Born and raised in Europe's landlocked country of Czech Republic, Martin Stepanek began training as a competitive finswimmer at the tender age of 8. His intense interest in the liquid world soon lead him to being the youngest member of the local SCUBA club and it was during this summer Martin was to experience his first freedive gathering mussels in the Black Sea.

By the age of 18 Martin had earned a degree in Forestry Engineering at the College of Forestry in Trutnov, and followed on to study Sports-Biology at Prague's esteemed Charles University. After immigrating to the United States in 1997, Martin was back in the water pursuing a career as a qualified Deep Sea Commercial Diver from the Divers Academy of the Eastern Seaboard. This afforded him extensive experience in mixed gas diving, hyperbaric chamber operations and deep saturation diving. It was during this time in his early twenties that Martin was introduced to competitive freediving by dear friend Douglas Peterson, whom went on to became his trainer/coach guiding Martin to his first world record in 2001 with a static apnea performance of 8:06. This was not only an amazing feat, but also Martin's first year on the competitive circuit.

From 2001 to 2009 he has set over 11 World Records across the disciplines, continuing to precede expectations of human capabilities. Martin's passion for physiology and sports biology led him to further explore what the human body experiences while freediving, finding himself working closely with top researchers from prestigious universities such as Harvard and the Karolynski Institute of Sweden to uncover some of the physiological mysteries behind his sport. His participation in this ongoing research has helped scientists better understand the impact that depth and pressure have on freediver's today.

In addition to competing, Martin worked as a senior instructor for Performance Freediving International, where he developed educational materials for clinics that he taught to over two thousand people worldwide. He is also an Instructor Trainer for the International Association of Nitrox and Technical Divers (IANTD). Martin's goal was always to establish a standardized educational system for freediving that would allow other freediver's and instructors to teach the sport in a safe and effective way. It was this goal that inspired him to establish his own company in 2007. He is the Founder and Director of Education and Development for Freediving Instructors International (FII), through which he educates and inspires people about his beloved sport.