SINGAPORE – Even in the face of a typhoon that left more than 100 dead and forced over half a million people to flee their homes, Singapore freediver Patricia Ong remained undeterred in her quest to compete in the Philippines.
Her determination paid off as she topped one category and set two national records at the International Association for the Development of Apnea (Aida) Mabini Depth Quest earlier in November.
As the Aida competition was postponed by a week and started on Oct 31 because of Tropical Storm Trami, Ong had to forfeit her budget-airline return ticket and get a new one.
“In the end, I was the only foreign athlete who stayed, but I was determined to complete what I set out for,” said the 35-year-old self-funded swim coach.
Little did she realise that there were more obstacles for her to overcome in Batangas province, a three-hour drive from Manila.
Due to safety concerns, she could not train in the choppy waters off Mabini for two weeks before the event.
She was also stranded in the village where she stayed in a private room at the local freediving school that organised the competition.
Ong said: “The place was quite rural and there were at least eight landslides that blocked the roads. Electricity was cut and we didn’t have food and wireless reception sometimes. People had to walk hours to get to the next town to go back to Manila.
“But the local community, who are used to such incidents, got together. Everyone was scrambling to buy their own generator, they bought diesel for the generators.
“We ate the local version of porridge or macaroni and other kinds of Filipino food the locals cooked up. Everyone was really nice and helped each other out.”
Candidly, she admitted that after a while, the “Singaporean in her came out already”. She moved to a resort to get herself in the right frame of mind for competition once the storm dissipated.
While she did not manage to hit the depth she could reach during training, Ong collected enough points to climb to third (579.3) in the Aida women’s overall ranking behind American Enchante Gallardo (639.1) and Japan’s Yasuko Ozeki (621.4).
On Nov 3, she topped the women’s constant weight no fins (CNF) category with a national record of 53m to eclipse her old mark, which was set in April, by one metre.
In CNF, freedivers descend and ascend with a weight by swimming without the use of fins or without pulling on a rope or changing his or her ballast. Only a single hold of the rope to stop the descent and to start the ascent is allowed.
Earlier in the competition on Nov 1, Ong had set the women’s free immersion national record of 68m to beat Elys Lai’s 2023 mark of 67m. She was second behind Tracii Verdejo (70m) in the discipline, which sees freedivers pull on a rope during descent and ascent without the use of propulsion equipment.
On Oct 31, she was also second (63m) behind Verdejo (76m) in the women’s constant weight (CWT), where freedivers ascend and descend using their monofin and/or their arms, and second (65m) behind Verdejo (81m) again on Nov 2 in the women’s constant weight bi-fins.
Currently, Ong holds national records in six of the eight freediving disciplines, which gives her “a sense of fulfilment”.
However, she acknowledged that pursuing her passion – she began freediving in 2019 after chancing upon a freediver while she was following a sea turtle in Gili Meno island waters in Indonesia – has taken its toll financially as she has to take leave from work and spend thousands of dollars on each training and competition trip.
Ong managed to crowdfund $4,000 to participate in the Aida Individual Freediving Pool World Championships in South Korea in 2023, and hopes to secure corporate financial support to compete at the next edition in Japan on March 15 and 16, 2025.
She said: “What is success to most Singaporeans is being financially stable, having kids, growing old and watching your kids grow old.
“But I’m not doing any of that. I think what I’m doing is damn fun.
“During the blackouts, the amount of shooting stars I saw was amazing.
“This time in the Philippines, I had the best time throughout the drama, experienced their culture and had the Filipinos accept me whether I’m local or not.
“Reality strikes when I’m back in Singapore, but I do not regret any of these experiences.”
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MDDI (P) 048/10/2024. Published by SPH Media Limited, Co. Regn. No. 202120748H. Copyright © 2025 SPH Media Limited. All rights reserved.
