From Code to Currents: FFUF Manila’s Freedivers

Picture this:

You close your eyes and draw a deep breath, filling your lungs to their full capacity. Then you take the plunge, immersing yourself in the calm ocean depths. Despite every instinct screaming to return to safety, you remain, holding your breath, captivated by the underwater spectacle. For that moment, nothing else counts but the stunning beauty around you.

Our developers and agile team members have discovered freediving as an invigorating pastime. The discipline it demands resonates strongly with our work ethos, drawing unexpected parallels between these two seemingly disparate activities.

The spark was ignited during a “What the Fact?” session — our weekly knowledge-sharing platform — where the speaker proposed the idea of exploring freediving. Intrigued, our staff started attending classes one after another at Baki Freediving, a start-up school based in Mabini, Batangas, where they mastered the essentials of this mesmerizing sport.

Freediving offered us a path of self-discovery, a way to cultivate discipline and find serenity when confronted with the unknown. Strikingly, these are the same qualities we engage daily in our work— troubleshooting intricate algorithms and unraveling the riddles of the digital domain. The similarities between our professional journey and underwater ventures are palpable.

Every dive, like every software development task, requires focus, envisioning successful outcomes, and an understanding of our limitations. We immerse ourselves in lines of code, withstand the pressure, navigate complex logic, and sometimes, figuratively hold our breath until we surface with a solution.

Much like relentless freedivers, we are persistent innovators, undeterred by challenges. We take the leap, confident that our journey will eventually lead us to a resolution. The passion for discovery, the thrill of uncertainty, and readiness for unexpected challenges drive our team to delve deeper into both our code and the ocean.

FFUF Manila, through the lens of freediving, has found an innovative way to merge the realm of software development with the world of freediving. Each dive we undertake is a plunge into a sphere of invaluable insights and remarkable experiences. And each time we resurface, we return equipped with renewed vigor, elevated passion, fresh wisdom, and a more optimistic perspective.