First taste of skin diving

One of the things I would eventually like to take up in swimming is skin diving. It's an extreme sport involving holding your breath for minutes on end and achieving great depth, times and distances underwater without using scuba. And today, I got my first taste of the activity at the Panasonic pool in Shah Alam.

Instructor Dolphin Lee asked me to swim underwater across the pool on a single breath. That's a distance of 17m.

I couldn't do it at first. My swimming wasn't streamlined and I had to come up for air at halfway point. It was pathetic.

Then he showed me how he would do it. I picked up pointers from his swimming style and my streamlining improved but I still needed that bit of extra push to touch the wall at the other end.

Whereas Lee made it look so effortless.

After a few more failed attempts, Lee finally gave me the tip I needed: hyperventilating.

Hyperventilating is a common trick employed by skin divers. Essentially, you trick your brain into thinking that it does not need oxygen by using a series of quick and deep breaths. Three breaths will do.

But Lee was hesitant to teach me this because of the danger. Hyperventilating may cause you to blackout underwater.

The worst part is there's no bodily sensation whatsoever to warn you of an impending blackout.

I heard of one case at the UKM pool many years ago which I thought sounded very familiar. A man went swimming and as was his usual routine, he went to the deep end of the pool, hold his breath and sit at the bottom of the pool.

Usually, he would come up after a while. But not that day. A few swimmers swam past him and were impressed at how long the guy could stay underwater.

But when they got closer, they saw blood coming out of his nose. He was already dead.

Which is why, they say never skin dive alone.

But then again, as with any useful skill, it will be rewarding once you master it. Lee had shown many times before that he could hold his breath for more than three minutes using this technique.

For me, there could be no better time to give it a try. I took three quick sips of air, then began my descent.

At halfway point, I felt fine. At three-quarter point, still ok. I thought, wow this really works!

I finally managed to swim across the pool on a single breath!

In fact, I finished the swim with some to spare. Or so my brain was led to think.