Safety Team

• MARCO COSENTINO | Chief of Safety

  

  Marco Cosentino, AKA "The Emperor" is a legendary Italian freediver.

  A seasoned VB man, this is his 10th time participating in the Vertical Blue Safety Team, having been a member for the first time back in the 2009 edition. Marco was Chief of Safety in the first edition of the Nirvana Ocean Quest Competition in 2015, and in 2017 he was Senior Safety Diver in the Roatan AIDA Individual Depth World Championship. 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, Apnea Rescue Trainer and he also obtained several certifications in Airways Management, Oxygen Provider, CPR and AED.

  Marco lives a life in the water; he trains freediving year-round, and has personal bests below 60m in all freediving disciplines. He is also an experienced sailor and passionate spear-fisher. Marco is based in Rome where he teaches freediving, spear-fishing and sailing.

• LOUISA COLLYNS | Chief of Staff

  

  Louisa is a British freediver, AIDA and PADI instructor, AIDA Competition Safety Freediver and a member of the AIDA Safety Committee. She represented the UK at the 2013 Depth World Championships in Kalamata, a year after learning to freedive.

  Louisa is returning for her fourth time as part of the safety team for VB, having been on the team in 2014, 2016 and 2017. She was Platform Coordinator at the Caribbean Cup competition in Roatan in May 2016; and was Safety Team Leader and Platform Coordinator at the Blue Element Competition in Dominica in November 2016. She has also taught on courses and training camps alongside Johnny Sunnex and Miguel Lozano.

  Louisa based in Ibiza where she founded Freedive Ibiza. She worked for many years as a PADI IDCS Scuba instructor and is an Emergency First Response Instructor.

  She is a pilates teacher, specializing in rehabilitation. She writes for DeeperBlue.com, and has written articles on pilates and freediving for Freedive Magazine and Barefoot Running Magazine. She is also a practitioner of energy healing therapies and massage therapist.

• ROBERTO BERTO | Engineer

  

  By popular demand Roberto Berto returns for his 4th addition as a VB safety diver. He is a passionate waterman from the tropics of Australia and uses the Great Barrier Reef not only as his workplace, but also his training ground where he strengthens his desire for a deeper experience. During his freediving career

  Roberto has completed dives in free immersion to 91 meters, constant weight with bi-fins to 76 meters, and Constant weight no-fins to 61 meters. The freedom and challenge of bi-fins is what drives this little man to personal advances of 170 meters dynamic.

  From the days of Scuba instructing on the reef he has been involved in many different facets of the marine industry from skippering vessels, to commercial diving, and guiding spear-fishing adventures. Roberto seeks adventure in all realms of life, time away from the ocean is often spent in the Australian bush, enjoying a contrast to the salty life he lives.

• CHRIS MCKAY | Engineer

  

  A former emergency services trainer and adventure consultant, Chris has made the Caribbean his home for the past 5 years. He helps with the running of other prominent freediving schools in the Caribbean, however the cenotes of Mexico and great tacos have encouraged him to permanently base in Tulum, Mexico where he operates Freedive Tulum. He still spends a lot of time in other Caribbean locations assisting with the growing number of world-class freediving competitions held here. Chris has been at the Caribbean Cup in Roatan, Honduras for 5 years as Platform Coordinator, Safety Diver and judge; Nirvana Oceanquest for 3 years where he has performed the role of Chief of Safety and Platform Coordinator simultaneously; Chief of Safety at Xibalba Freediving Competition in Mexico this year.

  Chris's experience in varied safety roles has seen him become a member of AIDA's Safety Committee.

• ALEX LLINAS

  

  Alex's love for the sea originated on the small island of San Andres off the Caribbean coast of Colombia, South America where he grew up. His father, a once Colombian nationally-ranked windsurfer, introduced him to the ocean weeks after birth, and raised him with a passion for all activities involving salt water. Previously an engineer, he now teaches Freediving and waterman survival courses through Fi. When not teaching, he loves to windsurf, surf, dive and train/race for endurance events. He was part of the safety teams for VB in 2014 and Delphinus Cup in 2018.

• LILY CRESPY

  

  Lily Crespy grew up in the French Alps. However, it's in the water that she has always been the most comfortable. After 7 years of a scientific career in neuroscience in London, she discovered freediving completely by chance in 2012 and fell in love with it instantly.

  Since then, freediving has become her lifestyle. She is an AIDA and RAID Master instructor, and Apnea Total instructor, and has taught in Bali, Philippines and Dahab. She currently resides in Dahab, where she was training and teaching at Dahab Freedivers under Stephen Keenan in 2017, and took on the manager position in the school this year after his passing.

  She has also been a freediving competitor since 2013, and represented France in the AIDA Individual Depth World Championships in 2015 and 2017. Her current competition PBs are 64m CWT, 60m FIM and 45m CNF.

