Ever held your breath in a swimming pool, gone underwater and tried to stay there for a bit? You’ve actually been freediving without knowing it. Now, imagine taking it up a notch, drawing an epic breath, and going deeper and deeper, staying submerged for several minutes, on lung power alone. In international freediving circles, this is exactly what India has been doing. Young men and women have been taking their first breaths in an unfamiliar sport. They’re reaching new depths and setting the first records for India along the way.
No, we’re not dominating the field – not yet. The Russians, Italians and French have been at it for decades and hold most of the global records. But India has entered with something of a splash, and we’re proudly showing our compatriots the way.
Freediving isn’t just about holding one’s breath and jumping in. This isn’t quite Harry Potter chomping down on gillyweed for the Triwizard Tournament. The deeper the water, the more hostile the environment. Ear pressure builds up. The heart-rate slows. The body goes into oxygen-saving mode. Without air, the lungs and sinuses start to painfully compress. Of course, there’s a natural urge to float back up. So, freedivers rely on specialised breathing techniques, and train themselves to balance their weight and to prevent blackout.
Divers say that spending time deep under water is both liberating and meditative. Staying submerged, cut off from sound and distraction, forces them to look inward, stay with their thoughts. Is it worth the plunge? Meet four young Indians leaving the first marks in a field that India is only just starting to understand.
Scene setter
Poorva Ghiya, 27
Working in Bollywood doesn’t leave much time for anyone to catch their breath. Poorva Ghiya would know. The Aurangabad-born assistant cinematographer has worked long stretches on set, and saw how easily it took a toll on her mind. Ironically, it was in the swimming pool that she found herself able to let go and breathe.
“I used to love going underwater and holding my breath,” Ghiya says. She took scuba lessons, but the oxygen tank and equipment felt constricting. So, she took freediving lessons in Mumbai and headed to the Philippines for six months in January to get instructor-level training. A month in, Ghiya set two national records for women at the Asian Freediving Cup there. In the Free Immersion category, she dived down to 26 metres; in the Constant Weight No-Fins category, she touched 36 metres.
Freediving competitions are more than lung-capacity tests. Participants declare the depth they plan to attempt. A rope is sent down to that depth with a tag attached at the end. Bringing it back up means the diver has met their own challenge. Both of Ghiya’s depths had not been attempted by Indian women until then, though participants from Russia and Italy have swooped down to 100 metres and lower.
On land, Ghiya is doing her bit for the sport too, meeting local politicians to drum up support. “But the term ‘freediving’ is still not a priority,” she says. India’s hard-won records don’t get official recognition either.
So, for the moment, all wins feel personal. Ghiya enjoys the deep. “As we descend, the pressure of oxygen in our brains increases,” she says. It delivers a different kind of joy. “The closest words to that feeling are ‘ecstatic and therapeutic’. It’s a mental release every time.”
Even as she dives deeper and aims to compete further, Ghiya has work on her mind. “I want to do underwater cinematography,” she says. “Most professionals use scuba gear and oxygen. Freedivers have much more freedom. Deepwater fish are friendlier when they see you without a tank, so the access to great shots is better.”
She’s won no prize money yet. But it’s paid one rich dividend. Ghiya says her gum-bleeding problem has disappeared after spending so much time in salty ocean water.
Record keeper
Archana Sankaranarayanan, 32
“Does freediving mean diving for free?” Every time Archana Sankaranarayanan is asked this, she’s reminded, again, of how unknown the sport is in India. Freediving is anything but free. Competition entry fees range from $100 to $500. Indian contestants largely sign up on their own steam and budget – there are no sponsors.
The payoff, she says, is in creating history for India, in a sport that confuses Indians. In Manado, Indonesia, a few weeks ago, Sankaranarayanan set two records. One was in the Constant Weight Bi-Fins category (38 metres); the other in the Constant Weight (40 metres), making her India’s deepest woman freediver. She also has nine other records from previous events, including one in the No Fins category (25 metres) that she set in May. “Going underwater without fins is much more difficult. I was the first Indian woman to attempt it. It was one of the most difficult dives I have ever done.”
That’s a big win for a lawyer who had not heard of the term, freediving, until 2022. She was trained in scuba-rescue, working as a dive-master at a hotel in the Andamans, when she watched a video of Shubham Pandey freediving with manta rays. “I was blown away,” she recalls. “I signed up for his course in Nusa Penida, Indonesia, and also went to a women-only freediving school in Bali.” Since then, she’s been competing and training full-time.
It’s a bit different from her parents’ dream of seeing her as a chartered accountant. “Working in a well-known law firm was the next best thing,” she says. That she gave it up to dive to the briny depths of the sea took them by surprise. “But slowly, they are coming around.”
Meanwhile, Sankaranarayanan is now an ambassador for an international freediving brand, which means sponsorship and good gear. She was also awarded the GP Birla fellowship for women leaders, which will provide her the training to develop a social-impact venture related to the sport.
