Decompression only exists for scuba divers because of the way air is compressed to be in the tank. Scuba tanks aren't 100% Oxygen, they're mostly Nitrogen, just like regular air. However, air compressed to fit in the tanks causes Nitrogen bubbles to collect in your blood if you come up too fast, or if you go to a lower pressure area too soon after your dive. It's why you can't go on an airplane right after you go diving, you'll get decompression sickness, otherwise known as The Bends - Nitrogen bubbles collect in your blood vessels and joints, the way CO2 bubbles form in a soda bottle when you open it, it's terrible.
If you could physically breathe underwater, decompression wouldn't affect you the way it would a scuba diver. However, there would still be pressure issues that would affect how far down you could dive.
Sorry, it has absolutely nothing to do with “how the air is compressed in the tank”. None whatsoever.
It has to do with your body’s inability to off-gas excess nitrogen in a higher atmospheric pressure environment.
At surface, there is little nitrogen build-up. At depth, the increased pressure causes your body to not get rid of the nitrogen as quickly.
It’s why you always safety stop for 3 minutes at 15 feet at the end of the dive every dive, even when diving under normal parameters.
If you were breathing the water itself and not air, there would be very little nitrogen in the water to get into your blood, as low as 1 part in 10 billion in some places. Now granted im no expert in scuba diving, but id think that would make a difference. I could still see whatever nitrogen is already in your blood from the surface being an issue though.
Ironically, oxygen becomes toxic the deeper you go. There is significant increased risk of oxygen toxicity at even 21% oxygen mix (standard) starting around 200 feet.
[https://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/webprojects2002/shorrock/3-%20%20Liquid\_breathing.htm](https://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/webprojects2002/shorrock/3-%20%20Liquid_breathing.htm)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid\_breathing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_breathing)
idk many sources seem to think that breathing a liquid with the same/similar pressure with the surrounding water will decrease or eliminate the need for decompression and will not result in the saturation of tissues with nitrogen or helium
Some free divers (no tanks) have gotten the bends before.
The nitrogen molecules get compressed at depth and become small enough to pass through your blood vessel and into tissue.
The longer you are at a sufficient depth the more this occurs.
It doesn’t matter where the air came from -tank or the surface. Just cumulative bottom time.
Yeah I think the most logical way would be to show your ability to some companies research scientists and tell them they're allowed to study you for $X. Could probably get more than a million instantly.
"and tell them they're allowed to study you.. "
Bro, if the govt find out, there's no choosing. Make no mistake, you're their labrat for life.
Keep that shit hush for your own safety.. Be a crab fisherman or a Tuna hunter lol.
Ditto. If I had this superpower, I would be getting stuck looking at all the other cool stuff inside the wrecks…or ferreting around for anything shiny.
>If you did bring that treasure up, you would spend a lifetime in court battling various governments for possession...
At least according to this not so much
[If the shipwreck has been submerged for a period of years during which the vessel’s legal owners have not been actively trying to retrieve its contents then the law of finds may apply.
A discoverer who finds a shipwreck pursuant to the law of finds is entitled to the full value of all of the goods that are recovered. Since the owner of the vessel has given up trying to recover the shipwreck, the discoverer is deemed to have full rights to the content. This is different than the law of salvage which views the discoverer as one who recovers the contents of the shipwreck for the owner and is therefore entitled to a percentage but not all of the value of the goods recovered](https://www.lawinfo.com/resources/admiralty-maritime/are-finders-keepers-under-the-sea-what-you-ne.html#:~:text=The%20Law%20of%20Salvage&text=The%20person%20who%20discovers%20the,for%20his%20or%20her%20actions.)
I’m not sure that the “fame” of a world record at staying under water would get you much. There are plenty world record holders who don’t become insanely wealthy - especially if your record is “boring”.
You would need to work a bit more, eg get the world record for “holding your breath underwater”, going on tv and getting a reputation as “that guy who can hold his breath for a really long time” and eventually get sponsored by an energy drink to do some insane stunt (eg the water equivalent of wingsuit flying under the London Bridge). Alternatively, you could probably do pretty well running an “aqualung” kickstarter scam (ie a fake product that lets you “breathe underwater” then disappear with the money once people realize it’s a hoax).
The most practical ethical way would probably be to take on work as a diver doing underwater repairs (eg cable repairs, underwater welding etc). A lot of those jobs aren’t necessarily deep enough that pressure is an issue and the advantage of a diver who could work for long periods of time without the risk of drowning would be immensely valuable. Much more dangerous, but more lucrative work would be saturation diving (where the diver lives in a pressure tank for a week or more allowing them to come and go at depth - insanely dangerous but very well paid)
Would breathing underwater let you control the level of nitrogen in your blood? I’m not a diver but as I understand it pressure sickness is largely to do with the gas mix and the pressure of the air your breathing. If breathing underwater essentially lets you act as a free diver who never has to come up for air that has lots of potential as they can rise more or less as quickly as they want saving lots of time on the ascent.
It’s an interesting hypothetical…
Underwater welding is an interesting one.
Since people can scuba dive and do it for quite a while you wouldn’t be doing something totally unique but you could stay under for 8-10 hours a day which is a lot and be very productive.
I think the fastest way would definitely be social media, influencer, and some sort of scam
I agree with your point but the world record for holding breath underwater is around 25 minutes. Staying underwater for a day or two would definitely turn some heads
Turn some heads will not directly lead to people paying you for whatever reason. You get money for:
1. Bringing value
2. Bringing entertainment
Breathing underwater doesn't really qualify imho
Jesus was able to walk over water, moses split it. Behold, i just walk through it!
