Nick FazahManaging Partner, Director of Sales and Marketing, Director of Freediving and Professional Training Programs
Background:
Nick is the joint owner of East Coast Divers and began diving at the age of 13. He is the director of Freediving education as well as all of our SSI courses. He is also the leader of the Redbull Cliff Diving U.S. safety team.
Nick began freediving in the Florida Keys around 2004. While working on a dive boat down there he’d freedive to check on clients, set anchors and generally compare his abilities to others while seeing how deep he could dive or how long he could stay down. With minimal training, Nick proved how great of a natural freediving athlete he really is.
In 2009 Nick participated in his first proper freediving course and discovered, for the first time, how much there was to learn about the sport. During the course, Nick learned the techniques he’s developed and uses to teach today. With a natural talent – and already a very accomplished scuba instructor – Nick was encouraged to pursue his freediving instructor certification. So, with a lot of dives and training, Nick enrolled in a month-long freediving instructor development program with Kirk Krack, Ted Harty and Erin Magee of PFI.
After completing the instructor course Nick returned to East Coast Divers and proceeded to develop the largest freediving and spearfishing program in the North East. In a short amount of time with fantastic references from previous students, courses started filling up with dozens of students every month. During this time Nick participated in multiple AIDA international freediving competitions and become an AIDA freediving judge. At these competitions and during training sessions with the world record holder William Trubridge, Nick hit some of his personal best depths. At his first Master Class, Nick exceeded 61 meters of depth with a pair of regular freediving fins (200 feet) with just two years of training behind him. A short time later Nick bested that number with a dive to 85 meters (280 feet) with a monofin and regular mask.
After his very successful time competing Nick was sought after by Scuba Schools International (SSI) to build up their recently developed Freediving Program for the US. Currently, Nick holds the position of International Training Director for SSI Freediving America.
Since Nick’s competition days he’s returned to Boston to continue to build the freediving community locally. He teaches freediving courses for dive centers all over Boston, New England, and the North East. He also runs freediving instructor development programs all over the Americas and the Caribbean.
When Nick isn’t teaching he runs freediving and spearfishing trips all season long and adventures to other areas in the winter.