The sky is overcast. Military planes occasionally bellowed under the looming dark clouds, as if to avoid them. A hundred people, the pathetic few threading water, the majority holding onto their floats of some kind, were strewn across the water, which seemed innocently peaceful. Yet the air was filled with anticipation, I, like everyone else, knew something is going to happen.

Then it did. Water droplets attacked me like bullets from a machine gun gone out of control; each hit sent one round of shock wave throughout my cold, shivering body, and only fell short of piercing through it. Surrounding me, chaos ensued. Children screeched, and even adults shrieked. I tried to see them long and hard, but couldn't; I could only hear them, but even that was at inconsistent intervals.

In between, the water covered over my head. The waves got bigger. I can see the crest and trough rapidly coming in my direction, with no pretence to hide its hunger to devour me. I hastily figured out a wave pattern of sorts and based on that, I timed when I would attempt to push myself out of the water to have a higher chance of gasping for air, instead of gulping in water.

Once, while I was in water, I saw a man, legs criss-crossed in a sitting meditation stance, slowly sinking in the water. But I didn't look for long. I was up, confused between inhaling and exhaling, struggling hard to breath. It was pitch dark in front of me. I was startled. I could no longer see the people like sardines trapped in fishing nets. Then what's remaining of light came in again and I realised it was a giant rubber float that narrowly missed hitting my head.

The floats hit each other on the rough waters like bumper cars. The lucky few managed to secure a place on them, others could only hold by the sides. I noticed there were quick glances between them. The droplets hit the water, creating the "plitter-platter" symphony that continued fast and furious. More planes flew over us.

And at that moment, I broke onto the surface - at the wrong count. A large wave, gathering strength, rolled quickly and buried me. I coughed the life out of me and had to desperately suppress the natural urge to breathe in. It was with incredible strength I didn't know I had before that I pushed myself up to catch that ultimate breath I needed.

I looked at my watch. 10 minutes had passed by but it seemed like an eternity already. I was tired. Tired of taking meticulous counts so I know when I should breathe, tired of the endless bobbing up and down. There were still many people surrounding me. They just refused to go away.



And then it all ended. The shower stopped. The waves stopped. The people stopped screaming. Realising that, my friend and I walked out of the wave pool.

- a day at the jurong east sports complex swimming pool.