Jared Allen

Jaren Allen I was holiday in Thailand when I discovered the underwater world. I initially tried scuba diving and was amazed at the fact I could dive 18m deep with oxygen tanks to support me. I then found out that people were diving deeper without the need of any breathing apparatus and I couldn’t believe them. That’s when I researched more and found the sport of free diving. I can say that this was one of the most pivotal points in my life. Being able to go past 10, 20 even 30 metres below sea level with one breath I knew that this sport / adventure was right for me.

It taught me strength in the mind, strength in commitment and overall strength in living. I wanted to learn my limits whilst also furthering my spearfishing abilties. And I have now furthered my abilities and understanding thanks to Freediving Gold Coast. I can’t recommend them enough!

Adam Bothwell

Adam Bothwell is an Assistant Instructor with Freediving Gold Coast. Adam moved to Queensland from Melbourne at the start of 2020 with the desire to pursue the sport of freediving and everything that it involves. Since then, he has enjoyed the countless routes one can take to perfect all angles of the sport, as well as the constant challenge – both mental and physical. The lifestyle that leads to a healthy body and mind and the friends to be made cannot be understated.

Although he is most at home in the pool with dynamic work, his favourite places to dive usually involve diving wrecks around southern Queensland, especially at night.
Adam is very passionate about health, fitness and nutrition. Understanding different aspects of freediving training has opened the door to triathlons for Adam, as both areas require strong mental focus, alongside physical capability.
Adams training approach is open and welcoming. He enjoys sharing his knowledge with anyone keen to listen. Creating a safe and positive environment for people to achieve the best results they can is something Adam finds rewarding, and he has many of the tools to push past what one had thought themselves impossible.

Paul Bright

Paul Bright

Paul is an AIDA 4 Assistant Freediving Instructor. Paul started freediving in 2020 with Freediving Gold Coast. Paul has been a life long surfer and loves getting out in the beautiful ocean around the Gold Coast and further afield to surf, snorkel and freedive.
Paul is passionate about freediving and the opportunities it provides to experience the ocean in the most beautiful way and also the mental and physical challenges it brings.   Paul is passionate about health, fitness, meditation and yoga. He really enjoys a fun deep dive day to challenge himself with the Freediving Gold Coast members as well as sharing his enthusiasm with new divers starting out on their freediving journey.
Freediving requires you to be absolutely in the present moment. Once you take that breath and dive, nothing else exists. You come back with a new perspective and ready for the next challenge in the water and life. Looking forward to see you out in the ocean or pool soon.

Grant Faber

Grant Faber is an Assistant Instructor with Freediving Gold Coast. He leads a typically busy modern life, juggling family and work commitments, while still making time to pursue his personal interests. With this perspective Grant understands there isn’t always time to get everything right, and that small victories and continuous progress add up over time.

For Grant, freediving provides an opportunity to still the mind, focus on the present, and build mental resilience. The biggest challenge Grant faces in freediving is shared by many, that is finding deep relaxation and understanding that the body is extremely capable, despite what the mind keeps saying.
“Freediving offers moments of calm and clarity among the storms of daily life.”
Grant is passionate about health and fitness, advocating consistent exercise with its proven long term benefits. As a result he is keenly interested in the role of nutrition and functional training on freediving performance, and their positive contributions to life outcomes in general.
Helping others achieve their own goals in a safe and enjoyable way drew Grant to the role of assistant instructor; while his training approach aligns well with the ethos of Freediving Gold Coast, making it a natural fit. Grant also hopes to one day work with the AIDA Youth Program, training young divers in safe water practices.
In addition to freediving you’ll find Grant training at his local CrossFit box, following the same philosophy of continuous personal improvement in a supportive and constructive environment. So if you find yourself training with Grant be sure he’ll work with you to achieve your best on the day, whatever that best means to you.
While Grant is competitive by nature and enjoys the thrill of improving his performance in the pool and depth disciplines, he also likes nothing more than cruising around a reef with family and friends, shooting poor quality video footage to share online and laugh about later.

