THE TEAM
After several years of a fruitful collaboration, William Winram and fellow waterman Fred Buyle decided to join their talents in order to pursue their passion for the ocean and its creatures.
Ocean Encounters is their creation.
Fred Buyle has been teaching freediving since 1991. He has set up and successfully run freediving schools for several years, both in Brussels, Belgium and Porquerolles Island, France. A former competitive freediver, he has held several world records in the sport.
He is a freediving instructor trainer for both AIDA and CMAS. A certified freediving instructor from Apnea Academy, he has also been a CMAS and PADI scuba diving instructor since 1990.
Adding to his career as a talented breath-hold diver, Fred has taken up the art of underwater photography on a breath-hold, since 2002, capturing truly breath- taking images in entirely natural light, in an endeavor to show what the underwater world looks like in reality.
William Winram has spent countless hours coaching children and age-group swimmers during his successful competitive swimming career.
Drawn to human physiology, he went on to study osteopathy and spent considerable time teaching spinal orthopedics as a clinical instructor. Having spent over 20 years teaching patients proper breathing techniques during his private practice, he started to transpose these techniques for breath-hold diving which he has been teaching since 2007.
His broad understanding of the breath comes from his nearly 30-year background both teaching and practicing the internal martial arts of Tai Chi and Bagua Chang and in the practice of the breathing arts associated with Chi Gong.
Michèle Monico did not always love the water. In fact, as a young child she feared it and could not swim other than in very shallow waters. It was years later, during her University studies, that she decided to confront her fears, so she could pursue her interest in Marine Biology.
Having decided, after all, to turn to the healing arts of manual therapy, she put swimming on the back burner until she met her Merman.
Life partner to William Winram, she soon discovered with him that not only could she spend time underwater without fear, but she could enjoy watching the eternal ballet of the marine animals.
She later naturally became involved with organizational aspects of the sport of freediving including judging duties for AIDA International, the International Freediving Federation.
It is with great enthusiasm that she provides administrative support for the wide array of on-going projects for Ocean Encounters.