Ireland’s underwater runners: ‘It requires a fair lung capacity to stay down for more than 50 steps’

Everyone knows someone who seems addicted to running. And wild swimming has become a buzzword for the times we live in, but not many of us know of anyone who has combined the two. But this is exactly what Dave Kerr does.

The 54-year old from Greystones is an advocate of the extreme, and undeniably bizarre, sport of underwater running which, he says, he trialled in a bid to experience scuba diving without equipment.

“Underwater rock running originated many, many years ago but became very popular in the 1990s with surfers who wanted to train for the stress of ‘wipe-outs’ and potentially being underwater for minutes at a time,” explains the father of three.

Basically what it entails is holding our breath, duck-diving to the bottom, grabbing an appropriately weighted boulder or rock and running for as long as we can under the water

A self-confessed fitness fanatic, Kerr is a fourth dan black belt in Shotokan karate, a ski instructor, and a scuba diving instructor. He swims and runs every day and, pre-Covid, he completed a number of triathlons. So he is well able for the fitness element involved with his unusual sport but, he says, it is not for the faint hearted and should never be attempted alone.

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"I have been scuba diving with my dad since I was about 14 years old and have dived in many places around the world. Myself and my friend Brian Gilmore are year-round sea swimmers and last year went to Mullaghmore on a free diving course – I mean diving freely [without oxygen tanks] as opposed to not costing anything – as I wanted to try to experience being underwater without any scuba gear, so just with togs and goggles.

“Then I started practising dry-land breath-holding and got up to three minutes and 45 seconds. With practise one can get up to 10 minutes plus, but I’m not there yet.”

So Kerr, who is the managing director of VBT, an IT company based in Kilmacanogue, Co Wicklow, began experimenting with underwater rock running and now he and his fellow enthusiast take to the ocean floor several times a week.

“Brian and I do it most mornings on the south beach in Greystones after our daily swim,” he says. “Unfortunately, the visibility this year has been really bad, and the storms tend to flush out our favoured rocks, so we have to go looking around the bottom for more rocks on lots of occasions. So basically what it entails is holding our breath, duck diving to the bottom, grabbing an appropriately weighted boulder or rock and running for as long as we can under the water.

We are now up to 83 steps, which would equate to about a minute and 30 seconds of being completely underwater

“The depth varies but normally anything under about six metres is comfortable for us. We are now up to 83 steps, which would equate to about a minute and 30 seconds of being completely underwater. But because you are exerting energy, your breath does not last as long as it would when you are staying still, and [after coming up for breath] we would normally do three to four dives each morning.”

The Wicklow man (who lives with Sharon, whom, he says, “puts up with all the weird sport pursuits”) says while underwater rock running is undoubtedly an unusual activity, it is definitely worth the effort.

“I got into it initially to try something different and the feeling you get from it is really incredible,” he says. “I don’t think there is anybody else doing it in our locality and we generally get the what are those two lunatics at kind of look. But it makes you feel so energised, partly because you can become hypoxic, which is when there is lack of oxygen to the tissues which physically gives a tingling feeling throughout the body.

“It also requires a fair amount of energy and lung capacity to stay down for anything more than 50 steps on a run so it’s quite exhilarating and certainly sets me up to conquer the IT world in VBT each day,” Kerr says.

“The rocks have to be a certain weight and size in order for us to get the trajectory correct which allows for the longest runs and the rocks are not light – generally anything between 20-25kg – and would be of an uneven surface so they are difficult to grip.

“So it involves you having to run as fast as you can for as long as you can with a heavy stone in your hands, having duck dived to anything up to six metres on a single breath. So it can be challenging, to say the least.”

Kerr is also quick to point out the dangers of this extreme sport: “The dangers are significant as free divers and rock runners always run the risk of hyperventilation which is short shallow breathing in order to maximise your breath hold. What actually happens is you exhale a lot of the carbon dioxide in the body and this narrows the blood flow to the brain which, in turn, can create unconsciousness, generally in shallow water and hence the term ‘shallow water blackout’.

“So this is why you should always practise breath holding but not hyperventilation. And is the reason that you should never free dive or rock run on your own.”