Sébastien Deflandre – Testimony

Having a good speargun is of course something important in spearfishing. But that’s not all. Other pieces of equipment count but above all and before everything else: Yourself!

For 3 years, Teak Sea has been collaborating with Freedive Greece, a Greek apnea school run by Manolis Yagkos and Vassilis Garoutsos, which are very big names worldwide in freediving and spearfishing.

Here is the feedback of a one of our best clients, Sébastien Deflandre, multi-recorder Teak Sea who like many of us asked himself the question: Can I still progress? He went to Freedive Greece looking for the answer.

May his testimony inspire you.

Angelos Germidis

Teak Sea Ltd,

President

“After 20 years of underwater hunting in every corner of the globe, I realize that fish are getting harder and harder to reach, deeper and deeper. My last trip in March 2017 to Mozambique, Lazarus Bank, was proof of that. All BIG doggies were below 30m.

I hunt 25M for 1mn 40 without much problem. But to hunt 30/35 m for 2mn is still a level above, and I’m 50 years old …

So I wanted to learn again and again. And after the recommendations of my friend and supplier of spearguns Angelo Germidis of Teak Sea, here I am embarked in September 2017 for an internship of freedive techniques applied to spearfishing.

I did not know what to expect. 1 week of training is short. Would I really progress?

My surprise was complete. The guy is a real guru. Every morning he would pick me up at the hotel. 1 hour of apnea on land, then 1h of stretching of the rib cage and the diaphragm, then we went to sea in very clear water (25m vertical visibility at 24 °C).

After one week I hit the bottom !!!! at – 40m. My apnea at 30m has passed 2 minutes.

Decompression techniques (mask and ear), water penetration, fluidity techniques. When one reaches a certain level, there are no more secrets: it is through small things after small things, small details after small details that one manages to gain meters, seconds, and of course safety ….

Vassilis is totally passionate about his job. He is one of the best spearhunters and one of the best coaches I have ever met in my life. He knows how to adapt his techniques to the physiognomy of each. As he says himself, there is not only black or white, we are all different ….

In addition to hunting underwater the guy is super nice. I was lucky to be the only student on this week. He took the time to show me part of his Greece, part of his family ….

I highly recommend this course to all enthusiasts of spearfishing or freedive who want to enter another dimension ….”