Our Team
Claire Kemp
Founder
It all started by growing up on the beautiful Isle of Wight, enjoying lots of time in the sunshine and exploring the sparkling seas. Claire developed a deep respect and love for the ocean through family sailing trips and scuba diving, becoming a PADI OW Instructor in 2010. She became fascinated watching a new group of divers, all hanging about on the surface, who seemed so chilled whilst having fun so started Freediving in 2016, instantly falling in love with the freedom from bulky equipment and the peace below the waves. With minimal equipment and a new relaxed tribe of buddies, Freediving became her new passion.
Wanting to share this wonderful world with others, she struggled to find a local freedive training provider, so Claire decided to start her own school, providing PADI Freediving courses, pool training and trips. With the support of her husband, friends, first class instructors and inspiring yoga teacher Emma Spencer-Goodier, Esprit Freedivers were born and now has a growing a community of freedivers having fun together. If you're interested in trying it out or joining us for training, adventures days or trips, please get in touch.
You can reach us through the contact links or email claire@espritfreedivers.com.
Emma Spencer-Goodier
Yoga teacher
Emma, a former professional yachtswoman, has been teaching yoga since 2000 on the Isle of Wight, where she also leads yoga retreats and trips abroad, combining yoga with cycling, hiking and skiing - more information is here “Yoga with Emma”. Her mission is to facilitate personal growth through the transformative power of yoga, firmly convinced that it has the ability to heal, empower, and align individuals.
Upon delving into the world of Freediving with Esprit, Emma recognised the symbiotic relationship between yoga and freediving. She appreciates how both practices leverage our mental resilience, soothe our nervous systems, and enable us to effortlessly embrace a state of calm control.
Unsurprisingly, the Freediving Yoga Immersion Experience days were born and have become increasingly popular, so be sure to secure your spot in advance! For more information, click the courses button below or email claire@espritfreedivers.com
Our Collaborators
Talented freedivers that help make the magic happen!
David Mellor
Professional Freediver & 4 x CMAS Masters world record holder
How and when did you first discover freediving? And why did you decide to continue with it to the level you are at now?
"I started freediving around 11 years ago when I did my first courses, which were the SSI level one and level two freediving programs (now renamed Freediver and Advanced Freediver) which I completed in the UK.
I continued on to do the SSI level three (now renamed Performance Freediver), in Dahab, Egypt. I really only completed the courses because I was already spearfishing regularly and knew I was not doing it right. I knew there was a better way so I decided a freediving course would be the way to learn about freediving better, and it certainly was!
After my first course, I had doubled my breath hold and doubled my depth PB, and really got hooked on freediving from then on. After my level three course I decided to become an SSI Freediving instructor and started to teach in the UK.
At that time, I had no plans to compete, I was happy being an instructor and I told myself that I would never want to go any deeper than 50 meters, but then a fellow instructor asked me if I was interested in doing a pool competition.
I decided to do it just so that I could tell my students how it feels to compete and give them advice if they wanted to compete. But after the first competition, I totally got hooked on competitions and I decided that is what I wanted to do; compete and get better at the sport."
"I recently took part in the CMAS world championships in Roatan, Honduras (Sept 2023). I performed in all four disciplines, and I entered in the "Masters" category, which is for over fifties. The category is split into age groups: 50-54, 55-59 and 60-64. I turned 60 this year, and my goal was to do 100 meters in free immersion in that competition, I did not mind what else I did.
As it turned out though, I achieved four PBs (personal bests) in all four disciplines, and they were all world records for that age category, but the 100 meters in free immersion was an absolute world record for over fifties."´
Freediving allows you to meet good people in nice places in the world, it keeps you healthy and in good shape, but you do not have to be super fit to do it. You do not need to dive deep; it can just be a way to enjoy the water."
David was Claire’s first instructor and inspired her to trust her breath hold and continue her freediving career - she’s stalked him ever since as he continues to inspire her!!
If you're interested in progressing from PADI Freediver to AIDA 3, Spearfishing courses or private coaching by David Mellor, please contact him via Facebook or Instagram - Mellsterman!
Tried & Trusted Freediving Friends
Echo Echo Project
ECHO | ECHO - FREEDIVING, BREATHWORK, COMMUNITY
ECHO ECHO is a community of lifelong learners. Freedivers AND athletes with curious minds, committed to self-discovery and personal growth.
Our goal is to teach, learn, guide, encourage, share, collaborate and continue to reach new depths, together. The team comprises David Mellor (see above), Matin Petrus breathwork coach/freedive instructor and Lydia Gard freedive instructor assistant (but really already better than some instructors I know!)
Claire highly recommends their Turkey retreat ideal for beginners and experienced freedivers - especially the DC3 Dakota at Kas!
Sebastien Saintignan
Freedive Instructor & Photographer
Sébastien started underwater photography and videography 3 years ago through his Youtube channel SaiCos Sealife Discovery.
He has always been attracted to the under water world, learning to swim at the age of 5 and been an advocate of the Oceans ever since. Starting as a competitive swimmer, he became an oceanographer to protect our oceans through research. Later, he discovered freediving and started to witness the underwater world through his own eyes. It was completely different from his reference books during his studies and at this point realised he wanted to contribute to the protection of the oceans in another way - with Art through photography!
Since then, he has worked to share his underwater adventures and observations of marine life through his Youtube channel, from a simple tiny fish to a freediver playing in a wreck, he captures whatever Nature is presents him.
His goal is to capture high quality underwater pictures of both wildlife and people. Through his lens, he seeks to inspire others to appreciate and protect the delicate balance of life beneath the waves, promoting the importance of conservation and respect for marine life.
Sebastien will be joining us on some of our trips as a first class freedive instructor.
If you would like to book Sebastien for freediving photography session or learn underwater photography, please contact him via his website: sebastiensaintignan.com
Atlantis Freediving
Freedive Club & first class Training Facility
Freedive International (Atlantis Freediving) was founded by two record holder freedivers who made of freediving a lifestyle and started a their first freediving centre in 2004, which became one of the most well-known freediving schools in the world. We started freediving in the early 2000 and teaching since 2003, broke many records, both in the pool and in depth disciplines, at a national and international level. We trained and coached thousands of freedivers at any levels and have been awarded with the highest teaching status from SSI, which, since 2010 is the leading organization in teaching freediving. We contributed to much of SSI teaching materials for courses and specialities and are actively cooperating with SSI to improve standards and course materials on a regular basis..
Claire has dived with Atlantis Freediving since 2018, enjoying expert training to SSI level 3 as well as numerous local fun diving trips in Tenerife and Egypt - yes with the dolphins!! Linda, Pavol, Sebastian (see above) and all the other instructors are highly recommended.
Follow Atlantis Freediving for interesting freediving tips from Tenerife, trips abroad and training via Instagram