‘Beyond a hobby’: Unlocking new possibilities for Singapore’s locksport enthusiasts

SINGAPORE – While her peers picked up crafts like crochet as a hobby, medical officer Alyssa Chia picked locks instead.

Inspired by a YouTube video by Lockpicking Lawyer, Chia bought her own locksport starter kit – a $50 lockpick set and six second-hand padlocks – about a year ago.

But after months of fiddling on her own, the 25-year-old realised there was a limit to what she could do on her own. She lacked resources, experience and tools.

So she set out to find a community and chanced upon LocksportSG, a lock-picking hobbyist group with around 50 active members and growing.

Founded by Zach Tan and about six others, the group holds educational workshops with up to 16 participants each time.

Once every two to three months, these local enthusiasts gather to learn the basics about locks and how lockpicking works, at a $100 participation fee.

Each participant can bring home a lockpick set and a training lock – a padlock that has been cut open so the mechanisms inside can be seen.

Recent workshops have filled quickly owing to an increasing interest in the “sport”, said 43-year-old Tan, adding that the group initially began as a Facebook page in 2016.

According to Chia, the LocksportSG community is a tight-knit and diverse one, comprising locksmiths, office workers and even fellow doctors.

“I get to meet a lot of different people outside my own communities,” she said.

Beyond a hobby, Chia also likened it to a sport as it involves acquiring new skills and plenty of practice.

“You can time yourself as you try to pick the lock, and see how long you take. When you pick a lock each time, you can also see if you actually understand how you’re doing it or if it was just a fluke,” she added.

‘Only pick locks that belong to you’

Lock picking may seem like a casual hobby for some, but there is, in fact, a code of ethics that lockpickers worldwide follow strictly.

At one of LocksportSG’s recent workshops, which The Straits Times attended, a trainer was seen introducing the code to participants: “Only pick locks that belong to you or (those that you) are given explicit permission by owners to pick.”

Hobbyists are also reminded that they should not pick a lock that is in use, even if it belongs to them, as this may damage or disable the lock.

Retiree Edward Phoon, who participated in the Oct 31 workshop, told ST that he saw it as an opportunity to learn a new skill.

“My son locked himself in his room before,” said Phoon, 68, adding that he had no choice but to break the door handle then.

So when he came across the workshop details on Facebook, he decided to give it a try.

Main trainer Yee Yucai, who has nine years of experience in lock picking, said he decided to organise workshops and meet-ups to help beginners.

“It was a way of giving back to the community,” he said, adding that he had encountered difficulties when he started out and wanted to ease the learning curve for those who are new.

This includes unlearning bad habits that could affect attempts at picking newer and more complicated locks, he said.

Like cybersecurity?

Today, LocksportSG continues to observe a slow but steady increase of about 10 active members each year, said Tan.

He added that he has seen a cumulative growth of 20% since the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, though this does not include casual observers at beginner workshops.

A decade on, the group’s activities have also expanded to running competitions at events, such as the annual Black Hat conference at Marina Bay Sands.

It is widely known as one of the top security conferences in the world, and LocksportSG has had a presence there for three years, according to its Facebook page.

Attendees include hackers, security experts and government agencies alike.

At these timed competitions, contestants are given 10 minutes to pick over 50 locks with various complexities and points weighting. The contestant who accumulates the most points within the timeframe wins.

Dinar Rahimita, a postgraduate student in cybersecurity in Sydney, said she enjoys seeing the similarities between what she studies and lock picking.

“We learnt about the physical parts of a lock as part of our course,” she said, during one of the workshops.

“I think that’s what made this workshop interesting. It gave the concept a tangible thing.”

Another lesson that she took away from the session was that most padlocks are not as secure as she imagined.

“For my own security, maybe I do need more layers of security beyond just one padlock,” she said.

Tan, however, sees locksport as its own unique field with new possibilities for the group to unlock.

While cybersecurity is “constantly improving, and improving very quickly”, physical security as represented by the padlock has remained the same, he said.

He believes locksport’s value lies in its potential to improve physical security, as it creates a safe space for it to be tested, such as through conferences or competitions.

And he is already looking at the horizon: “I’m hoping to see more purpose beyond just a group of puzzle-solvers coming together.

“We have established ourselves in Singapore already, so the next natural step is to connect around the region.”

Meanwhile, as interest in locksport grows, assumptions of its other uses are not the only misconceptions its members have to dispel.

“People expect me to be able to open all kinds of locks, such as luggage locks, sometimes,” said Chia. “But my abilities are limited!”