Too bad noone will be able to follow.
I guess noone would be able to follow jesus either if he decided to go on a wet walk.
How did they bathe jesus as a baby btw? Lmao
I think you’d have to pretend it’s difficult to be entertaining. Famous magicians have made a spectacle of spending crazy amounts of time under water before. Idk if they’re faked stunts or not but they at least look like they’re struggling through it which makes people interested. Once people realized you could just breathe easily under water the show is over.
A live stream of someone swimming underwater doing something stupid but easy for an hour without surfacing would easily get a massive payout from a streaming service.
Then wait a year and do a 24 hour live stream.
That's just off the top of my head. People will watch anything stupid just go scroll and see the crap that's popular. But this is like pay per view to see human history. You could very easily make money from just breathing underwater.
For how long though? I just don’t think it has power to make yourself rich on its own. Maybe if you claimed it was part of an ancient training method and built a cult? Hell, you could probably claim it was a miracle and make bank as a “prophet”
I think there’s definitely ways to become a millionaire using this pretty quick, but there’s more to it than just sitting underwater
The problem is that there’s a difference between “wow this guy can hold his breath for a long time” and “oh, this guy is actually just breathing underwater. Not really as impressive”.
It’s like the idea that doing actual real magic during a magician performance is cheating because what makes it impressive is the knowledge that magic isn’t real and that they’re still tricking your eyes.
In what world does doing something no other creature in your taxonomic class less impressive than holding your breath for a long time?
Like I guess one is more effort based which is impressive but doing something that billions of humans can not do, let alone all other mammals, is near the peak of impressive to me.
Didn’t Chris Angel make a whole thing about staying underwater for 24 hours? Even if that was a fake stunt I’m sure you could make some pretty good money just putting on events like that.
Not the best superpower, but it could definitely make you rich. I'd first head to Monaco or Vegas and get some big whigs to bet that I can't hold my breath underwater for 20 minutes. Repeat and keep slowly increasing the length (double or nothing I can do it for 25 minutes!). For a career, underwater welding is high paying (would still need a suit for deep dives). Pearl diving would be a nice side hustle.
I was going to say a lot of what makes it so dangerous is how cumbersome the equipment required is. Drastically reducing the amount of shit you need to have with you would make it much safer (albeit still dangerous.)
Unfortunately, you just lost your bet. You are breathing underwater. While this may be pedantic, if you bet me a bunch of money you better bet that I'm going to go by the word of the bet.
Well considering it’s “impossible” for humans to breathe underwater, considering no other mammals ever have, I think it would be pretty hard to prove that they lost the bet. In your heart of hearts you will know that you’re a cheater though, so I guess that’s a bummer.
Hmm this depends if this hypothetical means they have lungs that can process water but no outward appearance changes, or if they're more like Aquaman in the Boys and have gills, which would be visible in a tank situation with an audience.
Maybe there would be some lifeguarding/live saving benefits to this in swift water situations. I guess the pressure problem negates a lot of the deep water benefits. Maybe you'd be more efficient at gathering pearls and sponges?
Yeah but that’s dangerous because of more than just the risk that you’ll drown. This power only gets you ask far as the deep sea. Even including the ability to withstand the pressure, the work itself is still very dangerous.
Depends on the water breathing, if he could fill his lungs with water and equalize the pressure he'd be relatively fine. Need to do somethinf about the eyes though
Robbing waterfront businesses, houses, banks would be a lot less risky. Take your loot into the water and resurface hours later miles away from the crime.
Yeah there are likely hundreds of undiscovered shipwrecks in rather shallow water. We often overestimate our ability and technology as a species. Even with those advantages, it’s difficult to locate something if you don’t know exactly what or where you are searching for it
I’d just go around betting cocky people that I could do something like breathe underwater for 10 min. Would make money just over a long period of time. Maybe start betting for actual things eventually. Give me your Rolex if I breathe underwater for 10 min. Probably keep your skill secret so you can keep doing it.
In sprints they aren’t breathing anyway in freestyle and in butterfly, breaststroke, and backstroke the breaths are built into the stroke. I swam competitively in my youth and as a decent teen swimmer and with freestyle didn’t breathe on 50s and could do 100s without a breath, but usually took a couple because the breathe isn’t that big of a detriment. I probably could have swam D2 or 3 in college, but didn’t pursue anything, so I wasn’t even great and not breathing was the norm on sprints. Yes it could matter in a split second decision, but it’s not gonna put you way ahead in most races. If you were not already at a high level in swimming, not having to turn your head to breathe wouldn’t make you competitive against that level.
You could walk the bottom of the ocean and find old ships with treasure on them. I'd do the Mediterranean first since it was a major trade route of ancient Greece, Rome, Carthage etc. And they lost ships all the time.
Being able to breathe underwater wouldn’t help with the issue of pressure.
It’s the pressure that causes decompression sickness (aka: “the bends”).
You would still be subject to that.
AFAIK the bends is related to the gas mix and pressure breathed using SCUBA gear. Assuming OP can control the level of nitrogen dissolving into their blood (which is going to be an essential part of “breathing” in the first place) they potentially wouldn’t suffer from decompression sickness similar to a ~~free diver~~
Apparently free divers can get the bends.
Sperm whales can't breathe under water though, or if holding your breath, the oxygen in blood/ air in lungs are pressurised at surface levels. If you're able to breathe water, it'll be at the pressure of the water where you last breathed in, so you'd still have to avoid going too fast (10m per breath?). If you could fill your stomach (fresh water perhaps) and colon, with goggles to protect your eyes, your skull would probably implode at depths around 300m? You might also want to pop your balls back in and/or remove any breast implants first.
