Giving members the tools and skills necessary to navigate the under-water world safely and sustainably.

Adult Diver Sponsorship Program

Our core values are safety, sustainability, and selectivity. Depth Finders are encouraged to seek additional dive training.

We also understand that spearfishing and free diving are not cheap sports. New divers are often faced with large financial barriers. Our goal is to provide NCDF club members with the tools and information necessary to meet these core values.

Thus, it’s with excitement that we’re introducing the NCDF Adult Diver Safety Sponsorship Program! The purpose of this program is to give members the technique and skills they need to navigate the under-water world safely.

Each year we will select one applicant to receive a fully paid-for free-diving course from our partners at Just Get Wet in San Diego. In this course the applicant will learn, among other skills, the physics and physiology of freediving; buddy and rescue procedures; and avoiding potential trauma. If the applicant has already received a Wave 1 or FII Level 1 cert. then we will provide a JGW gift card for the same value as a Wave 1 class, to only be spent on training (class, line diving, pool trainings, private training, training materials)

The applicant must meet the below requirements

· Fully complete and submit the online application prior to the day applicant is selected (August club meeting)

· Must be a paying club member at time of application AND at time applicant is selected

· 18 years old and older

· Physically capable of completing the class

· Meet the requirements outlined by Just Get Wet

· Have transportation to and from the classroom and to the two open water sessions

Apply here!

Date

MM

DD

YYYY

Name of applicant

First Name

Last Name

Application prompt

Please write an original one page describing what the spearfishing experience means to you. Applicant will be selected based on their answer.

Email of applicant

Are you a club member?

2024 Adult Winner

Amanda

Floating at the surface of the water, the particles drift about, made visible by the sunlight. Flecks of gold in a vast blue emptiness. Existing here. Heart thundering. Okay, you need to calm down. Breathe deeply. I take a deep breath, funneling the air into my lungs from the narrow snorkel. Focus. Focus on the cold water swirling about your face. Focus on how the water hugs your body softly to the surface.
A final breath, then a feverish kick from the surface to hurl my body into the ocean. The vast blue emptiness fades to black; the blackness startles my body, shocking me back to the surface. Too soon, you weren’t calm enough yet. You are still afraid.
 ...
           Instead of hurling my body, this time I lunge forth, determined to reach the bottom. The ocean invites me in this time, allowing my arms and fins to enter smoothly. With every stroke, the world of color dances from blue, to darker blue, to black—but as eyes adjust, it is only a hazy green. Descending further into the oceanic atmosphere, I move through green, and in the green, the bottom is in reach. Slowly, now, I sink down, down, down.  
         The cold lays heavy on my body. I am alone here. No fish, no sharks. Only the veil of murky, yellow green. A few strands of yellow kelp root in the sand, longing to reach towards the surface, each leaf swaying gravely side to side.
           I sit here, resting on the sand, resting in the darkness. My heart pauses and beats slow with the hour. The kelp keeps its distance from me, a stranger in the street.
           When my lungs remind me I don’t live here, my legs panic away from the green, through the near black, and I return to the blue.
           As I float to the surface, the golden particles and rays promise to greet me once I break into the sky. The cold water rushes past my face, giving way to warm sunlight. I spit out my snorkel, and gasp for salty air.
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The thing I love about diving is that it is a sport that demands presence and fearlessness. The passage above was inspired by my deepest dive. This memory stands out to me as a time where I had to accept and let go of my fear and learn to sit in it.
As a new member of the spear fishing community, I look forward to interacting with the ocean in a new way. Instead of being a passive observer, I look forward to participating in mindful harvesting.