A discussion on free-diving and diving safety will be held at 7 p.m. July 25, at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa Lower Campus Physical Education/Athletics Complex Lecture Hall 241 across from the Stan Sheriff Center main entrance.

Performance Freediving International and Hawaii Skin Diver will address concerns about the sport.

Divers of all experience levels are encouraged to attend the free, one-hour session, particularly those who are new to free diving and spearfishing, according to a news release from the event organizers.

With the recent tragedy of Sergio Goes, who was taking photographs while free diving off waters of Waikiki, HSD magazine and PFI have organized a free diving safety awareness session for the local diving community.

Goes had taken PFI's intense free diving courses twice before his tragedy, according to the news release. Kirk Krack, president of PFI, had trained Goes and more than 2,300 others, including several world champion divers over the past seven years. Krack's free diving programs stress safety as well as performance to students. After finding out about the loss of his former student, Krack was motivated to hold a special talk for Hawai'i's diving community, on top of his scheduled intermediate free diving clinic at Hickam Air Force from July 26-29, according to the release.

"My condolences go out to Sergio's family and friends," said Krack. "While the circumstances (involving) Sergio are undetermined, we still need to reduce these types of tragedies by keeping divers educated and aware of the importance of safety issues."

In 2007, an article written by Dr. Terry Maas, a free diver and spearfishing national champion, author and videographer, estimated there were 5,000 spearfishermen in Hawai'i. The article also estimates there are 10,000 spearfishers in the United States. Maas calculated six Shallow Water Blackout (SWB) deaths in Hawai'i compared to three in the U.S. mainland where there are double the amount of divers. He also estimates Greece having 50,000 divers and six SWB deaths in that year. These U.S. figures are conservative to some, who have seen the sport grow exponentially. Krack constantly travels through California, Florida, Virginia, Canada, Norway and Hawai'i to conduct his free diving classes.

Shallow water blackout is a loss of consciousness caused by cerebral hypoxia towards the end of a breath-hold diver in water typically shallower than five meters (16 feet), when the swimmer or diver does not necessarily experience an urgent need to breathe and has no other obvious medical condition that might have caused it. Many drowning and near drowning events occur among swimmers who black out underwater while free diving or doing breath hold pool laps. Blacking out, or browning out, near the end of a breath-hold dive is common. Although the mechanism is well understood, it is not common knowledge among breath-hold divers, according to the release.

Topics being covered by PFI at the free session will be: