Level: Instructor Trainer

Work Area: worldwide

Freediving Accomplishments: Trainer of 4 World Champions. Has been involved in 26 World Record events as trainer, organizer or judge. Founder of F.R.E.E. and creator of the D.R.O.P Training System.

Teaching Experience: Has been teaching freediving since 1994, with a total of over 100 courses and 850 students.

Bio info: Rudi is the epitome of the freediving professional, having trained 4 world champions and been involved in over 20 world records. Rudi was born on June 26th, 1969 in the island of Cuba, surrounded by the Caribbean Sea. He started freediving at age 4, scuba diving at 7, and by the time he was 15, he had accumulated thousands of dives and was an extremely experienced diver. He then became a member of the junior freediving national team, where he started working with several world-class divers and trainers and developing the basics of his own training system. During all those years, Rudi kept freediving and developing his very unique and innovative training system, which he refined and polished constantly for the following 6 years. In 1991, he immigrated to the USA, where he continued to work in several facets of the diving field. In 1995 he started training Alejandro Ravelo, the first freediver he guided to several world records. In 1998, he further proved the strength of his innovative training system, when he took a totally new and inexperienced diver, Tanya Streeter, to 3 world records in less than 8 months. He then took a break from training and, in early 1999, Rudi turned his attention to improving the safety and educational sides of the sport it by founding F.R.E.E. (Freediving Regulations & Education Entity), an organization dedicated to regulating freediving records and teaching courses. But the urge to keep pushing the boundaries of freediving performance was too strong, and late in 1999, he took on a new trainee, Turkish freediver Yasemin Dalkilic. Together, they set 6 world records between 1999 and 2001, and became inseparable partners in many other projects. Rudi's latest training challenge was to bring another unknown freediver to world prominence, this time, David Lee, a young Jamaican martial artist who has gone on to set another 3 world records. Rudi's still actively involved in freediving training, teaching courses around the world, usually accompanied by Yasemin and David, and works also as president and consultant for F.R.E.E. On his "spare" time, Rudi is also heavily involved in underwater video and photography, occupations that he conducts through the company Ideas in Blue.