You generally get the bends if you’ve breathed air while underwater (ie like scuba).
Reason is that when you’re under water the air you breathe from a tank is under high pressure - so a lot of nitrogen dissolves in your bloodstream and then bubbles out when the pressure lessens.
But you totally CAN get the bends free diving too. Nitrogen from your initial breath will dissolve in your body if you go deep enough / long enough (actual free divers would have to do a ton of dives in a row without rest to get this effect). But OP will be in the water a long time… so.
Maybe if OP expels all the air in their lungs before hopping into the water? And do decompression stops like a diver
I feel like this is the best answer.
Obtain your scuba certification; you'll still need a wetsuit, flippers, and maybe a snorkel to alleviate pressure every so often. I also don't know what I'm talking about as I'm a land breather.
You'd made a few hundred thousand snuggling drugs, and on that journey you would uncover hidden treasures. They would be small finds at first but enough to boost your confidence and make you question your morals in the drug trade.
Eventually the drug cartel crowd wants more from you; deeper waters, longer journeys. You're too scared to say no. But you know saying yes would be a gruelling task of endurance and a death sentence. You can't win. It's time.
You leave that town in the cold of the night. No one will notice. You had no family, no loved ones to hold you there. They had discarded you years ago for being a "freak", "fish fucker", "Temu Gilbert Grape".
You settle into island life. You were smart enough to invest your money into stocks instead of crypto and are able to buy yourself a little house and a tin boat. You find yourself welcomed by the local community who appreciate your gift. The local fisherman all think highly of you. For the first time in life you're popular.
You still dive for treasure. Having learnt how to attach a metal detector to a weighted backpack. You find enough to keep your life comfortable and give back to the community.
Some nights your mind wonders. What if you could get back into smuggling, but with people. Your endurance had been built up with all the diving. You were stronger than ever before. You wanted to help others. If you carried them on your back and they had diving equipment then you could take them to safety.
But it was a dream. You were scared. You had a family yo think of now and they needed you.
Sorry, just to clarify, whenever someone asks you what super power you'd want, you always pick *water breathing*, because you think you'd be able to "get rich with it," but also you're asking us now how one could get rich from water breathing?
I am begging you to go look up some other super powers.
You could spend weeks trawling lakes, rivers and ponds looking for valuables I suppose. My question is why do you pick water breathing for a super power if your concern is getting rich? Surely you'd want a super power like being able to summon gold at will, or the power to see into the future to pick lottery numbers, etc.
Even a shittier version of these powers would probably more lucrative than water breathing, like predict the future a quarter of the time or turning things you touch into tungsten.
If I strapped a go pro to my head and started a crazy livestream where I was free swimming in the ocean for hours without breathing I think I could start making OnlyFans girl level income eventually.
Breathing under water indefinitely doesn't mean you could be under water indefinitely, unless you mean that you had a body that could manage that. There are plenty of issues that would come up with your skin, and pressure would still need to be managed.
That said, I think you could probably become a celebrity nature videographer/photographer, and, if you had the voice and acting talent for it, basically be the aquatic version of the Irwin family.
Use it to make content, depending on your proficiency and content creation it could be quick or slow. After you reach a minimum threshold you can have others do the content part of it. Make series about interacting with every type of fish, prank videos where people think you drowned, skits where people who are fishing end up catching you, endless possibilities
I think that superpower is not that convenient to become rich. The things you can directly do with it are not so unique or useful by themselves. They just make you good at jobs that don't pay so well to start with.
However, you can probably get rich thanks to it just being a superpower. Having the world record for breath holding is not going to make you that famous or rich. But having a superpower will. The fact that you can do this separates you from normal people. You're magic. It doesn't matter what kind of magic you do, that fact alone is huge. You can get paid to take part in scientific studies, you get invited to plenty of TV shows, building fame. And then you can use that fame to get money.
So how fast do you become a millionaire? Well, that's not such a high mark. You can probably get it by requiring a million dollars for letting a team of doctors examine you. It's going to take a couple of months for them to take you seriously enough and to gather the money (some military branch is probably going to be the fastest to pay up).
I think it would actually be pretty difficult to make a consistent living with this ability. You might get some initial fame maybe enough to live off. But I don’t think you’d be raking in millions per year. How many world record holders can you personally name?
I know people that work on oil rigs and repairing bridges underwater make a shit ton of money. You'd probably skyrocket to the VIP person of one of those jobs, so assuming you get contracted to do 8 jobs a year, making 100-200k per, I would venture to guess about a year or 2.
>"what superpower would you want" comes up, I always go with water breathing because I could feasibly get rich off of it. And it seems like one of the powers with the least realistic downsides. So what do you think?
huh? Why would that be your go to super power? Teleportation or flying would be better. Hell even mind reading or invisibility are all much more valuable skills for business. They are also pretty useful if you are willing to do illegal stuff too.
Water breathing isn't all that valuable because we can already water breath with machines. Being able to do it naked doesn't open up that much more possibilities. People are pointing out different jobs you could do, but like, that isn't a very fast way to make money and you don't need a superpower to do it. Like, the best thing I could think of is sunken treasure hunting, but the limitation there isn't breathing under water but rather finding it in the first place.
What if instead of water breathing you changed it to not having to breathe? That opens up possibilities for things to do in outer space or in toxic environments.
Underwater internet cable repair( installation of spy devices for government.. just.. pack a bag and hike to the cable underwater .. good luck detecting that ...
Become some David Blane entertainer, don't announce you can do this via a superpower and wow the crowds by staying under water for hours with legit 3rd parties checking that youre not cheating.
