training Course (FITC) for SSI Freediving Pool instructor to it's four freediving pool instructor candidates on last 29 December 2018.

All the candidates need to go through intensive training how to be a professional SSI freedive instructor.

Requirement to attend FITC Pool:
has completed and certified Level 1 (minimum),
Has completed 50 logged training session (minimum),
Has Completed SSI Specialty Training Techniques course.

After completed and pass the FITC, SSI Freediving Pool instructor will be able to teach:
SSI Freediving Pool course
SSI Freediving Basic Course
SSI Training Technique
SSI Try Freediving

minimum days to run FITC pool will be as minium 7 days to 10 days depend on the level of the cadidates. In the FITC candidates will be assessed in many area including water performance, freediving performance, academic presentations, Pool presentation, professionalism and knowledge about Freediving. 

We have 4 candidates and they are familiar faces in Apnea Odyssey and to all our pool training and open water trips, some of them has completed SSI Freediving Level 3, Level 2 and some of them has represent Malaysia to competed in freediving competition. 

It was an intense training days because we have to make sure that we produce quality freediving instructor. Now we have new four SSI Pool Freediving Instructor in Malaysia, They are based in KL, Kedah and Kota Kinabalu.  We will have soon FITC Pool course and FITC level 1 in February 2019.