The Drake Sweet Foundation

Freedivers Instruction in Spearfishing Safety and Hazards (FISSH)

Motto: Free divers invested in safer hunting

Drake Sweet passed away on March 13th, 2025. To honor his memory and help protect others who share that same love for the ocean, his family established The Drake Sweet Foundation, Inc.

The foundation is dedicated to advancing safety in freediving and spearfishing through education, training, certifications, scholarships, and access to critical safety equipment.

By raising awareness and empowering the community with knowledge and resources, the foundation carries forward Drake’s adventurous spirit and unwavering respect for the sea.

*The Drake Sweet Foundation is a registered 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit organization. All donations are tax deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law. Please retain your donation receipt and consult your tax advisor regarding the deductibility of your contribution.

Upcoming Classes

Spearfishing and Freediving Safety Class with Brittany

We're excited to share that the Drake Sweet Foundation's first sponsored safety instructor, Brittany Brockway, will be teaching a Spearfishing and Freediving Safety Class (FII Level 1 Freediver) later this year. If you're interested in joining , sign up here and we'll send you more information.

Join the Waitlist

Upcoming Classes

Community CPR Training

Learn life saving skills that make a difference. Adult, Child & Infant CPR and AED. Be prepared for an emergency with hands-on first aid training lead by certified instructions. Suitable for everyone ages 12+

Saturday Nov 1st, 2025 @ 10am-12pm

Freedive Medicine LLC

17110 Gunn Hwy

Odessa, FL 33556

Cost: $20 per student

Learn More

THE DRAKE SWEET FOUNDATIOIN

Sponsor of the 60th Annual St. Pete Open

The Drake Sweet Foundation was a proud to be a sponsor of this year’s St. Pete Open, a tournament that Drake loved and competed in. He enjoyed sharing the ocean with his fellow spearfishermen and celebrating the joy of the sport.

Fundraiser and Memorial Sculpture Unveiling

Oct 17, 2025 @ Hookin' Ain't Easy.

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Recent Succeses

“This course thoroughly enhanced my knowledge and skill of safety and rescue techniques along with improving my diving.”
TV
“I showed up to the class with little knowledge of safety. By the completion of this course, I learned all the necessary safety procedures in the event of a LMC or a blackout.”
TM
“I would highly recommend taking a level 1 freediving course to anyone who is frequently in the water diving, whether they are going shallow or deep. This course showed me the importance of having a base knowledge of all safety skills and deep breathing techniques.”
KM

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The Drake Sweet Foundation

The Drake Sweet Foundation T-Shirt

$35.00 USD

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News & Resources

News

Suncoast freediving instructor encourages training, caution in wake of recent incident

Freedivers do not rely on scuba equipment and can make surprisingly deep dives.(Janine Cianciolo)

By Raj Ghanekar (https://www.mysuncoast.com/authors/raj.ghanekar/)

Published: Mar. 18, 2025 at 7:50 PM EDT

SARASOTA, Fla. (WWSB) - Friends and family of 36-year-old Drake Sweet are working to fund a continued search for him, after he disappeared while freediving off the Southwest Florida coast.

The U.S. Coast Guard told ABC 7 they suspended the search for Sweet Thursday evening, “pending new information.”

Friends of the Sweet family have started a GoFundMe campaign (https://www.gofundme.com/f/bring-drake-sweet-home-continued-search-fund?cdn-cache=0)to help raise money for a private sector search. They report some of his gear has been found, but there have been no reported sightings of him.

ABC7 spoke with Janine Cianciolo, a St. Petersburg-based diving instructor, to learn more about the sport of freediving. She knows her way around the water, first donning scuba gear in 1975.

“I started scuba diving way back when I was a little kid in Cincinnati,” Cianciolo said. ”I traded babysitting with lessons with a neighbor who was a scuba-diving instructor.”

Four years ago, she picked up freediving, a sport where divers rely on holding their breaths for an extended period. She says the goal was stress relief.

But with it comes some critical safety considerations. Janine says freediving can be deceptively technical and requires proper training to do so safely.

“Free diving is not just holding your breath; if you don’t know the proper way to breathe, you can and will hurt yourself,” Cianciolo said. “You need to make sure you have all your emergency plans set up, have your first aid kit, have your oxygen onboard, know where the nearest medical treatment is.”

Resources

Spearfishing Safety Tips

Video & Advice on recent blackout

https://deeperience.com/freediving-blackout/

https://usfreedivingfederation.org/content/2023/10/2/blackout-amp-other-incidences-when-to-return-to-diving

News (https://www.mysuncoast.com/news)

Live (https://www.mysuncoast.com/livestream)

Weather (https://www.mysuncoast.com/weather)

Hurricane (https://www.mysuncoast.com/weather/hurricane)

Sports (https://www.mysuncoast.com/sports)

Suncoast View (https://www.mysuncoast.com/news/entertainment/suncoast-view)

Share It! (https://www.mysuncoast.com/community/user-content)

Osprey Cam (https://www.mysuncoast.com/page/osprey/)

LiveCams (https://www.mysuncoast.com/weather/cams)

Contests (https://www.mysuncoast.com/contests)

As Seen On 7 (https://www.mysuncoast.com/news/as-seen-on-7)

Free Diving & Spearfishing Safety Courses

We believe that everyone in the spearfishing and free diving community should have access to proper safety training. These classes are designed to help divers stay safe in the water and take responsibility for those they dive with.

To support that mission, we offer scholarship opportunities to help make these courses more accessible.

Apply Here