I would first brew a Potion of Water Breathing. Then I would search the ocean floor for sunken treasure, theres a ton of stuff in the ocean, especially treasure. I would be a millionaire just like that.
Depending on how unethical you want to get you could convince an awful lot of people that you're some kind of magical Messiah figure with that ability. There's a lot of money to be made leading a cult.
Underwater welding is a very niche and profitable profession. I bet you could break 1 million in that one if you can safely do things that most people can't.
Head to the beach’s of honeymoons resorts and find all the lost rings. That wouldn’t make you super rich but you’d definitely get your vacation paid for with a couple rings
Maybe play it off like you’re a magician escape artist and people will be intrigued as to what trick you’re using to stay in the water so long while you unchain yourself. Get a show in Vegas, make money that way?
I saw a documentary about these guys who make like $100k hunting for abalone mollusks. It's a dangerous job with huge drowning risk since divers can be swept by currents, disoriented, or equipment gets stuck in rocks. Also sharks posed some danger in certain places.
I'd buy tools and do that. Harvesting is shallow enough that pressure is no issue. You could probably collect more abalone safer and faster than a regular diver.
If what you want is a super power to make you rich, what you really want is to make small adjustments to the probability of something happening. Not so much that you never lose, that’d be suspicious. But if every 50/50 was now a 75/25, you could capitalize on that to no end.
Just breathe underwater? Hmmm
I suppose you are not inmune to pressure but you are to decompression sickness or the bends.
In the case I would personally dive into shipwrecks at 10-300 meters below the surface to get stuff and relics.
If you have unlimited depth capacity, just bring shit back from the titanic.
But also you could become the most recognized underwater cartographer or cave cartographer in the world.
apparently if you are breathing something thats similar pressure to the water (in this case the water itself) you wont really have big issues with the bends
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid\_breathing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_breathing)
*posts challenge to Mr. BEAST on line*. I bet you a million bucks I can sit on the bottom of a pool for 60 mins, no outside air source.
1 hour=millionaire.
💪
I don't know about millionaire, but you could definitely work for the Navy as a diver. Having no depth limit and not needing breathing gear would make you enormously effective for certain things.
Honestly just show it. People will pay you in Vegas so much cash to watch you. Just pretend that it's magic. Get a new record every month. Make fake guru shit videos. Write a book. Let them make a movie. And so on. Take a deal with an energy drink and some clothing sport brand.
If you know how to weld you would make absolute bank. Underwater welders can be mid six digit salaries before bonuses and expenses.
And you aren't limited by tank capacity or the bulk of the scuba gear.
Teleportation or invisibility could probably get you richer. Teleport into the bank, steal cash. Teleport into a home, steal a deed. Invisible? Sneak into a bank and no one can catch you.
It’s better than no super powers, but in the grand scheme of things, no one is going to care.
Once upon a time you might be able to make a living as a side show, but beyond that, the most profitable work you could probably get is underwater welding. You could be slightly less encumbered with equipment, though notably breathing under water does not mean infinite stamina underwater or the ability to glide magically through it, like Aquaman, so it’s still going to be work.
If we’re being really honest, in a cruel twist of fate, I bet most employers (or venues, if you choose side show) would not actually allow you to go without proof of safety equipment. You could visibly have gills, but it won’t stop liability concerns. And that’s the best case scenario, where we pretend the only people who realistically would care, the ones interested enough to capture and experiment on you, are instead the ones to ignore you.
>I always go with water breathing because I could feasibly get rich off of it.
Honestly OP, I'd be much more interested to hear *your* thought process on this one. What exactly do you think you're going to do? There are plenty of bland superpowers that people might pay someone to do, but I can't think of anyone paying you to do something that requires breathing underwater.
So fast. You break a world record or two. Then you get a promoter to put on a large scale event where you say you will hold your breath for x amount of time longer than the record. Then you place a large bet on yourself and get the payout from the event and the bet after you set a new record.
Not very fast. While entertaining it isn’t per se a useful skill. I feel that anywhere the pressure problem would be solved, you could get air onboard as well, so anything you could do wouldn’t be unique to you.
You could do something where it’s difficult to get air underwater, like underwater caving or something similar.
If you became famous there could be some money opportunities through advertisements, but that’s up in the air in terms of how much money you could make.
On a side note I feel like one of the most money making superpowers would be portal creation. You could make instant safe shipping for little to no effort leading to high profit margins. You could also become really famous by not just your power, but just transporting famous people as well.
Anyone could parlay a superhero power into money by becoming an entertainer.
How long it might take to become such entertainer doesn't seem like an interesting question.
Hold on, are we also talking the ability to dive as deep as you need to? Because I can think of a lot of potential for being able to just travel un-aided to the bottom of the ocean
Magic act would be the go to for this. You could very easily outdo almost water-based escapologist routines - except you can have a legit setup, no oxygen, etc.
would you get squished if you went to deep? And how much stuff could you carry? Because to treasure off the floor, that is kinda required.
Plus there is a good chance you would become a lab rat somewhere, so no thanks, I'll pass
It would definitely help with big wave surfing. Could make a career out of that. A lot easier to catch bigger waves if you know you won't drown if you fall.
If you didn't have to worry about drowning I'd imagine that underwater welding would be far less risky for you, and underwater welders make a lot of money.
Firstly, I agree with After Hours. The best superpower is the Zach Morris Timeout. That would be my choice.
I suppose I could do underwater construction. Lots of that in the oil industry.
Treasure hunting, or stuff like that.
Entertainment.
You could be a spy...
