Safety Team

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  Tom Ardavany is a Registered Nurse and Paramedic from Washington State. He has worked in a Level I Trauma Center and as a flight nurse transporting critical trauma and medical patients via helicopter air ambulance. He also works as a paramedic in the San Juan Islands. As an EMT Instructor for Remote Medical International Tom has trained military personnel, government agents and body guards in emergency medical response.

  Toms love for the water world brought him to be a NAUI Scuba Instructor and freediver. In 2010 he attended the Vertical Blue Master Class. This will be Toms third season having been the medic on the platform for events at Vertical Blue in 2011 and 2012.

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  Jonathan Sunnex, aka Johnny Deep returns to Vertical Blue this year to head the safety team. The bronze medal winner at last year's World depth championships is one of the world's deepest men, having made dives to well below 100 m in CWT, FIM and VWT disciplines.

  The AIDA Instructor Trainer is also one of the world's most successful coaches having helped athletes to achieve 3 world records and more than 40 national records.

  Johnny holds instructor ratings with PADI, EFR, SSI and AIDA. He also enjoys gym training, spearfishing, and snow boarding.

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  Marco Cosentino is an Italian freediver. He returns to the Vertical Blue safety team for a fifth season having been a member in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2013 editions. Vastly experienced as both an instructor and safety diver, Marco has been teaching under AIDA International and Apnea Academy since 2004. He is a Basic Life Support Instructor with DAN Europe and Apnea Academy Rescue Trainer. Marco lives a life on the water. He trains year round freediving and has personal bests below 60m in almost all disciplines. He is also an experienced sailor and passionate spearfisher. Marco is based in Rome where he teaches freediving.

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  Louisa Collyns is a British freediver, AIDA instructor and AIDA Competition Safety Freediver. She represented the UK at the 2013 World Depth Championships and has performed competition dives in excess of 55m. She has performed safety at various international competitions in Egypt and the UK, training with and acting as safety regularly for some of the worlds elite. Louisa is an Emergency First Response Instructor and worked for many years as a PADI IDCS Scuba instructor. She has taught Pilates in London (UK) for the last eight years, specializing in rehabilitation. She has also pioneered a 'Pilates for freediving' program and is now based in Ibiza where she organizes retreats and teaches pilates and freediving.

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  A waterman of the absolute highest calibre, Moss has represented New Zealand at the highest level in three sports already - swimming, surf lifesaving, and underwater hockey. The two time Olympian is a highly decorated swimmer. He placed fourth in the 200m butterfly at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, was World Champion at the 2008 world short course championships and three times Commonwealth Games representative winning Gold and Bronze at the 2006 Melbourne CWGs.

  Moss is an avid spearfisher and freedives easily below 50m.

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  Georgina has been freediving since 2007 and is an SSI freediving instructor. The five times British National record holder currently holds the women's record of 06:27 in static apnea and and has a strong background in yoga and swimming. She is an experienced safety diver and a PADI MSDT Scuba instructor. George is a very passionate and proactive member of the freediving community. She is the founder of the club Aquacity Freediving and has been a committee member of the British Freediving Association as Clubs Officer since 2011, helping to share her love of the sport.

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  Ben Weiss has been a freediver since 2008 and a three-time member of the US National Team. He's a certified Safety Supervisor through PFI and also an AIDA judge. With personal achievements of 150m DYN, 67m CWT, and 7:06 STA, Ben is a very competent diver indeed. He joins the Vertical Blue safety team for his third season having been a member in 2011 and 2012. He is also a skilled classical pianist and graphical software designer and resides in Santa Barbara, CA.