Scuba Forum > Freediving Tampa Area or Troy Spring FL - 26/27 OCT
#157
JasonP - 10/23/2013 9:30 AM
Thanks for the tip, Greg. I’d definitely do that, but have run into some limits. My local diving neighbors are scuba only and a search for freedive certification only lists me. I used the Buddy Request mostly to reach out beyond my immediate area and see who responds.


That reminds me... My certification agency isn’t on the list: Performance Freediving International (PFI). Freediving Instructors International (FII) is also well established. Since freediving is far from being a low-risk watersport, certification and safety training is extremely important. DiveBuddy could do a great service to the dive community by allowing members to accurately post their freedive training and promote the professional-level trainers. Spearos are turning to freediving in large numbers as a way to improve their stalking ability, so we need to get the word out about the importance of training for barotrauma prevention and safety.



Incidentally, it would be great to be able to search for freediver members. Would you consider adding a "Freediver" Member Type? There is a good sized community of certified freedivers in the Tampa area (and Florida at large, plus up and down both coasts, not to mention worldwide). That would drive a lot of member traffic to your site with hopefully only a few changes:

  1. Add new member type
  2. Dive Report; Bottom Time field comment "Total time in minutes. Enter ’0’ for freedive."
  3. Dive Report; Tank Type drop-down list item "Freedive", "Breath Hold", or "Lungs" ;-)
  4. Dive Report; Dive Type checkbox for Freedive
I’m an engineer with software development and webmaster experience (www.certifiedsolar.net), so I make these suggestions knowing that they aren’t all necessarily drop-and-go. It does look like a couple of data table additions and a little layout rearranging will do the trick, though. One always hopes that these things are simple, right?



Thanks for setting the site up. The Scuba Earth feature is nothing short of AWESOME. The DiveBuddy.com is a tremendous contribution to the dive community and I hope it’s rewarding you well for your work on it!



-Jason