  She has been competition safety diver in the Freediving Planet competition in 2015, and for the Panglao Depth Challenge in 2016.

  Aside from freediving, her other passions are photography and dance. And sleep and food - lots of it!

• GIANFRANCO MONTANTI

  

  "Jimmy" Montanti is a living legend of West Sicily. As a spearfisher he routinely visits sea mounts far out of sight of land in the open sea between Sicily and Africa. As a freediver he is an Apnea Academy Instructor and underwater stuntman, and has been diving to 70m since before the majority of VB athletes even started freediving.

  Jimmy splits his time between the city of Trapani, on the western tip of Sicily, where he manages the provincial swimming pool and trains young swimming stars, and the sheer-cliffed island of Marettimo, which lies 40km from the coast and boasts castles, roman ruins and underwater caves.

  Jimmy first came to Long Island in 2008, and returned as part of the VB safety team in 2015. Together with Roberto and Marco he will be tasked with providing fresh fish for the crew dinners!

• SAYAKA ITAGAKI

  

  From Japan, Sayaka Itagaki is returning for her second year as Vertical Blue safety. Sayaka has been swimming since she was a baby and has a passion for life under the water where she finds peace of mind and serenity. The reason Sayaka started freediving was because she watched - the one and only!,- Tomoka Fukuda's documentary on TV in 2014. It sparked her interest, and she's never looked back. Since joining the VB team in 2017 Sayaka went on to be a safety assistant for Sofia Gomez's successful world record dives in Dominica and the Pan Pacific pool championships in Japan. Sayaka is currently teaching and practising yoga whilst living on the natural side in Australia.

Platform Manager

• SAM TRUBRIDGE

  

  Platform Manager Sam Trubridge is a performance designer, artist, and director with The PlayGround NZ and The Performance Arcade festival on Wellington Waterfront. His work and projects have been shown across Oceania, Europe, and the Americas.

  Since 2012 he has been platform co-ordinator for Vertical Blue. In 2015 he directed the Deep Anatomy symposium, bringing artists and freediving together in dialogue on Long Island during Vertical Blue. The event has been followed by two publications and an exhibition at Silo Park in Auckland, NZ in 2017.

Medical Team

• LEIGH AND BILL BAKER

  

  2018 will be Leigh and Bill Baker's third year as the medical component for Vertical Blue. They live in Western Washington State, on an island located in the Puget Sound. They enjoy camping and kayaking on shorelines, surf waves, and rivers. When they are home, they juggle their attention amongst three short and energetic basset hounds.

  Bill is a Paramedic Firefighter with a large fire department in Washington. He has been a paramedic for 20 years, and an Emergency Medical Technician since 1988. Having worked in the field of emergency medical services for 30 years, he is well versed in Advanced Cardiac Life Support; is a Paramedic Advanced Airway Instructor; and is accustomed to performing in remote and dynamic environments. Bill has also worked as a Federal Wildland Firefighter, and is well prepared to provide support for VB 2018.

  Leigh has been a Respiratory Therapist for almost 15 years, and before that was a Paramedic for 12 years. She has been trained in and performed in a variety of environments, and is accustomed to the unique challenges that will be potentially presented during the competition. Her curiosity and understanding of the physiologic processes involved with free diving are a tremendous asset to the competitors and the safety divers.

  Leigh and Bill are comfortable in managing airway emergencies, to include using CPAP, positive pressure and a variety of different airways. Although neither are divers, they bring to the team both knowledge and skills to assist the competitors and enhance the margin of safety.

• RYAN BAUGH

  

  Ryan Baugh will be joining the medical team for Vertical Blue 2018. He currently resides in Washington State, where he works for a large fire department. Away from the fire department, Ryan enjoys providing pre-hospital emergency care in atypical environments. He has been an emergency responder at a variety of events including multi-day festivals; concerts; 24-hour adventure races; and on mountain resorts, where he worked on ski patrol and avalanche control teams. His professional experience began in 1997 as a lifeguard and progressed to EMT, paramedic, and fire-fighter. His formal education includes degrees in Biology, Chemistry, and Paramedicine. In his approach to providing care, he brings a scientific understanding of the reasons that we render the care provided.

  Although not a diver he does lay claim to the title of world's worst surfer.

• KELLY HORVATH

  

  Kelly comes from the cute and remote town of Meadowlands, Minnesota and now resides in University Place, Washington. She started her career as a Respiratory Therapist in Minneapolis, Minnesota at a Level 1 trauma center. During this time, she worked as a Basic EMT/Firefighter.

  She brings a wealth of medical experience as a Respiratory Therapist, and is an expert at critical care Respiratory medicine. Her specialty lies in adult medicine, as well as neonatal intensive care medicine.

  This will be Kelly's first year at Vertical Blue, and she is very interested in the science of freediving, and caring for the athletes.

  Her time is occupied by managing two crazy German Shepherds named Murphy and Finn, and a moody chinchilla named Kato.

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