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4worldlovers: Bobbing in the morning swell beneath the Golden Gate Bridge’s north tower, five divers in thick, hooded wetsuits clung to an inflatable paddleboard anchored precariously on the bay floor by an 80-pound rock tied with fraying jute rope.

The morning tide had just begun to ebb, sucking water from the bay into the Pacific and dragging the divers and their makeshift raft toward the narrow opening to the sea.

At its core, free diving is the simple act of underwater immersion without the assistance of a breathing apparatus. As its popularity has swelled in the past 15 years, it has become a global competitive sport with divers pushing to once unfathomable depths on breath-holds lasting several minutes. Most commonly, it involves a person descending vertically along a dive line to a predetermined depth and returning to the surface on a single breath.

As one might expect, free diving is enjoyed primarily in clear, calm, warm waters. The bay, with its swift currents, harsh winds, chilly temperatures, low visibility and resident white sharks, is not an inviting destination. But a cohort of determined divers has quietly been pursuing a risky quest to establish a site there for the past two years. Ultimately, they’d like to secure a permanent mooring near the Golden Gate for free diving — sort of like a vertical underwater hiking trail.

Top of page: Free divers Jason Brown (left) and Alexey Molchanov celebrate after a successful dive near Horseshoe Bay. Above left: Before his dive, Brown holds a rock anchor. Above right: A diving mask and other gear used by the free divers. Photos by Shao-Feng Hsu/Special to The Chronicle

Last month, word of their efforts reached the ear of the world’s top free diver, 34-year-old Russian Alexey Molchanov, who holds dozens of records, including a free dive to 429 feet. He flew into San Francisco to join locals in their latest attempt.

On the morning of April 30, Molchanov met a small crew at Horseshoe Bay’s harbor led by one of the men pioneering free diving in the bay, Jason Brown, a 43-year-old San Francisco fintech executive. Together, the two men and a third diver named Olya Lapina assembled their gear, squeezed into wetsuits and paddled out of the harbor’s protection toward the Golden Gate.

The plan was for Molchanov to follow a weighted anchor line to the bay floor — roughly 150 feet deep — grab a handful of dirt at the bottom then kick back to the surface. Accompanying the divers was a sailboat of friends on hand to assist and run interference between passing watercraft. The three divers were joined in the water by two photographers to document the feat.

One of the Bay Area’s favorite trails has finally reopened after taking a beating from winter storms

After verifying the site via a digital depth gauge, Brown raised a dive flag, tossed his rock anchor and commenced pre-dive breathing exercises to stretch lungs and relax.

But after an hour in the water, the swell was kicking up, and the excursion was on the brink of bust.

A moment later, Molchanov dipped his head under the surface and kicked downward, his fins flapping at the water’s surface.

Why people would go through the trouble to free dive in a place as hazardous as the bay speaks to the activity’s allure.

“It’s one of the most powerful, magical, meditative, connected things that I’ve ever done in my life,” said San Francisco author and waterman James Nestor, who wrote a 2014 bestselling book on free diving called “Deep.” “I dream about it all the time. It’s part of me.”

“Once you learn, it feels like you have a superhuman ability — even though it’s just a human ability that we’ve forgotten.”

Left: Completing his free dive in the murky waters of San Francisco Bay, Alexey Molchanov ascends to the surface. Right: Jason Brown grasps the guide rope during his dive. Photos by Shao-Feng Hsu/Special to The Chronicle

Wrapped up in free diving’s appeal is a conviction divers hold that a person’s ability to safely achieve depths of hundreds of feet on a single breath is indicative of an ancient evolutionary link to life’s beginnings in the deep ocean.