Crater Lakes Freediving Retreats

$995.00

Crater Lakes Freediving Retreats – Lake Eacham & Lake Barrine

The Best Place for Freediving

Our Crater Lakes Freediving 7-Day Retreats provide almost perfect freediving conditions everyday surrounded by lush tropical rainforest creating a serene freediving experience. This is a special place with depths up to 65m; no currents; low winds; no swells; warm waters (from 23 to 28 degrees Celsius) and no boat traffic. On our Crater Lakes Freediving Retreats depth is easily achieved by swimming from the shore. Of course, the Crater Lakes are freshwater so you can leave half your dive weights at home. Our Crater Lakes Freediving Retreat is the ideal freediving environment for beginners to instructors to improve technique, and confidence to dive deeper and safer with regular training sessions in one of the most peaceful, tranquil freediving locations in Australia. In fact, we believe freediving in Lake Eacham and Lake Barrine is one of the best diving places in the world. It is a myth that you need to go overseas for depth training. It is right on our back doorstep and accessible within a day from almost anywhere in Australia. The beautiful Crater Lakes of Lake Barrine and Lake Eacham are located just one hour 15 minutes from Cairns Airport. That means less travel, fewer hassles (stopovers, immigration, transfers etc), and ultimately more freediving with better value for you. Finally, our Lake Barrine Freediving Headquarters is located right at the steps of both Lake Barrine and Lake Eacham.

Sightseeing the Crater Lakes & Surrounding Areas

No aspect of our 7-Day Crater Lakes Freediving Retreat is mandatory. We encourage recovery days or only limited freediving on the Wednesday on the 7 day retreats. This allows people to chill-out, socialise and sightsee. There are walking tracks around both lakes offering excellent opportunities to view wildlife such as turtles and birdlife. The Lake Eacham Circuit Track is 3km and the Lake Barrine Circuit Track is about 5kms. Not far away is one of the few places in Australia where it is possible to see platypus in the wild. Other popular sightseeing attractions include the Curtain Fig Tree, Millaa Millaa Falls, and Paronella Park. Why not bring your family so they can have a holiday too?

Crater Lakes Accommodation

About 10 minutes away from the Crater Lakes we have reserved some accommodation options including motel rooms (double bed / 2 singles) at $102 per night and self-contained cabins (double room + 2 singles with full cooking facilities) at $129 per night. The self-contained cabins are very suitable for sharing.  If you are interested in this latter option please contact us asap so we can connect you with other people who want to share.  Due to popular demand the self-contained cabins have limited availability so don’t delay if this is what you want.

7-Day Crater Lakes Freediving Retreat Schedule

Freediving Gold Coast is offering four Crater Lakes Freediving Retreats in April, June, September and December 2025 as follows:

  1. Crater Lakes Freediving Autumn Retreat April 6 to April 12 2025
  2. Crater Lakes Freediving Winter Retreat June 29 to July 5 2025
  3. Crater Lakes Freediving Spring Retreat September 21 to September 27 2025
  4. Crater Lakes Freediving Summer Retreat December 14 to December 20 2025

Each retreat is 7 days in duration starting on the Sunday and finishing on the following Saturday. We recommend arriving the day before (Saturday) and leaving the day after (Sunday). Therefore, you will need 8 nights accommodation. Each retreat provides up to an unbeatable 20 hours of depth training. We are not aware of any freediving retreats or training camps offering this much depth diving anywhere in the world within a 7 day period. If they wish students can complete freediving courses and certifications with the world’s governing body – AIDA (International Association for the Development of Apnea). Students can also cross-transfer from other international freediving education systems. This is all included in the Early Bird price of $995 or the regular price of $1295 (applies within one month of the start of the retreat). It is also perfectly fine if you just want a mix of depth training, sightseeing and chilling out and not worrying about any course criteria and certification stuff. We recommend a complete break and recovery from depth diving on the Wednesday of each retreat. Bookings can be made below.

Special Discounts for Instructors and Assistant Instructors

Finally, we offer special discounts for Instructors and Assistant Instructors of any international freediving education agency. Please use the code “Instructor” at checkout to receive the special discount of $300 off the Early Bird rate of $995 or the regular rate of $1295 on our 7-Day Retreats. Why? We think this is the best depth training place in Australia because of its perfect conditions all year round. We want to encourage the best depth freedivers in Australia to join us, to challenge each other, compare notes, brainstorm training ideas and to achieve personal excellence and mastery. You guys know all the skills. You just need to practice, practice and more practice. We recently had three highly skilled freedivers (Rocky Lui, Mathew Grech and Amber Bourke) dive  consecutively to 60m at Lake Barrine probably setting some kind of Australian freshwater diving record.  This is the best place in Australia to safely test yourself. We have all the safety gear too such as first aid, oxygen resuscitation and Automated External Defibrillators (AED) onsite as required by Workplace Health and Safety Queensland. We take freediving safety seriously.

