SINGAPORE – It was the hunt for a sea turtle that took Patricia Ong into the world of freediving.
The Singaporean had travelled to Gili Meno island – home to a sea turtle sanctuary – off the west coast of Lombok, Indonesia, in October 2019 to obtain her scuba diving certification.
Spotting the creature about 10m below the surface, she tried to dive down to take a picture of it and chanced upon someone swimming casually without an oxygen tank.
That was how she learnt about freediving, a form of underwater diving that is done in a single breath without underwater gear. There are mainly two types of disciplines – one is depth, where the diver descends into the water, while the other is pool, where the diver travels horizontally.
When she returned to Singapore, Ong signed up for a freediving course and was encouraged by her instructor Mark Cheung to pick up the sport competitively.
In her first depth freediving competition in the open waters of the Philippines, she broke three national records at the April 17-23 Camotes Freediving Challenge. Ong joins a list of Singaporean freedivers who have made the record books, including Lim Anqi, whose marks she surpassed, Elys Lai and Michelle Ooi.
Ong, 34, who works as a swim coach, told The Straits Times: “I went into this competition knowing that the records are currently at these numbers and I wanted to train to aim to go higher. When I actually did it, I was really happy.”
She recorded marks of 46m, 63m and 63m in three different categories – constant weight no-fins (CNF), constant weight (CWT) and free immersion (FIM).
The CNF discipline is where divers descend and ascend without the aid of fins. CWT allows the use of a large single fin attached to both feet, while the third allows divers to pull on a guide rope to drag themselves downwards.
With competitions taking place every other day, Ong got off to the best possible start by clinching top spot in the CNF discipline on April 17. But not everything was smooth sailing. On April 19, she did not complete her CWT attempt and could only set the 63m mark on April 21. The final day brought more complications with choppy waters during her 63m FIM dive.
Ong said: “It was a bit scary to dive in such conditions and I was quite worried that something was going to go wrong. When I pulled up, I was in shock and I was like ‘Oh, I actually did it. I’m alive.’
“I mean nothing is going to go wrong, but emotionally in the water it is not easy. On that day, many people turned early and some did not even dive.”
Aside from the weather and water conditions, another challenge Ong faces is the cost of travelling to train for freediving competitions. In Singapore, she trains at Lazarus Island and is limited to a depth of 22m due to poor visibility.
To compete at the 2023 AIDA Individual Freediving Pool World Championships in Jeju, South Korea, she crowdfunded about $4,000 from her friends. She pays for other training and competition stints out of her own pocket.
Noting Ong’s talent in freediving, pool coach Fu Xingqiang believes she can break more records and hit a depth of 90m in the CWT discipline.
Aside from her achievements in the Philippines, she also has other national records in pool freediving with a distance of 200m in dynamic with fins and a time of 6min 12secs in static apnea or breath-holding without surfacing.
Fu said: “She can pick up skills fast. She is also physically and mentally strong and very passionate about freediving.”
Her depth coach in the Philippines, Marion John Sumalinog, also taught her the mouth-fill method to relieve the pressure on her ears at deep depths.
Sumalinog added: “With work on using her available air to equalise her ears more efficiently, Patricia has the potential to compete at a very high level.”
