The Editor says: If you've read Overcoming Life's Fears, Weaving Your Dreams with the Scent of Desserts and the Taste of the Ocean – PinckyMommy, you're probably very curious about her philosophy of combining desserts with freediving. So the Editor shamelessly invited her to share some thoughts on freediving with us — hoping that with approachable language and a lighthearted tone, we can help everyone understand this fascinating sport! (The Editor has already been successfully lured in and is getting ready to sign up for a freediving course.)
People dining at the café often glance at the photos on the wall and ask me — are those diving photos of you?
Ans: Actually, there are 21 photos in the café, but not a single one is of me.
So you do deep diving — with all that heavy gear — and you breathe underwater?
Ans: Ah! What you're describing is scuba diving. What we do is freediving — the kind where you don't carry any gear.
Freediving? Is that like snorkeling with a life vest?
Ans: Snorkeling keeps you on the surface, but freediving means you actually dive beneath the surface!
After a bit of playful banter, it's time to seriously define what this activity really is:
Freediving — refers to an underwater activity performed without any underwater breathing apparatus, relying solely on a single breath and breath-holding.
In simpler terms: take one breath, hold it, and dive underwater.
Wait, what?! No breathing — won't you die?
Ans: Well, most people are so accustomed to breathing freely on land that the idea of diving while holding their breath feels terrifying and uncomfortable.
As they say… the unknown is what frightens us most. Only when you fully understand an activity can you truly know both what it is and why it works.
So how long can you hold your breath?
Ans: My personal best is around 3 minutes (which is also why I've been putting off going back to retake the A4 level). Honestly speaking, most beginners can reach the 2-minute breath-hold milestone through the course.
Hold your breath for 2 minutes — won't you die?
Ans: Ha! I'm still here, so I'd say no. And besides, if you really can't hold it any longer, you just surface for air like a sea turtle would — simple as that.
The above is more or less a typical conversation I have with customers at the café. So what exactly is freediving? If it's simply about holding your breath and going under, why do you need to take a course — isn't it just a matter of not breathing?
Freediving was once named the second most dangerous sport in the world by FORBES magazine. It is an activity that appears to push the limits of the human body, yet some describe it as a return to the amniotic fluid of the womb — the very first stage of life.
What first drove me to take a course was fear and the unknown. Here in Taiwan, surrounded by the sea on all sides, our relationship with the ocean has long been shaped by the worries of our elders — always telling us the sea is dangerous, stay away, and especially during the seventh lunar month, the spirits will drag you under, so don't go near the water.
To briefly outline a freediving course: the theory component covers body physiology, equalization principles, physics, and the issues and symptoms that arise when pushing beyond physical limits. Most importantly, it teaches how your dive buddy can read your condition from your behavior underwater.
The pool sessions serve as the practical entry point to freediving. Beyond the standard assessment criteria, the focus is on learning to relax and breathe properly. Thorough relaxation and breath preparation help us feel more at ease and move more gracefully underwater.
The open water session was probably the most nerve-wracking lesson for me. It was the first ocean training class after a typhoon had passed — jellyfish everywhere, churning water, and extremely low visibility. I was completely on edge.
Breathing up on the surface, then beginning the rope descent — feeling every inch of my body change with the increasing depth. And the constant, deliberate equalization.
Then we learned the proper way to show the ocean our respect — the duck dive. Like a bow of deepest reverence to the sea, paired with a relaxed, flowing kick, we slowly made our way downward.
Equalization is no easy feat — it's the hurdle that trips up most beginners. And the duck dive is another milestone, one step closer to capturing those beautiful photos.
But in the open water sessions, the most important content — the part you absolutely must pay full attention to — is the buddy system and rescue procedures.
They say dive buddies are easy to fall for. Those shared moments in the water, the eye-to-eye connection during safety watch, the wordless understanding in planning your dives, tumbling through the surf zone together and holding each other up — how could you not love your dive buddy?
Each time we breathe up, take a full breath and duck dive down, cross paths with our buddy on the way back up — the anxiety eases a little. Our eyes meet, we swim together toward the light streaming down from the surface, emerge from the water with three recovery breaths, flash the OK sign, and smile — the journey is complete.
The ocean is vast, and humans are sometimes drawn to adventure. When we push past our own limits and find ourselves in the most dangerous moment, there's always someone ready to pull you back — that's your dive buddy.
Whatever freediving means to you, always remember: DIVE ALONE, DIE ALONE.
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