Medical Fitness

If you tick “Yes” to any medical conditions on the medical form you must see your General Practitioner prior to attending one of the Crater Lakes Freediving Retreats for medical approval to engage in freediving activities. Download Medical Form Here. Please complete the Medical Form and email it to Freediving Gold Coast prior to your first day of attendance on the Retreat.

By attending a Crater Lakes Freediving Retreat you agree you are capable of swimming non-stop for a minimum of 400m with fins, mask and snorkel.

  • 7-Day Crater Lakes Freediving Retreat

    Please choose your 7 day Crater Lakes Freediving Retreat. Please note all retreats have both an Early Bird Rate of $995 which applies up to a month before the start of the Retreat and a Regular Rate of $1295 which applies within a month of the start of a retreat.  Don't miss out. Get in early, reserve a place and save money.

    Accommodation Options

    Please choose your accommodation preference - tent sites, motel rooms or cabins. All accommodation is in the same place so all freedivers are conveniently located together.  We cannot guarantee share accommodation but we will connect you with other people who also want share accommodation. Once you have indicated you accommodation preference we will send you the details for payment which must be paid three weeks prior to the start of the Retreat. After this date we cannot reserve accommodation.  We only have limited availability of the cabins. 

    Referral Code

    If you have a referral code, please type it below. If you don't, simply leave blank.

Category:

Description

Crater Lakes Freediving Retreats Terms & Conditions:

  1. All Crater Lakes freediving at Lake Barrine and Lake Eacham.
  2. AIDA 2, AIDA 3 or AIDA 4 courses and certification with the world body – AIDA (International Association for the Development of Apnea).
  3. Any crossover certifications from other international freediving education systems.
  4. Depth sessions, pool/confined water sessions and all practical components for AIDA Instructor courses (included in the AIDA Instructor course fee)
  5. The 7-Day Crater Lakes Freediving Retreat fee of $995 (Early Bird Rate) or regular rate of $1295 does not include any accommodation, transport, food/alcohol or other tourist attractions.
  6. The 7-Day Crater Lakes Freediving Retreat fee of $995 (Early Bird rate) or regular rate of $1295 does not include flight costs. If bookings are made well in advance then flights are typically from $230 return for departures from the Gold Coast, or Brisbane.
  7. We do not provide wetsuits or any freediving rental gear for the 7-Day Crater Lakes Freediving Retreats. We recommend 2 to 3 mm wetsuits in summer and 5mm wetsuits in winter. Freediving safety lanyards are mandatory for all depth diving. Both Octopus and Freexperience lanyards can be purchased from us.
  8. You must be a confident swimmer capable of swimming non-stop for a minimum of 400m with fins, mask and snorkel.To get the most from the experience we strongly recommend that freedivers engage in regular cardiovascular training prior to participation in Crater Lakes Freediving Retreats. Diving and swimming up to 4 hours per day is physically demanding.
  9. For the 7-Day Retreats, once the full fee has been paid we will connect you with other freedivers to arrange share accommodation and transport if this is required. You will need a car. Public transport from Cairns airport, or taxis/Uber to and from the Crater Lakes is almost non-existent in the Atherton Tablelands. We recommend getting together with 2 other freedivers and renting a car at Cairns Airport. As a rough guide three people sharing a small car for this period of time is about $200 per person excluding petrol or insurance.
  10. Payments can be made online (in this section), by credit card (please phone with your details) or by bank transfer. All fees are non-refundable within 2 weeks prior to the start of the 7-Day Crater Lakes Freediving Retreat.
  11. We have reserved some accommodation for your convenience some 10 minutes from the Crater Lakes. This is not included in the 7-Day Crater Lakes Freedivng Retreat fee of $995 for Early Birds or the regular fee of $1295. All accommodation fees must be paid directly to the accommodation provider 3 weeks prior to the start of the Crater Lakes Freediving Retreat. We are unable to reserve any accommodation within three weeks of the start of the Retreat.
  12. All pictures and videos are real and have not been manipulated in any way. We do not use stock photos anywhere on our website.

Freediving Gold Coast TV

This is overlooking the beautiful Lake Barrine from the Lake Barrine Teahouse. We think this is the best place for freediving in Australia 365 days per year. This is one of the most peaceful and serene freediving locations in the world.