Christopher Linnett

Christopher Linnett is an assistant instructor with Freediving Gold Coast. Chris started freediving in early 2019 and initially had difficulties going deeper but trained daily to overcome the issues. In doing so fell in love with the sport, changed his lifestyle and has since moved to the Gold Coast to get closer to the water. Although enjoys pool and depth training, it is mostly a means to an end to get back to the recreational aspects of freediving. There is nothing quite like diving deep into the marine ecosystem on a breath and being able to take in the whole environment and training creates potential to both extend the duration and improve the quality of this experience. Currently Chris is completing a dual degree at university with the goal of one using these studies to share this experience with others.

Jono Maher

Jono Maher is an AIDA 4 Master Freediver and Assistant Instructor with Freediving Gold Coast. I am also a tradesman working a full-time job in Brisbane and am always keen to get out on the boat and in the water for a training session whenever possible.

I have a background in SCUBA with dives numbering in the hundreds, my Rescue Certification and am also an ADAS Level 3 Commercial Diver so you can see I love the ocean and being a part of it. =)

I transitioned over to Freediving after Jack Michael introduced me to it whilst we were on a trip to Mexico diving in the Cenotes there.

I absolutely love the sheer challenge involved with Freediving and whether it be starting off learning to dive those first few metres or mastering the finer advanced techniques to achieve the deeper depths I love the fact that there is always pleasure to be had with nailing the little steps along the way.

There is no end in Freediving and it really is about the journey.

Freediving to me has also become a large influencing factor in my life and has led to me being more aware about a lot of things ie Food, Fitness and daily choices.

Someone once said to me “SCUBA is about looking out and Freediving is about looking in” and I wholeheartedly agree with this sentiment.

With more awareness and making healthier decisions Freediving has led me to a more positive outlook and a more positive life in general.

I have begun to partake in competitive Freediving and am looking forward to setting new distances/times and bit by bit pitting myself against my past self.

I feel my future in Freediving is involved in the teaching side of it and I really enjoy the opportunity to pass on knowledge to any aspiring Freediver. The community is extremely helpful, and you can be but a question away from learning a new technique or finer nuance from any of the others involved in Freediving.

Jo McAvenna

Jo’s sporting background (gymnastics, athletics, skydiving) held her in very good stead when, at the ripe old age of 48 and in the name of ‘rehab’ post knee surgery, she decided to ‘take the plunge’. Taking to freediving like the proverbial duck to water, leaving her only to ponder… “Why did I not tick this off my bucket list WAY earlier??!!”

Having worked for the past 20 years in a very hectic, extremely physical environment with ridiculously long and haphazard hours, she has become truly enamoured by the beauty and serenity to be found at depth, which affords her reprieve and much solace from the craziness she knows as normal life.
Now when she grows up, she wants to semi retire from her ‘day job’ and continue to travel the world in search of amazing freediving adventures and experiences. Enabling her to bring home stories and knowledge to share with others in her happy go lucky, relaxed style.
She aspires to the likes of Kerry Whitworth (see Assistant Instructor profile), to be diving well into her 70’s and beyond. In age as well as depth with any luck!

Jack Michael

Jack is an Assistant Instructor with Freediving Gold Coast, and 2 time New Zealand national record holder for the dynamic bi-fins pool discipline.  Jack was first introduced to freediving during a trip to the Gili Islands while putting off going home after an extended trip away in Africa and Eastern Europe, and was instantly hooked and rebooked his flights home to allow for more time diving.

Jack has a background as a competitive swimmer when he was younger, and has always loved the ocean and being in and around the water. When he moved to Brisbane, he got involved with Freedive Gold Coast for the deep dive days, and started pool training with the Brisbane Bullsharks. The competitive side of the pool training kept him motivated between ocean dives, and he then completed his AIDA 4 Assistant instructor qualification with Freedive Gold Coast in April 2019.

Jack loves freediving because it’s a sport that pushes you physically and mentally past what most people know their body is capable of, and requires you to really understand your own body and mind to be able to succeed. It is just as much about self restraint as it is about pushing yourself, and that’s pretty unique.

Jack loves to see new freedivers accomplish things that they never thought possible, whether it’s through a static breath hold they didn’t think was possible, or diving to a depth that seemed unreachable before, and is planning to do his instructor training early 2020.

Jack also loves that freediving makes it easier to swim around chasing fishies and swimming after turtles while listening to the whales sing. The ocean is a pretty amazing place.

