"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 representing the country in international competitions

Looking to improve on his weaponry, Akif frequented the junk and scrap market in Karachi’s Shershah, where he was lucky to come across an underwater gun. “But it needed repairs. The stretchable rubber part in it, which created its slingshot effect, broke after only one use. I had to mend it somehow. I tried to replace the part using the air bladder inside a football and rubber sheets, but it was not working. Then, one day, while lending support to a friend whose uncle was on his deathbed in a hospital, I found exactly what I was looking for in the tubing of a blood pressure checking device. I wished the uncle well and left in a hurry to rush to the medical supply shops, where I asked for the tubing,” he says. 

The repairs to the gun helped Akif catch many fish underwater. But while he would bring all his catch home with him, Akif wouldn’t let anyone cook the fish. “They were too beautiful to eat,” he explains wistfully.

Meanwhile, his mother was getting very sick and tired of all the fish. “It came to this that, when I returned home, she would only let me inside if I were empty-handed. If I came with a catch, she would tell me to go back to where I found it,” he chuckles. 

“Her attitude forced me to sell my catches. The first time I sold a fish I had hunted, I sold it for nine thousand rupees. It was good money, 17 to 18 years ago,” he shares. It gave Akif encouragement to hunt more fish and sell them. Once, he didn’t come home for two days because he was hunting for fish. That is how he made Rs30,000 by selling those two days’ catch.

More money started coming in this way, enabling him to improve on his equipment. First, he ordered for himself a pair of swim fins from Lebanon. Later, he was approached by a brand, Triton, from Ukraine. They had heard about him and offered him sponsored equipment, which included better diving gear and hunting equipment. 

“I also started educating people about freediving through social media. It also got me more fame and more sponsors. I am a brand ambassador for seven companies now that produce high-quality gear for freediving and spearfishing, besides being their freediving product tester,” he tells me.  

A few years ago, Akif also thought of teaching others what he had taught himself. “I wish swimming was made compulsory in our schools,” he says. Starting by teaching his friends for free, he started taking on other students who paid him fees for the classes.

“Today, I have over 2,500 students,” he beams with pride. “I call my course, in which I teach my students to dive as deep as 30 to 40 feet, ‘Zero to Hero’.”

The biggest issue faced by Akif while teaching freediving is getting access to swimming pools. His course spans only four to five days, for which he rents out the pools. The clubs where he conducts his courses want his students to acquire membership, however.

He says there are big international freediving championships taking place in the world all the time, in which he would like to compete. The 2025 CMAS World Championship Freediving Depth took place in Greece, where the top diver hunted a 7kg grouper. “And here we are hunting 30 to 40kg groupers all the time, thanks to Pakistan’s rich marine life,” he says, adding that Pakistani waters have 38 of the world’s best table fish.  

Coming back to international freediving championships, he says that he has an invitation to participate in the next one but can’t because of our country’s lack of understanding about this sport.

“I emailed our sports minister to allow me to represent my country in international freediving competitions, but I was asked why I don’t dive with a ‘batli’. Yes, he called the diving oxygen cylinders ‘batli’! I tried explaining about freediving to him but he didn’t get it,” he says sadly.

He also informs me that neighbouring India has no freediver but he has trained so many here in Pakistan. Still, he admits, we have no female freediver till now. “That seat is vacant,” he smiles. 

In the meanwhile, Akif keeps himself busy in his own freediving adventures. He says that freediving also promotes sustainable and selective fishing. “Otherwise our fishing practices, where our fishermen often use illegal mesh, catch the smaller fish or eggs too, which is devastating for marine life,” he says. 

Akif shares an incident where he found a bottlenose dolphin calf tangled in such a net. “It was crying. I approached it with the intention of freeing it, and its mother came too. I swear, she looked like she was praying as she watched me cut away the net.

“It took me half an hour to release it but, in doing so, I gained the friendship of the dolphins. The mother, in particular, recognises my boat. Whenever I go out to sea, in the winter mostly, she comes. And she brings me her new babies, too, along with gifts. Once she brought me an empty cold drink bottle. At another time, she brought me a pink shopper,” he laughs.

The writer is a member of staff. X: @HasanShazia

Published in Dawn, EOS, March 1st, 2026