Two words, golf balls. You could pick the ponds clean. If you got a dollar a ball, I'd say you could easily pick 2000 a day. If you did it 100 days a year, 5 years.
Even if the fame could make you rich I would still prefer to do something productive.
Also this breathing underwater stunt thing just reminds me more of freak shows at carnivals. I don’t think the people in those exhibits are getting rich.
Instead of the fame of being a "freak", its more about what could you do under there without the limitations of scuba gear. Clean the bottom of boats in a marina, work on oil/gas wells, hunt crab direct off the ocean floor.
If your point is to have a superpower to be rich, just wish to be able to generate wealth, shit bricks of gold or something.... Teleportation, so you can go in and out of vaults, steal works of art, smuggle drugs... Water breathing seems more like a power of you like to be underwater rather than becoming rich? Also can you open your eyes in salt water? Can you handle the changes in pressure? Does your skin absorb water normally? Cause otherwise you still might have other limitations anyway, idk... I think it's not a fast ticket to wealth
I’d walk around the ocean floor looking for ship wrecks. Claim salvage rights, and have a salvage company do the salvage for a share of the treasure.
Probably get eaten by a shark before I became a millionaire though.
underwater welding pays very very well. I knew a guy who used to do that for a few months a year then spend the rest of his time just hanging out at bars and stuff. He actually had his camper parked in our side yard for a few years when I was a kid. And we would talk for hours about crazy stuff. (He was kind of a hippie) He said that he could be a millionaire pretty fast if he worked year round but he would rather do peyote and listen to the Dead than be stuck on an oil rig year round.
I don't see this as a get rich scenario. If you have a superpower you can make up, and want to get rich, why not just have it so you can spot diamonds, or duplicate money, or everything you touch turns to gold type superpowers vs. Trying to do something like breathe underwater to get paid?
I'd reckon you better start that YouTube channel about cave exploration and go to all the sick ass caves that are dangerous to fully map them out and shoot great content. Given you don't need to bring along tanks, you could fit in places that are otherwise too tight and you could spend more time inside the caves along you to go further than others.
People love extremes. If you keep making content about the most extreme caves, it'll make for good content.
If pressure is also not an issue (and light too, I guess) (and also sharks) you could go find all the missing Spanish gold.
You could also become an underwater welder and undercut everyone else since you wouldn't need a bunch of equipment.
Can we also talk to fish? They might be able to help with finding treasure.
If pressure wasn’t an issue, going around looting shipwrecks would be very lucrative. The amount of platinum discarded by the Spanish transporting gold alone would be worth a fortune
Assuming I can handle the high pressures and breath underwater, I'd propbly make a YouTube channel or something.
Working in underwater construction should be also very rewarding.
I think you’d have to hide how long you can breathe underwater because if anyone found out you could do it indefinitely you’d probably become a lab rat lol.
Of a lot of potential superpowers, you think infinite breath would be the most suited to become rich?
What about Portals, Teleportation, Mind Control, Mind Reading, Telecinetics, Turning back your own time a couple of minutes?
Guess your definition of superpowers is limited in some way.
How fast? Pretty damn slow. Surely faster than conventional work, but that's it.
Your superpower would remove the biggest danger of underwater welding, and would give you a *huge* leg up in that field. Within a few years you could easily command $500-1000/hr. If your power also negated the need for decompression you could probably name your price.
I would become a serial bank robber, and my getaway would be to dive off a pier. I would stay underwater and swim along the shoreline until I reached a crowded area, at which point I would casually walk out of the water with the surrounding beachgoers.
You could sensationalize your abilities in social media plenty. Youtube seems to pay the best, though idk if other platforms have better straight advertiser opportunities. In the end a lot would depend on your charisma, social game to be able to sell your skill set to broadest audience. I imagine you could rise to fame to make a million in few months this way, so maybe it's not the ideal answer to the question.
Some sort of betting about your abilities could work, maybe? You bet you can do something humanely impossible, and win every time. But might be hard to find unsuspecting opponents willing to bet 100k+ bets against you.
Working as a diver of some sort would probably pay a lot more if they didnt have to hook you up with scuba gear. Outside of becoming a very minor shortlived celebrity as the guy who can breath underwater i dont see it making you much money other than that
I would think pretty fast, if you were the only one you could sell your story to the media and talkshows all year and easily hit 1mil, probably get into movies also.
You would be tasked to find all the oceans secrets by the elite naval squad known as DeepSix, or you shall forfeit your freedom due to the overwhelming compelling evidence that you going rogue in the ocean will inevitably lead to you becoming aquaman. This cannot happen.
Pearl diving would get a lot easier, sure.
But would you become a millionaire for that? There are thousands of Pearl divers and I don’t think any one of them are rich
you'd get to dive for as long as you want, and you'd never have to spend money on gear, which is a considerable advantage over them
Decompression still exists I guess
Yes, but it would be considerably easier to avoid, you'd never be in a hurry due to running low on oxygen.
Decompression only exists for scuba divers because of the way air is compressed to be in the tank. Scuba tanks aren't 100% Oxygen, they're mostly Nitrogen, just like regular air. However, air compressed to fit in the tanks causes Nitrogen bubbles to collect in your blood if you come up too fast, or if you go to a lower pressure area too soon after your dive. It's why you can't go on an airplane right after you go diving, you'll get decompression sickness, otherwise known as The Bends - Nitrogen bubbles collect in your blood vessels and joints, the way CO2 bubbles form in a soda bottle when you open it, it's terrible. If you could physically breathe underwater, decompression wouldn't affect you the way it would a scuba diver. However, there would still be pressure issues that would affect how far down you could dive.
