15. Lim Anqi – The art of freediving

After five years into her banking job, Anqi caught the travel bug and fell in love with the sea. Her stints as a scuba diving instructor eventually brought her to Thailand where she discovered her love for freediving, which is breath-hold diving without any breathing apparatus. Last year, she set a new national record for Singapore at the CMAS 2019 World Freediving Championships in Honduras. Anqi’s love for the ocean also led her to set up the Sea Glass Project where she upcycles glass bits from beaches into jewellery pieces.

In this episode:

When did you first fall in love with the sea?
“I've never really been like a strong swimmer or water kind of person. I would say probably, it happened when I started scuba diving. My very first time, or rather, even before scuba diving, snorkelling off the waters in Malaysia, in Tioman for example, and then I realised, ‘Wow, the underwater world seems amazing!’ I don't want to just be on the surface, I want to immerse myself into the waters and check out this incredible world that we have under water, which is 70% of our planet.”

Banking job in Thailand led to her to discover love for travel
“I guess the travelling bug hit me during my stint in banking, I was actually in the Bangkok office for almost two years. So that opened me up to realising that ‘Wow, there is so much out there.’ It wasn't really my intention to be completely out of the industry, so after five years of working, I thought I never had the chance to travel. We Singaporeans have a job even before we finish our degree, so I just never had that chance to travel. I also really wanted to study abroad, but I didn't manage to have enough funds or scholarship. Therefore, after five years of working, I just thought that, ‘Oh, I'll just take a short break,’ but I didn't think that this break would be a change in my life’s direction in many different ways.”

Tips on breath hold for freediving

Physical
“In order to have a good breath hold, you need to be able to completely relax before you hold your breath. Then the breath hold itself is a matter of understanding what happens to your body when you hold your breath, and what are the sensations that you feel. Because the initial part of the brain so it's actually quite comfortable, (and) some thoughts come into your mind. But basically, you should feel quite okay, and eventually you will start to feel the urge to breathe because your body's telling you, ‘You need to breathe.’ This is due to the carbon dioxide levels in your body, because you're not exhaling. That is the trigger for the urge to breathe, it’s not the lack of oxygen that most people think. Your body's telling you to, ‘Okay, start breathing now,’ because it's detecting this increased level of carbon dioxide, and you start to feel a little bit uncomfortable in your belly or your diaphragm area. So, the key to breath hold is just managing this feeling. It comes with practice.”

Mental
“When I'm preparing for the breath hold for driving, then I try to just focus on the breathing. It's probably the same for the meditation classes that you go to, because it's almost impossible to say, ‘Empty your mind.’ The minute someone says, ‘Don't think of anything,’ you think of something, isn't it? So just by focusing on your breathing, and if you need to, picture something in your mind, something really calm. Yeah, something that keeps you nice and relaxed – I think that's the way, and with increased practice. But for me, it's actually not so much the meditative part, it’s not really the preparation before the breath hold. It’s the actual breath hold itself, because it's even more challenging. During the breath hold, you really can't think of anything. The minute you think of, ‘Oh dear, can I hold my breath for longer?’, or after you're right at the bottom, imagine 70 metres down there alone like, ‘How am I going to make it to the surface?’, the minute your mind starts to have such thoughts, it will create stress and then it will be more difficult to hold your breath. So, the actual dive itself on breath hold, forces a state where you can only focus on the present moment. You can’t think about whether I can reach the bottom, or I can reach the top, or any other things that would spoil that kind of present moment feeling. That is why for me, freediving is my meditation, because on land I'm not a very calm person [laughs]. But in water, it forces me to face this state.”

Participating in the 2019 World Freediving Champi