Divers attempt underwater cycling competition

A Siberian divers' club has marked the end of their diving season with an unusual competition: a cycling and skiing competition on the bottom of Russia's pristine Lake Baikal.

Lake Baikal is the world's deepest fresh-water lake, sometimes reaching a depth of over 4,000 metres. But the diving competition took place closer to the shore where the water was just three metres deep.

The shallow waters did not make the competition any easier though. Divided into two competing teams, fifteen divers tried to follow an underwater track of over six metres on bicycles or on skis.

Underwater footage showed only a few of the divers actually managed to cycle. Divers struggled to stay on the bicycle and keep both tires on the bottom of the lake.

Underwater skiing seemed even more impossible with both skis wanting to float upwards.

The director of the diver's club Andrei Baranovski said it was interesting to see how the skis and cycles behaved underwater.

"A bicycle tries to go up, and so do the skis. As soon as you put pressure on the pedals the bicycle starts standing up. That is why the guys had to regulate the centre of the weight and had to sit lower in the saddle in order to move forwards," he said.

Diver Michael Shuyupov said that perhaps the bicycles should be adjusted.

"We should change the bindings and we should make the bicycles heavier, they should be heavier so that the front wheel does not go up, like it does on the road," he said.

The divers said the event had taught them about how different objects behaved differently under water and vowed to turn the competition into a yearly tradition.

From 3news.co.nz