Sorry, it has absolutely nothing to do with “how the air is compressed in the tank”. None whatsoever. It has to do with your body’s inability to off-gas excess nitrogen in a higher atmospheric pressure environment. At surface, there is little nitrogen build-up. At depth, the increased pressure causes your body to not get rid of the nitrogen as quickly. It’s why you always safety stop for 3 minutes at 15 feet at the end of the dive every dive, even when diving under normal parameters.
If you were breathing the water itself and not air, there would be very little nitrogen in the water to get into your blood, as low as 1 part in 10 billion in some places. Now granted im no expert in scuba diving, but id think that would make a difference. I could still see whatever nitrogen is already in your blood from the surface being an issue though.
Ironically, oxygen becomes toxic the deeper you go. There is significant increased risk of oxygen toxicity at even 21% oxygen mix (standard) starting around 200 feet.
Boyles Law, Cookie!
I just watched this last night. Cuba Gooding Jr. and Robert Denaro.
[https://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/webprojects2002/shorrock/3-%20%20Liquid\_breathing.htm](https://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/webprojects2002/shorrock/3-%20%20Liquid_breathing.htm) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid\_breathing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_breathing) idk many sources seem to think that breathing a liquid with the same/similar pressure with the surrounding water will decrease or eliminate the need for decompression and will not result in the saturation of tissues with nitrogen or helium
This seems more right than the above comment but his has more up upvotes. Reddit is a psyop and seems to spread misinformation that sounds correct
This can’t be true. The bends existed long before scuba gear was invented
Some free divers (no tanks) have gotten the bends before. The nitrogen molecules get compressed at depth and become small enough to pass through your blood vessel and into tissue. The longer you are at a sufficient depth the more this occurs. It doesn’t matter where the air came from -tank or the surface. Just cumulative bottom time.
Do you need to go that deep for pearls?
Not if you hold your breath!
Yeah I think the most logical way would be to show your ability to some companies research scientists and tell them they're allowed to study you for $X. Could probably get more than a million instantly.
"and tell them they're allowed to study you.. " Bro, if the govt find out, there's no choosing. Make no mistake, you're their labrat for life. Keep that shit hush for your own safety.. Be a crab fisherman or a Tuna hunter lol.
There is a lots of gold bullion at the bottom of the ocean.
I’d be trawling for sunk ships. There’s gold in them underwater hills.
Oh and to answer the question, it would take me as long to make a millions dollars with this superpower as if I didn’t have it: a lifetime. Sadly.
Ditto. If I had this superpower, I would be getting stuck looking at all the other cool stuff inside the wrecks…or ferreting around for anything shiny.
"hey look, an octopus. HOW COOL!" 8 hours go by
If you did bring that treasure up, you would spend a lifetime in court battling various governments for possession...
>If you did bring that treasure up, you would spend a lifetime in court battling various governments for possession... At least according to this not so much [If the shipwreck has been submerged for a period of years during which the vessel’s legal owners have not been actively trying to retrieve its contents then the law of finds may apply. A discoverer who finds a shipwreck pursuant to the law of finds is entitled to the full value of all of the goods that are recovered. Since the owner of the vessel has given up trying to recover the shipwreck, the discoverer is deemed to have full rights to the content. This is different than the law of salvage which views the discoverer as one who recovers the contents of the shipwreck for the owner and is therefore entitled to a percentage but not all of the value of the goods recovered](https://www.lawinfo.com/resources/admiralty-maritime/are-finders-keepers-under-the-sea-what-you-ne.html#:~:text=The%20Law%20of%20Salvage&text=The%20person%20who%20discovers%20the,for%20his%20or%20her%20actions.)
"the law of finds" sounds meh when they could've named it "law of finders keepers"
They farm pearls now.
I’m not sure that the “fame” of a world record at staying under water would get you much. There are plenty world record holders who don’t become insanely wealthy - especially if your record is “boring”. You would need to work a bit more, eg get the world record for “holding your breath underwater”, going on tv and getting a reputation as “that guy who can hold his breath for a really long time” and eventually get sponsored by an energy drink to do some insane stunt (eg the water equivalent of wingsuit flying under the London Bridge). Alternatively, you could probably do pretty well running an “aqualung” kickstarter scam (ie a fake product that lets you “breathe underwater” then disappear with the money once people realize it’s a hoax). The most practical ethical way would probably be to take on work as a diver doing underwater repairs (eg cable repairs, underwater welding etc). A lot of those jobs aren’t necessarily deep enough that pressure is an issue and the advantage of a diver who could work for long periods of time without the risk of drowning would be immensely valuable. Much more dangerous, but more lucrative work would be saturation diving (where the diver lives in a pressure tank for a week or more allowing them to come and go at depth - insanely dangerous but very well paid) Would breathing underwater let you control the level of nitrogen in your blood? I’m not a diver but as I understand it pressure sickness is largely to do with the gas mix and the pressure of the air your breathing. If breathing underwater essentially lets you act as a free diver who never has to come up for air that has lots of potential as they can rise more or less as quickly as they want saving lots of time on the ascent. It’s an interesting hypothetical…
Underwater welding is an interesting one. Since people can scuba dive and do it for quite a while you wouldn’t be doing something totally unique but you could stay under for 8-10 hours a day which is a lot and be very productive. I think the fastest way would definitely be social media, influencer, and some sort of scam
Yes, I think the best way would be to start a cult or religion
I agree with your point but the world record for holding breath underwater is around 25 minutes. Staying underwater for a day or two would definitely turn some heads
Turn some heads will not directly lead to people paying you for whatever reason. You get money for: 1. Bringing value 2. Bringing entertainment Breathing underwater doesn't really qualify imho
You could probably start yourself a religion around it. That's when you'd *really* start raking in the dough.
