We have three athletes currently teaching at Freedive Panglao signed up for Asian Freediving Cup: Tom, Jurgen, and Martin.

We’re quite sure the home sea advantage can play a big role in freediving. They have also have had access to excellent training conditions for many months leading up to the competition, so we’re hoping for some great results.

Park Jeongmin (Tom) [flag=kr]

Tom is one of the Korean instructors at Freedive Panglao. He loves to train, and can usually be found doing laps in the pool when he’s not chasing the deep blue. He came to Freedive Panglao as a 40-meter diver early 2016 and has had a fantastic development since then.

Tom is a previous national record holder in CWT and FIM.

AIDA profile: Park Jeongmin

Jurgen Reinderink [flag=nl]

Jurgen from Netherlands has been teaching at Freedive Panglao since October 2017. He has been a Pure Apnea instructor for several years, and he added AIDA instructor to his resume when he started working with us. He also has background as a long distance swimmer.

This will be the first time he’s training depth for a longer period. The long distance swimming has made him well prepared for long training sessions, and we look forward to see how his depth training will progress. We have big expectations, especially in CNF.

AIDA Profile: Jurgen Reinderink
(no, he’s not from Canada)

Martin Zapanta [flag=ph]

See profile and predictions in another article: Closer look at Team Philippines.

Predictions

As it looks today, Tom is on the level just below the top dogs of the competition. It will most likely require some failed dives from presumably stronger divers for Tom to end up on the podium. But there is still plenty of time, so who knows what Tom will be able to bring to the table. Hopefully he will get a nice placement, and we hope for multiple national records!

For Jurgen, this might be a bit too early if he’s aiming for a top position. With only around seven months of serious and consecutive depth training this competition will probably be a bit too early for the really big numbers. We could see Jurgen end up in the top half overall if he dives all disciplines – or will he focus on his favorite CNF?

Freedive Panglao staff on waiting list

The rest of Freedive Panglao Staff will be busy making the competition as awesome as possible, so there are none of our staff on the waiting list.