AIDA is excited to announce a brand-new safety training program developed jointly with Vertical Blue! 

AIDA Competition Safety Freediver by Vertical Blue Professional Safety Freediver® is the most comprehensive safety program available, comprising over 30 years of high level competition experience. 

The goal of this program is to standardize safety protocols for all AIDA competitions and set an example for freediving safety worldwide. 

The AIDA Competition Safety Freediver course will allow prospective safety diving students to specialize in both pool and depth competitions and earn different certifications, enabling them to take part in a variety of AIDA events. 

Specialties include: 

• Pool Competition Safety Diver – All AIDA pool competitions
• Depth Competition Safety Diver - AIDA depth competitions limited to a depth of 80m maximum
• Advanced Depth Competition Safety Diver – All AIDA competitions at unlimited depth

The Advanced Depth Competition Safety Diver course will be taught by a select number of experienced safety trainers. The standard Pool Competition Safety Diver and Depth Competition Safety Diver courses can be taught by any AIDA Instructor with active judge status. 

In conjunction with this new program, AIDA is rolling out a new experience point system for AIDA Safety Divers, following the well-established model for AIDA Judges. This will create objective measures and make it easier to select safety teams for AIDA competitions worldwide. 

This plan for the standardization of safety in AIDA competitions was initiated by AIDA President Alex Russu, included under point 1.1.1 of the AIDA strategy voted on by the AIDA Assembly in 2021, and implemented in collaboration with Vertical Blue. 

The course is based on content created by Marco Cosentino and adapted for AIDA by AIDA Education Content Manager Francesco Corucci with the help of the AIDA Safety Committee and AIDA Medical and Science Committee. 

Stay tuned for the official launch seminar in January 2024.