Pian is a boat captain and ocean guide on Gili Trawangan, Indonesia, working toward a certified SSI freediving instructor qualification. Freediving Central and Freedive Gili are backing his training, taught in his own language, Susak, rather than English or Bahasa Indonesia.
You have probably read plenty of posts about freediving courses. This one is different. It is about the person behind the course, and why the details of how it is run matter just as much as the diving itself.
Who Is Pian
Pian has spent his whole life on and under the water around Gili Trawangan. He guides divers, runs boats, and looks after the reef that most visitors only see for a few minutes at a time.
What he has not had is the chance, or the money, to turn that natural skill into a recognised qualification. That is what this training is set up to change.
A Friendship, Not a Stranger’s Fundraiser
We have known Pian for 17 years. I want to tell you why that matters, in my own words.
I met Pian on a trip to Gili T almost two decades ago. Over the years, he has guided me, worked alongside me, and become one of my closest friends on the island. I have watched him support his wife, his kids, and his parents, often quietly and often at his own cost.
During COVID, when tourism on the island shut down overnight, Pian took work overseas to keep supporting his family. He spent what little he had on the travel documents to make it happen. When tourism reopened not long after, I offered to cover the cost so he could break the contract and come home early. He said no. He had given his word, and that was not something he was willing to walk back just because it had become inconvenient.
That single decision tells you more about Pian than any course description could.
A Mask, a Rented Gun, and a Realisation
Last year I was back on Gili T running some training. I brought Pian a new freediving mask, something Freediving Central was well placed to provide. A little while later he sent me a photo of himself with the mask, a speargun, and a fish for his family. It made my day. Then I asked about the gun.
He said he rented it. Every single time he goes spearfishing to feed his family, he rents the gun.
That stayed with me. Pian is the sole provider for a household of five: his wife, their two children, and his mother and father. He has no savings, no assets, and no safety net behind him. Just years of hard work and a rare talent nobody had given him the chance to formalise.
Already a Natural in the Water
Not long after, I told Pian he was coming to work with me at one of our Freediving Central retreats in Amed, Bali. What I had not told him was that there was not much for him actually to do there.
When he arrived, I sat him down and told him the truth: this was his first holiday, ever. The room was his for the week. He was the 17th customer, not staff. He had never stayed in a hotel before, never slept in a room with air conditioning, and he had never made the 40-minute boat trip to Bali despite living so close to it his whole life.
Within a day, he was part of the crew, laughing, training, and genuinely connecting with everyone there. By the end of the six-day retreat, he had reached 30 metres and had naturally slipped into helping guide the group, not because he was asked to, but because that is who he is.
Behind his back, we organised something with the group. Together we funded him a brand new carbon fibre spearfishing gun, float, and line, worth around AU$700. At the final dinner, I handed it to him. He had never owned one before, let alone a carbon fibre one.
That same week, Veronica, who manages Freedive Gili on Gili T, walked into the dive shop we were training at. I introduced her to Pian on the spot. She told him to come and see her once training with me was done. It was not planned. It just happened to be exactly the right moment.
Why the Training Runs at Freedive Gili
After the retreat, I asked Veronica what it would cost for Pian to train with her team. Her answer: Indonesians train free, and she and Mike were more than happy to support him. Pian has since been to Freedive Gili more than ten times and has become a genuine part of their community.
The training runs at Freedive Gili, on the island, for two clear reasons.
First, it keeps the support local. Freedive Gili already backs Pian free of charge, so it is fair that support runs both ways. Second, Veronica and Mike, who run Freedive Gili, already teach instructor courses for Indonesian freedivers. The experience to train someone like Pian well already exists there.
Training at Freedive Gili also opens a longer-term door. Once Pian is certified, he has a natural place to put that qualification to work straight away.
Why Susak Matters
The course is taught by an instructor trainer who works in Susak, Pian’s mother tongue.
It would be easy to run this through an excellent English-speaking trainer instead. But learning technical, safety-critical material in your second or third language is harder than it sounds. Training in Susak means Pian absorbs the course properly, rather than just getting through it.
According to Ethnologue, Susak is recognised as its own distinct language, not simply a dialect of Indonesian, which is part of why so few courses are ever run in it.
What Certification Means for Pian
Certification through SSI puts Pian on the same professional footing as instructors anywhere else in the world, including the standards set by bodies like AIDA International.
Practically, it means Pian can teach, earn a proper instructor’s wage, and build a career on skills he already has. If you want to see how we run our own freediving instructor course and what that pathway usually involves, that page walks through it in detail, alongside our broader SSI freediving education system.
We have put together a full page telling Pian’s story properly, with photos, video, and the exact breakdown of what is needed to get him certified. Read Pian’s full story and see how you can help
A Campaign Built on Trust, Not Sales
This is not a typical fundraiser attached to a business. You can see more about the people and partners we have worked with over the years, and this campaign runs on that same principle: transparency about where the money goes and who it supports.
Every part of this- the course, the language, the location- was chosen deliberately, not for convenience.
Help Fund Pian’s Training
In Indonesia, the average monthly income is around AUD $220. A qualified freediving instructor can earn around AUD $150 per day. If Pian works just two freediving retreats a year, only two weeks of work, he could earn close to what many people in his community make in an entire year.
Pian has spent years looking after everyone else in the water. This is a chance to help him build something that lasts well beyond one course.