My passion of the water

Anatoliy Pak’s passion for swimming underwater started in 2016 after watching a YouTube video Whale Fantasia with 3 freedivers and whales. It captured his attention and created a void for self-exploration while being underwater. Anatoliy’s deep interest in various breathing practices resulted in becoming a Qigong (Chinese breathing exercise system for health improvement and spiritual growth) practitioner and a freediving instructor.

After a few years of freediving Anatoliy realized that the extraordinary skills of long breathhold and swimability underwater – achieved through rigorous training – are hard to be appreciated by a wide audience. It is not exciting to watch deep freediving, or dynamic and static apnea competitions. This is what led him to discover mermaiding.
Anatoliy’s goal in the field of mermaiding is to create safety and performance standards for the sport of mermaiding and artistic underwater swimming.

Among other things, Anatoliy enjoys playing underwater hockey, snowboarding, kiteboarding, playing music, doing acupuncture, and spending time with his family: wife Alla and children Pavel and Polina.