Day in the life: Deep thoughts from a Yas Waterworld diver

Frenchman David Helderle is a free diver at Yas Waterworld where he performs pearl diving shows and hosts free diving experiences for tourists.

David Helderle teaches free-diving at Yas Waterworld in Abu Dhabi. He calls it “a meditative experience, and very Zen”. Ravindranath K / The National

At the age of six, while his parents were fast asleep, David Helderle used to sneak out of bed in the dead of night to go diving. The Frenchman grew up next to the water, and his father was a professional scuba diver in the oil industry. Mr Helderle was always fascinated by free-diving, but assumed he could never make a living from it. Four years ago, he moved to Abu Dhabi to work in events management. Then in December 2012, just before his 40th birthday, he heard Yas Waterworld was opening in the capital and looking for free-divers. He grabbed the opportunity to leave the corporate world behind and fulfil his dream of free-diving as a profession.

5am

I wake up very early because I have two sons, aged two and three, and I am the one feeding our youngest in the mornings. I then take my kids to school and nursery.

9.30am

I arrive at the meeting point at Yas Waterworld and do stretching exercises, to prepare myself for a day of diving.

11am

The first guest diving experience starts. The diving tank is made of fibreglass so it’s very rough, and you have to take precautions to prevent injuries. I insist on equalising the ears. Our tank is only five metres deep, but you can still really hurt yourself. If guests experience any ear pain, we have to stop. If I am in the one in the water with the guests, I take them down to the lines at different levels where there are baskets of oysters for them to pick up. Free diving is actually easy – the secret is being relaxed and knowing the breathing technique. I teach people to inhale for at least three seconds, then exhale for six seconds. With the exhale, you just relax to get rid of all the tension in your body. The more relaxed you are, the longer you will last underwater because you’re saving your energy. With the exhale, you blow the air on the water and the impact makes circles. It’s a meditative experience, and feels very Zen. I am probably one of the world’s best at blowing underwater bubbles. I consider myself a bubble ring designer. It’s very rewarding teaching people. The other day I had a guy who couldn’t swim well, and at first could only hold his breath for five seconds. But he listened, and after half an hour he could dive for over a minute. He said to me: “I was in another world – I have never been so relaxed in my life.”

12pm

I have a one-hour break to allow my body to get rid of CO2 [carbon dioxide]. When you dive your oxygen level decreases and your CO2 level increases, and if it gets too high you risk blacking out on your dive. I can only dive for up to four hours a day because I burn so much energy that my body gets very tired. I eat a very light lunch and if I’m going to be underwater for up to seven minutes, I don’t eat for 12 hours before I dive. There’s a special diet that as a free diver I should follow. I don’t eat a lot of oily foods or meat. Milk isn’t good, because lactose makes you produce mucous. But because I’m French I love cheese so I try not to eat too much of it.

12.45

Sometimes I take part in the pearl diving shows, which showcase the UAE’s history of pearl diving. The show is short compared to what the real pearl divers went through. I’m lucky to have been pearl diving with Emirati pearl diver Major Ali Saqar Al Suweidi, who is now in his 60s and still diving. He showed me how to dive in the sea without a mask or goggles, in the traditional way, which was hard – especially in the summer when there’s higher salt levels in the sea so your eyes burn more. Oysters are everywhere around the coast of the UAE, and we actually found oysters with pearls inside. When I go pearl diving I often see oysters, but not with pearls in. Only here in Yas Waterworld are you sure to find a pearl in your oyster.

6.30pm

This is when the last guest experience ends. There are four guest experiences and six shows a day. After work, I spend time training with Aida (the Worldwide Federation for Breath-hold Diving), to become a certified instructor. My personal best for free-diving is seven minutes nine seconds, and I am aiming to beat that and do eight minutes.

8pm

I spend my evenings with my two boys and always try to have a healthy dinner before going to bed at 11pm.