AQUASPORTS: FROM ZERO TO HERO |
"We were a bunch of students picnicking at [Karachi’s coastal] Mubarak Village. We spent the entire day there trying to catch fish by lowering a string into the water from the rocks, but we caught nothing. By evening, we were not just empty-handed and hungry but sunburnt as well.” Deep sea freediver and spearfishing instructor Akif Raj laughs at the memory from 20 years ago. “What a waste of time and effort it was.”
Akif found himself watching a freediving video on YouTube one day. He says he had always felt a pull towards adventure sports. “I did not play cricket or football, neither did I ride bicycles as a kid. I did think about scuba diving but its equipment was too expensive. But the YouTube video got me thinking. I realised that one doesn’t need any equipment except for a spear, maybe. I built a spear from an aluminium rod for myself,” he says.
“I knew swimming already and, after watching more freediving videos on Youtube, I started practising on my own. Honestly, it feels like you are floating in space with zero gravity when you are under water. That spear I had built came in handy after two years, when I managed to hunt my first fish, a 200g yellowfin bream.”
Akif waxes on about his first catch. “It wasn’t easy, as it required going very near the prey,” he says. “I was so proud of my accomplishment that I did not let anyone touch my catch after bringing it home, though my mother wanted to cook it. I kept it in the freezer, so I could take it out and admire it whenever I wanted. I did that often until, one day, when a cat ran off with my prized possession.” He laughs.
Pakistan’s first deep sea freediver and spearfishing instructor learnt his trade from YouTube videos. But he’s now trained thousands of others and dreams of........