Leader of the Deep Waters
Photo courtesy: Mario Fernandes
Finding the highest highs in the deepest depths, India’s finest Freediver Mario Fernandes hopes to spark greater interest in the country in the sport of diving and marine conservation.
Growing up in a humble background in Goa, Mario Fernandes was the third of five siblings. The children were brought up by their mom while their father worked in Qatar staying away from the family to make ends meet.
But for Fernandes, there was a utopia nearby: the Arabian Sea in his very backyard.
Exploring life beneath the surface would come instinctively to the young Fernandes. “My parents believed strongly in respecting and appreciating all living creatures,” he says, “and that’s where I gained my love for the wonders of nature through my explorations of the sea and nearby woods, along with the empathy my parents showed towards living things.”
Growing up with easy access to the sea and living around the fisherman’s community, it only seemed natural for Fernandes to grow curious about what this large mass of blue held and contributed so much to our living. “I spent most of my growing years learning how to survive and sustain life by the sea,” says Fernandes. “From how to differentiate fish, their behavior, sustainable fishing seasons for each marine family based on breeding cycles, and then to how we buy/consume seafood. This led me to learn about some old fishing practices like spearfishing. I fell in love with this concept as I learned how effective and sustainable this style of fishing was. No ghost nets, no by-catch, it seemed like the best idea. And so, I started my journey to free-dive to be able to fish sustainably and get only what we needed back home. As I learned and engaged with marine life like this, my respect for the sea and its treasures grew immensely.”
The famous French oceanographer Jacques-Yves Cousteau once said, “the best way to observe a fish is to become a fish.” It was this ethos and the need to know and learn more about the sea and its rich diversity, that led Fernandes to learn to scuba dive in 2013. It was here that he met Milena Mezhuieva, a Ukraine underwater target shooter (World No. 1 at that time) and spearfishing instructor who inspired Fernandes to explore Freediving. This is a sport that involves diving on a single breath to the depths of water without any breathing apparatus.
Freediving may be dangerous, but for Fernandes, the process brings a sense of relaxation. “I trained in Thailand (Koh Tao) where I did my Level 1 Freediving course. I felt freediving was harder than scuba but a more natural and economical way to explore the ocean. I fell in love with the sport and discovered it allows me to get closer to much marine life and connect to the ocean. It also took me on a journey of inner exploration.”
He went on to become India’s first and only SSI (Scuba Schools International) Level 2 freediving instructor and now has a dream now to put India on the global freediving map.
Photo courtesy: Mario Fernandes
India has a coastline of 7516 kilometres, with a population of 1.39 billion, and yet our country has not made an impact in the sports of freediving or diving. “I worked in the Andaman Islands for eight years and through this time I met and connected with many Freediving Athletes who came to India to learn yoga to improve their athletic performance. But I had never imagined the potential of Freediving in India. This led me to take on competitive Freediving more seriously and put my country on the global map.”
Fernandes did just that, by bagging four national records at AIDA (International Association for the Development of Apnoea) in Israel. In DYNAMIC With Bi-Fins (DYNB) his national record now is 86m, and in Static Apnoea (STA) his record is 4 minutes and 29 seconds. He is all set to break his record on STA with his current breath hold of 7 minutes. He is the first Indian to compete in the depth setting a new record for India in his first attempt for CONSTANT Weight with Bi-Fins (CWTB) with a national record of 45m (150ft) depth with a dive time of 1 minute 40 seconds and Free Immersion (FIM) with a national record of 40m (131ft) depth with a dive time of 1 minute 35 seconds.
“It was tough to get this going without the financial backing,” says Fernandes. “When COVID hit and everything was shut, I saw an opportunity. Though this was a tough phase with no jobs and no access to the sea—since the Lockdown banned people from stepping out onto the beach or into the water—I decided to use this quiet time to do some dry (on land) training and improve my static breath hold and my stamina to dive deeper. I reached out to Aharon Solomons, who has trained many world record holders and he is usually booked for the year, but COVID had some good news for me, and he had some time to take my remote training, since some of his courses had gotten canceled due to the travel ban.”
Fernandes started dry training with Solomons online during the Lockdown. It was a tough and challenging regime, he says, but he soon began to feel the difference in his stamina and form. “But I also had some big roadblocks that came my way as I planned my trip to Israel to compete,” he says. “The travel ban had made it almost impossible for me to get a visa to get to Israel and after six months of following up, the Israel consulate helped me in getting the visa with a special recommendation. I was hugely grateful for them to help me make this possible.”
“The next big roadblock was I got COVID just before my trip, impacting my lungs and my form. I was honestly very worried if I would be able to compete. My breath hold had dropped, and my body was very weak. I spoke to my coach, and he said I should get to Israel, and he would help me rebuild my form to compete, so I finally traveled to Israel. I spent two months training in Israel, and it was very tough, my body had been impacted by COVID in more ways than I had imagined. I was very doubtful if I will be able to set a national record or break the older records in Static (breath hold). My previous breath hold time was seven minutes, and after COVID, it had dropped to 3.5 minutes.”
“I fell in love with the sport and discovered it allows me to get closer to much marine life and connect to the ocean. It also took me on a journey of inner exploration.”
With Solomons by his side, it took two months for Fernandes to get to a point where he was confident to set the record. Even now, he follows a rigorous training schedule guided by Solomons, and a strict diet that keeps him in check. He spends eight hours a day in training and workout, with just one day of rest in the week.
Fernandes has also continued to give back to the community, to further help elevate diving in India. To encourage others, he has started a free dive school for anyone in India who wants to have access to and explore freediving. The school operates out of Goa, Bangalore, and Chennai as of now and plans to expand to other major cities soon.
At the age of 21, Fernandes had volunteered with Green Cross (a wildlife rescue squad based out of Goa), and over the years, became known across Goa for rescue efforts—be they for marine life, reptiles, or other wildlife that was found in the region. “I work with the forest department through our NGO ‘The Chameleon’. I am one of the founding members of this organization which is a wildlife rescue organization that works 24/7 rescuing wildlife and marine rescues like injured turtles and sea birds.”
Fernandes has also been working on educating the fisherman community across Goa and Mahabalipuram on sustainable fishing methods. “I spend time with the local fisherman community educating them on marine life cycles, the importance of avoiding bycatch and juvenile fishing, and encouraging them to learn free diving or scuba to see for themselves and understand marine life,” he says. “I also am trying to encourage them to propose spearfishing as a more sustainable form of fishing.” Fernandes has assisted local dive centers with beach cleanups and underwater clean-ups, especially removing the discarded ghost nets, plastic, fishing lines, and so on.
But diving for sport remains in sharp focus for the record-breaking Goan. Looking ahead, Fernandes express his hope to raise India up to the top-20 ranks in the world, a plan that will move forward to fruition as he continues to encourage more youngsters in India to get involved in marine conservation and freediving.
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Bindu Gopal Rao is a freelance writer and photographer based in Bengaluru. She is passionate about all things to do with the environment. You can follow her on Instagram @bindugopalrao.