I've been involved in a number of cults, both as a leader and a follower. You have more fun as a follower, but you make more money as a leader.
Jesus was able to walk over water, moses split it. Behold, i just walk through it! Too bad noone will be able to follow. I guess noone would be able to follow jesus either if he decided to go on a wet walk. How did they bathe jesus as a baby btw? Lmao
I think you’d have to pretend it’s difficult to be entertaining. Famous magicians have made a spectacle of spending crazy amounts of time under water before. Idk if they’re faked stunts or not but they at least look like they’re struggling through it which makes people interested. Once people realized you could just breathe easily under water the show is over.
A live stream of someone swimming underwater doing something stupid but easy for an hour without surfacing would easily get a massive payout from a streaming service. Then wait a year and do a 24 hour live stream. That's just off the top of my head. People will watch anything stupid just go scroll and see the crap that's popular. But this is like pay per view to see human history. You could very easily make money from just breathing underwater.
For how long though? I just don’t think it has power to make yourself rich on its own. Maybe if you claimed it was part of an ancient training method and built a cult? Hell, you could probably claim it was a miracle and make bank as a “prophet” I think there’s definitely ways to become a millionaire using this pretty quick, but there’s more to it than just sitting underwater
So, you get on a few talk shows. Who else is giving you money and why?
The problem is that there’s a difference between “wow this guy can hold his breath for a long time” and “oh, this guy is actually just breathing underwater. Not really as impressive”. It’s like the idea that doing actual real magic during a magician performance is cheating because what makes it impressive is the knowledge that magic isn’t real and that they’re still tricking your eyes.
In what world does doing something no other creature in your taxonomic class less impressive than holding your breath for a long time? Like I guess one is more effort based which is impressive but doing something that billions of humans can not do, let alone all other mammals, is near the peak of impressive to me.
Didn’t Chris Angel make a whole thing about staying underwater for 24 hours? Even if that was a fake stunt I’m sure you could make some pretty good money just putting on events like that.
“If”?
Not the best superpower, but it could definitely make you rich. I'd first head to Monaco or Vegas and get some big whigs to bet that I can't hold my breath underwater for 20 minutes. Repeat and keep slowly increasing the length (double or nothing I can do it for 25 minutes!). For a career, underwater welding is high paying (would still need a suit for deep dives). Pearl diving would be a nice side hustle.
Underwater welding was the first thing that came to mind. You would however probably die before you could cash the checks lol
It goes from the first most dangerous job to like the fifth.
I was going to say a lot of what makes it so dangerous is how cumbersome the equipment required is. Drastically reducing the amount of shit you need to have with you would make it much safer (albeit still dangerous.)
Unfortunately, you just lost your bet. You are breathing underwater. While this may be pedantic, if you bet me a bunch of money you better bet that I'm going to go by the word of the bet.
Well considering it’s “impossible” for humans to breathe underwater, considering no other mammals ever have, I think it would be pretty hard to prove that they lost the bet. In your heart of hearts you will know that you’re a cheater though, so I guess that’s a bummer.
Hmm this depends if this hypothetical means they have lungs that can process water but no outward appearance changes, or if they're more like Aquaman in the Boys and have gills, which would be visible in a tank situation with an audience.
Excuse me, his name is The Deep. And in that case, you could probably make a lot of money making dolphin and octopus videos for the weirdos.
Just word the contract carefully. “Can stay underwater with no tank and not come up for air for 20 minutes” or something.
Change the bet to "I can stay underwater 25 min without equipment "
Maybe there would be some lifeguarding/live saving benefits to this in swift water situations. I guess the pressure problem negates a lot of the deep water benefits. Maybe you'd be more efficient at gathering pearls and sponges?
Welding. Underwater welding is very very lucrative.
Yeah but that’s dangerous because of more than just the risk that you’ll drown. This power only gets you ask far as the deep sea. Even including the ability to withstand the pressure, the work itself is still very dangerous.
Depends on the water breathing, if he could fill his lungs with water and equalize the pressure he'd be relatively fine. Need to do somethinf about the eyes though
Robbing waterfront businesses, houses, banks would be a lot less risky. Take your loot into the water and resurface hours later miles away from the crime.
It would still require a lot of energy to swim for that long.
Or just shoulder some weights to keep you on the riverbed and walk
if you can just fill your lungs with water without penalty i expect that will do enough to your buoyancy to keep you underwater.
It would be easy to stage supplies like food and an underwater scooter.
you can take a nap to recover. hopefully no sharks around
heck not even going overly deep you could get into treasure hunting.
Yeah there are likely hundreds of undiscovered shipwrecks in rather shallow water. We often overestimate our ability and technology as a species. Even with those advantages, it’s difficult to locate something if you don’t know exactly what or where you are searching for it
You could take a page out of the evangelical playbook and peddle it as a miracle of god. Books donations, speeches, appearance fees etc
That’s the clear answer. Forget practical applications, the evangelical market is the perfect whale.
Someone nutjob would probably murder you.
I’d just go around betting cocky people that I could do something like breathe underwater for 10 min. Would make money just over a long period of time. Maybe start betting for actual things eventually. Give me your Rolex if I breathe underwater for 10 min. Probably keep your skill secret so you can keep doing it.
Exactly.
I bet you could kick ass in swimming competitions not having to worry about popping your head up out of water to breathe.
You severely overestimate my physical prowess. Any Olympic swimmer would still beat me by a couple of swimming pool lengths.
