Aaron and I recently taught Aya how to dive underwater while preparing for a snorkeling trip in Boracay. She made it look so easy submerging her entire body under water that during our island hopping trip with the family, I even asked her to teach me how she does it so effortlessly.

I am a licensed open water scuba diver and an avid snorkeler, but very terrible in diving. What I mean is I always struggle to dive down when I want to see the fish closer or if there’s an interesting thing underwater that I want to check out. Or even if I manage to dive down – I immediately go back up as I’m always running out of breath underwater.

So during our last few weeks in Boracay, I’ve decided to take the course on free diving. There was also no wind in sight to practice kite surfing (which by the way I need to write about too! Standby…). So freediving it is!

Bing of Freedive Boracay was highly recommended by the folks in the island. No wonder! As I learned later on, she’s a real mermaid (true story!). I told Bing my only goal was to be comfortable diving down so when I snorkel – I can easily dive like my daughter! And hopefully stay longer under water too.

The freediver course was a two day half-day training. On my first day – I learned about the gears I needed, the motions of diving and most importantly, how to control my breathing. The breathing techniques Bing taught were actually pretty useful in my everyday life (especially when I’m about to lose my patience with my children or even husband! Haha!). They are very calming and help me focus on my body. I didn’t realise the diving part was easy, the tougher one to do is the breathing (and remember to tuck my chin and look straight in front of me. I tend to always look ahead, a rookie mistake I am told!)

On my second day – I got my certification after successfully doing a rescue dive at 6 meters deep. I also managed to go down 12 meters deep underwater. It was pretty awesome diving down with just a pair of mask, flippers and my lungs. (I also did not have to do a ton of readings, memorization and exam unlike the scuba diving course! LOL!)

With my new unlocked skill – I knew I needed to practice more. And since the basic rule of freediving is never dive alone, I had to convince Aaron to do his certification course. Thank goodness my dearest husband has a FOMO syndrome. Haha!

Super glad that Aaron and I are both certified freedivers by the time we arrived in El Nido. We had a lot of fun practicing in Miniloc Island reef, after snorkeling with our kiddoes.

So friends, if you’re a fan of the sea or just want to unlock a super power — I highly recommend learning how to free dive.

Perhaps I’ll change my blog name to…

Aquawoman!