Breath-in breath-out,

A lot of people are asking how do spear-fishers and freedivers can hold their breath that long without hurting their lungs. Freediving is a sport where a person is diving deep in the waters using only his/her human breath without breathing apparatus. In the Philippines, Sama/Bajau tribe or the Sea Gypsies are considered as the best natural freedivers in the world, their skills are inherited from their ancestors for them to hunt fish as their source of living.

In Davao City, a local spearfisher Imam Eldio Gulisan named as one of the deepest diver during the First Sama/Bajao Freediving contest in 2013. He was featured in “The GRID” a local freediving magazine back in 2017 and recently in a segment of HBO- Real Sport. He came from a family of divers who originally from the island of Silompak, Siasi, Sulu. His family migrated to Davao city back in early 60’s. He and his wife Helen have nine children. Imam Eldio older brothers were quite impressive spear-fishermen. In comparison, he started freediving and spearfishing later in life in order to graduate high school. Imam Eldio is a spiritual leader in his community both of the local mosque and their purok. Imam frequently make consecutive dives below 150 feet not for competition or leisure, but to take care of the needs of his family.

Watch Imam's interview on HBO..Click the link below

https://web.facebook.com/430092367407819/videos/228775574499372/

Last January 2019, AIDA Philippines, a freediving organization, launched the first Philippine Depth National Championship scheduled on May 18-19, 2019 at Panglao,Bohol. They invited 25 Filipino freedivers to compete and vying for the title the 1st PDNC Champion. A group of friends Luke Schroeder and Daniel Minnella encourages Imam Eldio to join the said competition. With the help of Ms. Odessa Bugarin and Mr. Ritche Abragan as his trainor, Imam manages to learn the basic education and proper techniques of Freediving as a requirement for his freediver certification.

Today, as he goes along with his training, we are inviting all our friends and Filipino freedive enthusiast to join us on our campaign to support Imam Eldio Gulisan.

We are in need of financial assistance to sustain his needs for training, transportation, food and accommodation during the day of the competition. By venturing on this endeavor, we assure that this would be a great help not just for Imam Eldio but also for the entire Indigenous community.

To donate, message us on our Facebook account:

*Luke Schroeder
* Daniel Minnella
* Odessa Bugarin
*Ritche Abragan

We are looking forward on your meaningful support

Thank you!

Sincerely

Mr. Ritche S. Abragan
Asst. Trainor
Coordinator, I Support Imam