Javier Morcos

I grew up on the coast of Peru, and discovered the underwater world freediving for scallops at my uncle’s scallops farm in Paracas and spearfishing in the summer school holidays at Puerto Lomas beach. I enjoy the adventure of exploring different locations and bringing fresh food to the table in a sustainable way.
I moved to Australia in 2013, where I continued spearfishing while exploring new waters. I searched for training with intentions to dive deeper and safer. This lead me to the Gold Coast Freediving club. I really enjoy their approach to training and coaching. It is there where I completed the AIDA 4 training, joined the HPC (High Performance Couching) and began competing in pool mini comps. My competitive personality has given me a great deal of experience which has helped me to achieve two Peruvian national pool records in DYN bi fins and DYN no fins. I am also a qualified lifeguard and swimming instructor, which alows me to connect with other water lovers. I would love to help with the evolution of the sport and teach kids and adults to Freedive and compete.
My dream is to compete internationally and keep challenging myself to see how far I can go while following my passion for the sport. I am a father of 2 boys Kairo and Arlo, they inspire me to keep training and better myself. Freediving teaches me a lot about myself and helps me to deal with everyday life problems. It has helped me to face my fears, use them in my favour and compete with myself, with my own limitations and strengths. Freediving is not an easy sport, but it’s very rewarding.
There’s a quote I always remember when talking about Freediving “I am in competition with no one, I run my own race”. This is what “Free” in “Freediving” represents to me.

Craig Smith

When you think of freediving you think of a person who is calm relaxed and zen. This is not Craig. If you would like a dirty joke, a laugh or learn how to poo in the ocean and stay clean, then he is the person to see. We like Craig when he is underwater as he can’t tell bad jokes.  According to Craig, cigars and beer don’t affect performance but can count as training and carb loading.
He came to us from a scuba background with 300+dives and has managed to dive some very spectacular spots around the world.
He had just started spearfishing and thought he should learn to breathold properly. He is a better freediver than a spearo but loves both.
He is actually very safety conscious when it comes time to dive and believes it’s just nice being underwater and enjoying yourself.  Craig loves the ocean and prefers it to the pool but is finding a new love with pool training and exploring his limits. He runs his own business but wants nothing about work on his bio as freediving is some fun and relaxation away from the hustle and bustle of normal life. Craig is always keen for a dive, a spear, a beer or just a chat about anything

Kerry Whitworth

I’m an Assistant Instructor (AIDA 4 Master Freediver certification) with Freediving Gold Coast. I had a strong interest and fascination with being underwater, from a young age, and I was introduced to spearfishing at the age of 14 where I grew up in Burnie Tasmania. Wet suits weren’t around then, 58 years ago, in 1961 so we shivered uncontrollably after each dive, and just accepted it, we didn’t know any different. I kept up spearfishing in Melbourne at Cape Schank from 1965 to 1969, before going to live in Vancouver Canada, where I did Scuba diving. I also did a Stuntman course and qualified in car chase, horse falls, saddle falls, western bar room fights, fast draw with Colt 45, and high falls from buildings. Had a few injuries, one quite scary.

After marrying Yvonne, the love of my life, I decided to come home and be a more ‘responsible ‘person and assume a normal lifestyle (lol). At age 33, while living in Melbourne, I got the running bug, and developed a love for distance swimming, my longest swim was 16 km. I competed in Australia’s first Triathlon in I980, and ran several marathons, best was 3 hrs and 58 seconds.

I moved to the Gold Coast in 1982, and pursued Triathlon until I got hit by cars twice, and suffered a broken hip from a bike accident. I decided to just focus on running and swimming. The bike had to go! I ran a lot of half marathons (PB 1:22) and a lot of 10Km runs (PB 44 mins).

I taught spearfishing to my 2 sons and still yearned for more breath hold knowledge. I met Sebastien Murat in 2006, and he gave me training, especially in FRC (Functional Residual Capacity). A few years later, I met Frank Gearon who encouraged me to hook up with Clint and Cristy, and as they say, the rest is history! I’m 72 and I run 50 km a week, and swim 3 days a week. I have completed Aida 2, 3, and 4. Ups and downs in my first two Freediving Comps were a STA 6 mins 10 seconds but a DNY DSQ SP.

Freediving to me is very relaxing (except when competing!). I feel very much ‘at home’ underwater, especially on exhale. I look forward to assisting students in pool and ocean training, as I like to encourage newer divers in this sport, and help them to enjoy it as much as I do. I retired from work 9 months ago, but not retired from passion in life!