Mumbai girl becomes India's youngest certified free-diver

MUMBAI: A family trip to Andaman when she was 10 was enough for Maya Pillai to fall in love with life beneath the ocean. It was on that holiday where her father Sudhir, a cardiologist by profession, introduced her to scuba diving. Little could he have imagined the effect it would have on his young daughter.
Even though her tender age meant Maya had to endure an impatient wait before she could take her new found love for diving to the next level, she knew it would all be worth it.

Today, she sports a proud smile having just returned from Thailand where she attained the world recognized Scuba Schools International (SSI) level two certificate in free-diving. At 15 years and two months, it has made her the youngest Indian to have completed the level two course.
Now if you have no idea what is free-diving, wikipedia defines it as “a form of underwater diving that relies on breath-holding until resurfacing rather than the use of breathing apparatus such as scuba gear”.
On researching the sport online, Maya, a student at BD Somani International School in South Mumbai, came across pictures that left her fascinated and her father somewhat apprehensive.
“I could see pictures online of people diving down without any cylinder and I always thought ‘how could they breathe?’. Then I read about it and I realized they don’t breathe. They hold their breath. Then I asked my dad if we could do it, but with free-diving there are a lot of health hazards,” says Maya, the ‘we’ meaning she and her elder brother Siddharth Pillai, who also required convincing.
But the pecking order was clear — dad first, brother later. The health hazards Maya mentions led to Sudhir doing plenty of research of his own until he came across Blue Immersion, an international free-diving school located in Thailand that offers SSI certified free-diving courses.

Convinced it was the right centre for his children to attempt both level one and level two courses, he signed up for a slot in mid-June. Unfortunately, the plan was dealt a serious threat at the end of May when Maya developed an infection that required her to be admitted to hospital for septic shock.
“We thought we’d cancel it. She was hospitalized on the 29th of May and on antibiotics at home for seven days after that. She was quite sick. We were worried,” says Sudhir.
The illness may have stopped Maya from sitting for her standard nine final exams, but missing this was out of the question. And so the trio headed to Thailand where, at the end of five days, Maya and Siddharth were SSI certified level two free-divers.
Seeing as Maya won’t be able to attempt level three until she turns 18 — as per the minimum age requirement — how does she plan to sustain her passion over the next three years?
Finswimming seems to be the answer. In India, while free-diving and finswimming are both largely unheard of, competitions in the latter do take place through the Underwater Sports Association India (USAI). USAI, though not recognized by the Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports, is affiliated to the world federation for underwater sports, CMAS.