The world's first GKN DPV Racing underwater gymkhana competition was held on May 4, 2022, at the Taichung North District Sports Center. The event was an invitational format, with participants nominated by Bandao Hairen, Now Diving Center, Anchao Technical Diving Adventure Base, Liuqian, Taiwan Diving, nudibranch Technical Diving Training Center, Linghang Diving, and Rainbow Sea Diving.
Liu Bang-Zhi — known to friends as "Big Liu" — is the representative nominated by Now Diving Center. In everyday life, he co-manages a well-known diving group of nearly 500 members with his friends, regularly exploring the major dive sites along the Northeast Coast with fellow divers. He also uses underwater DPVs to lead dive buddies to wrecks and stunning spots farther offshore, making him a dive instructor beloved by many.
Liu Bang-Zhi (center) is the representative nominated by Now Diving Center
In this GKN DPV Racing underwater gymkhana competition, he and the other invited competitors operated underwater DPVs (diver propulsion vehicles) through a designated course, completing all obstacles in a required order using specified diving body positions. Any section that did not meet the requirements incurred a time penalty (i.e., added seconds), with the fastest total completion time determining the winner.
Big Liu took home the silver medal, adding a brilliant chapter to his diving career.
Why He Wanted to Compete in the GKN DPV Racing Underwater Gymkhana
When the competition rules were first announced, many divers saw the extremely demanding requirements — such as passing through a rolling gate in a back-roll position, traversing a tunnel upside-down, and navigating a diagonal course in a tornado-roll — and wondered just how many people could actually pull it off. Some even joked that finishing the tornado-roll section without throwing up would count as a win.
It's understood that some competitors were motivated by a desire to challenge themselves, while others wanted to create a personal milestone. As for Big Liu, though — he was forced into it! Even if he said so half-jokingly, he also noted that the competition turned out to be a lot of fun, much more than he had expected.
The Most Challenging Stage
The GKN DPV Racing underwater gymkhana featured several major stages: a forward tunnel, an inverted tunnel, consecutive slalom poles, Gate 1, Gate 2, and a diagonal section — each paired with a specific body position, including forward straight, inverted straight, side-roll turn, back-roll, reverse back-roll, and tornado roll. The difficulty level was extremely high.
When asked about the most challenging stage, Big Liu said: "The hardest parts were definitely the reverse roll and the final tornado roll. Right after finishing Gate 1, you have to immediately flip into an inverted position and roll 360 degrees around a horizontal laser beam. While you're rolling, you actually can't see the laser at all — you can only glance at its approximate position for a second or two and then judge the distance by feel. And because you're trying to shave off seconds, you want to keep your roll as tight as possible to complete the movement quickly, which means one little mistake and you clip the laser and get a penalty."
Then comes the tornado-roll advance — and just as mentioned earlier, you really do roll to the point where you forget who you are and where you are.
Spinning in a tornado rotation while simultaneously surging forward, and still accurately threading around the laser beam, demands serious technique. That's why some competitors chose to skip the tornado roll altogether and just charge straight to the timer to save seconds.
Before the official timed runs began, the organizers gave us some practice time — two warm-up laps — before moving into the official time trials. Each competitor had 3 attempts, with the best result counting. Since I'd never practiced any of this before, my very first attempt was a complete mess — I was rolling while simultaneously trying to figure out how to make it smoother. On the second practice run, I kept making small corrections to my body position and angles, and fortunately I managed to get through all the movements.
The tornado-roll advance is an exceptionally challenging maneuver
The Most Enjoyable Part of the Competition
Big Liu: "I think if you were just doing these movements on your own in a pool, you'd probably get bored after a few laps. But the moment it becomes a competition, it's a completely different feeling!
Because you start constantly thinking: at which stage should I do which movement? How do I fight for speed and cut seconds? And should I skip the tornado-roll bonus or go for it after getting a solid base time first?
So on my first timed run, following advice from our team leader (Coach Anton), I skipped the tornado roll to chase a fast time — partly to get used to the nerves of competition — and posted a time of 1
. On my second run I went for the tornado-roll bonus, but midway through I noticed my DPV was behaving strangely: it kept decelerating on its own with a sluggish, stuttering feel, and I ended up finishing in 2.Because the DPV was having issues, I borrowed a teammate's unit for the third run. Since it wasn't my own DPV, the tow-rope setup and configuration were all at angles I wasn't used to — but the moment I fired it up I realized my teammate's DPV was significantly faster than mine. So on that final run, even with the tornado-roll bonus included, I posted a time of 1
.Throughout this whole process, the experience perfectly captured teamwork, the chemistry between a competitor and their team leader, the support of the whole squad, and of course the cheering from the sidelines — it was genuinely exciting, fun, and full of the tension and thrill that only competition can bring. Big Liu: "I watched the heart rate on my dive computer shoot up past 100 bpm and refuse to come back down."
An Unexpected Twist
The event brought in the well-known photography team from BlueTrend and Kyotaro to document the action. Because they needed to capture the most spectacular shots, they frequently had to position themselves right on the course, creating a rather unusual kind of obstacle.
Big Liu said: "Because of the filming, the photographers had to be right in front of us to get the shot — but we were charging through at full speed and flipping all over the place, so there was constantly this feeling like we were about to collide with them. Part of the challenge during the race was overcoming that fear, and my strategy was simply to ignore them! Of course, the photographers were incredibly skilled too — they could dodge out of the way in an instant to clear the path for us. Hats off to them for capturing amazing photos of every single competitor."
The hard work paid off, though: after the race, everyone had a full set of souvenir shots, each one a vivid memory of the day's highlights.
Would You Want to Compete in the Year-End Open Competition?
Word has it that the year-end open competition won't just feature a more thrilling course — organizers are also planning to convert the top-four finishers' DPVs into Harry Potter–style Nimbus 2000s. Imagine gripping a broomstick, feet planted on two crossbars beside the propeller, with other divers hanging on tow ropes trailing behind — just picturing that scene is chaotic and hilarious in the best possible way. The author is also quite curious whether Big Liu will sign up again for the chance to ride an underwater Nimbus 2000.
Big Liu: "The idea of converting it into a Nimbus 2000 is pure genius. I'm sure it'll be an absolute blast. Watching Harry Potter as a kid, riding a broomstick through the sky always felt like something completely impossible for us — yet somehow there's now a chance to do the equivalent underwater. Just thinking about it sounds like so much fun, so if my schedule allows, I'll definitely be at the next competition. After all, this really is a once-in-a-lifetime kind of opportunity."
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