On her to-do list: Meeting the sports minister of her home state, Tamil Nadu, to convince him to invest in freediving. “In India, Lakshadweep is a great place to dive, but permits are a hassle and expensive,” she says. “The Andamans are more accessible and have good diving schools and instructors. But for anything more, one has to go to the Philippines, Thailand, Mauritius or Europe. A bit of government support would really help the field.”
Depth seeker
Shubham Pandey, 32
Shubham Pandey lives in Lonavala, just outside Mumbai, but his freediving company, Unobreath, has taken him as far away as Indonesia and the Andamans on teaching assignments. Students tell him that the breathing lessons, meant to help the body adjust to undersea pressure, have helped them cope with anxiety and PTSD. “It’s the psychological benefits of freediving that is resonating with them,” Pandey says.
So that’s what he focuses on when he coaches students. “Whether you try it in a swimming pool or the ocean, spend a few seconds underwater or go on a deep dive, freediving requires you to be completely in the moment,” he says. To do that, the mind must put down the other baggage. Divers who lose focus get jittery and rush back up.
Pandey, the son of an Indian Navy sailor, grew up in Kochi and took to freediving after he got his Electronics degree in 2015. He’s trained as a dive master in the Andamans and Indonesia, and completed an advanced freediving instructor course in Thailand two years ago. Back in India, he’s had to start at the bottom: Teaching three-hour introductory sessions in swimming pools across Mumbai, Chennai and Bengaluru.
The field is so new, there’s nowhere to go but up. “There is not a single Indian company that makes freediving masks, snorkels or fins, the basic gear for freediving,” he says. “Only two stores import it, and they’re in Bengaluru. Most divers order it online.” But the community is growing. “I train 16 people in a weekend workshop – all my classes run full. We get IT professionals, marathon runners and everyday folks. And 70% of them are women.”
Course corrector
Smruti Mirani, 32
It started off with curiosity. Mirani, an IIT-Mumbai graduate, wanted to know how deep she could go when she first attempted freediving in the Andamans in 2022. She loved the ocean, she’d already trained in scuba diving. How hard could it be, right?
But after her first few freedives, it hit her: A single deep-dive breath doesn’t just take you lower, it frees up your mind on ground-level too. It’s a lesson more could learn, she believed. So, Mirani completed her instructor-level training in Thailand and the Andamans between 2022 and 2024, and started her freediving-tour company last year. At her sessions in Goa, Kerala and the Andamans, students can dive down to 20 metres, and the lessons approach the sport as therapy, not competition.
“I’m familiar with anxiety and overthinking; I think I have done a PHD in it,” she jokes. “But in the water, when you slowly learn to calm yourself in an unfamiliar environment, that’s when the magic happens. It can help people irrespective of whether they take it up recreationally or go professional.”
Mirani competed for the first time earlier this month in the Philippines. Her focus is more on building a community of freedivers in India especially “to help women build confidence and calm”. So, she’s starting one-on-one sessions focusing on breathwork that can even be done online. For someone who was the “first one in and the last one out” of the pool while growing up, it’s like unlocking a hidden bonus level.
Lucky champ
Mario Fernandes, 39
Growing up in Calangute, Goa, Mario Fernandes learnt to swim and fish at an early age. He also loves his mum’s fish curry, but knew that the more exotic fish – snappers, lobsters, groupers – were expensive. So, he picked up basic spearfishing in 2012 and would go underwater with a harpoon or spear, and nothing else, looking for prize catches.
For his mum, this meant new fish to cook. For Fernandes, it became a new obsession. “But there was no freediving scene in India. I managed to partly pay for my course in Thailand thanks to a ₹40,000 lottery I had won.” He became India’s first Level 2 freediving instructor in 2015. “That meant I could teach people to freedive down to 30 metres,” he says. He kept upping his training and is today the only Scuba Schools International freediving course director in India and Sri Lanka.
To set a major freediving record, an athlete usually needs to be at least at Level 3. From there, it takes as much as a year of training, on land and in the water, to build technique, stamina, flexibility and pressure adaptation. Over the decade, Fernandes has set four national records, certified 11 Indian instructors and set a up freediving school. He conducts workshops in pools across Goa, Chennai and Bengaluru, and teaches courses in the Andamans, the Maldives and the Philippines. Beginner courses start at ₹15,000 and can go up to ₹1.8 lakh. And yet, Mario says there are takers.
“I see the community growing in two directions: Recreational freedivers, and professionals who want to teach. Both are essential for the sport’s growth. The biggest advantage that Indonesia, Philippines and Egypt have is access to world-class infrastructure and experienced coaches, things we are still building in India.”
He’s confident we’ll get there. And we’ll one day have an Indian freediver who’ll cross the 100-metre mark. He’s holding his breath.
From HT Brunch, September 13, 2025
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