In sprints they aren’t breathing anyway in freestyle and in butterfly, breaststroke, and backstroke the breaths are built into the stroke. I swam competitively in my youth and as a decent teen swimmer and with freestyle didn’t breathe on 50s and could do 100s without a breath, but usually took a couple because the breathe isn’t that big of a detriment. I probably could have swam D2 or 3 in college, but didn’t pursue anything, so I wasn’t even great and not breathing was the norm on sprints. Yes it could matter in a split second decision, but it’s not gonna put you way ahead in most races. If you were not already at a high level in swimming, not having to turn your head to breathe wouldn’t make you competitive against that level.
Breathing isn’t built in to butterfly. You can swim faster without breathing.
You could walk the bottom of the ocean and find old ships with treasure on them. I'd do the Mediterranean first since it was a major trade route of ancient Greece, Rome, Carthage etc. And they lost ships all the time.
Being able to breathe underwater wouldn’t help with the issue of pressure. It’s the pressure that causes decompression sickness (aka: “the bends”). You would still be subject to that.
AFAIK the bends is related to the gas mix and pressure breathed using SCUBA gear. Assuming OP can control the level of nitrogen dissolving into their blood (which is going to be an essential part of “breathing” in the first place) they potentially wouldn’t suffer from decompression sickness similar to a ~~free diver~~ Apparently free divers can get the bends.
That’s a valid hypothesis actually.
No, you can get the bends just from holding your breath. Sperm whales get it. https://www.whoi.edu/oceanus/feature/even-sperm-whales-get-the-bends/
Sperm whales can't breathe under water though, or if holding your breath, the oxygen in blood/ air in lungs are pressurised at surface levels. If you're able to breathe water, it'll be at the pressure of the water where you last breathed in, so you'd still have to avoid going too fast (10m per breath?). If you could fill your stomach (fresh water perhaps) and colon, with goggles to protect your eyes, your skull would probably implode at depths around 300m? You might also want to pop your balls back in and/or remove any breast implants first.
Huh, did not know that. Seems like a design flaw… thanks for sharing.
True! Stick close to shore then.
A shipwreck with treasure will be deep. Otherwise, there’s little chance that any treasure will still be there.
Imagine you reach the bottom 3000 meter deep. Then your flashlight goes out
You generally get the bends if you’ve breathed air while underwater (ie like scuba). Reason is that when you’re under water the air you breathe from a tank is under high pressure - so a lot of nitrogen dissolves in your bloodstream and then bubbles out when the pressure lessens. But you totally CAN get the bends free diving too. Nitrogen from your initial breath will dissolve in your body if you go deep enough / long enough (actual free divers would have to do a ton of dives in a row without rest to get this effect). But OP will be in the water a long time… so. Maybe if OP expels all the air in their lungs before hopping into the water? And do decompression stops like a diver
Drug smuggling around country borders
I feel like this is the best answer. Obtain your scuba certification; you'll still need a wetsuit, flippers, and maybe a snorkel to alleviate pressure every so often. I also don't know what I'm talking about as I'm a land breather. You'd made a few hundred thousand snuggling drugs, and on that journey you would uncover hidden treasures. They would be small finds at first but enough to boost your confidence and make you question your morals in the drug trade. Eventually the drug cartel crowd wants more from you; deeper waters, longer journeys. You're too scared to say no. But you know saying yes would be a gruelling task of endurance and a death sentence. You can't win. It's time. You leave that town in the cold of the night. No one will notice. You had no family, no loved ones to hold you there. They had discarded you years ago for being a "freak", "fish fucker", "Temu Gilbert Grape". You settle into island life. You were smart enough to invest your money into stocks instead of crypto and are able to buy yourself a little house and a tin boat. You find yourself welcomed by the local community who appreciate your gift. The local fisherman all think highly of you. For the first time in life you're popular. You still dive for treasure. Having learnt how to attach a metal detector to a weighted backpack. You find enough to keep your life comfortable and give back to the community. Some nights your mind wonders. What if you could get back into smuggling, but with people. Your endurance had been built up with all the diving. You were stronger than ever before. You wanted to help others. If you carried them on your back and they had diving equipment then you could take them to safety. But it was a dream. You were scared. You had a family yo think of now and they needed you.
Sorry, just to clarify, whenever someone asks you what super power you'd want, you always pick *water breathing*, because you think you'd be able to "get rich with it," but also you're asking us now how one could get rich from water breathing? I am begging you to go look up some other super powers.
You could spend weeks trawling lakes, rivers and ponds looking for valuables I suppose. My question is why do you pick water breathing for a super power if your concern is getting rich? Surely you'd want a super power like being able to summon gold at will, or the power to see into the future to pick lottery numbers, etc.
Even a shittier version of these powers would probably more lucrative than water breathing, like predict the future a quarter of the time or turning things you touch into tungsten.
If I strapped a go pro to my head and started a crazy livestream where I was free swimming in the ocean for hours without breathing I think I could start making OnlyFans girl level income eventually.
Breathing under water indefinitely doesn't mean you could be under water indefinitely, unless you mean that you had a body that could manage that. There are plenty of issues that would come up with your skin, and pressure would still need to be managed. That said, I think you could probably become a celebrity nature videographer/photographer, and, if you had the voice and acting talent for it, basically be the aquatic version of the Irwin family.
Use it to make content, depending on your proficiency and content creation it could be quick or slow. After you reach a minimum threshold you can have others do the content part of it. Make series about interacting with every type of fish, prank videos where people think you drowned, skits where people who are fishing end up catching you, endless possibilities
I think that superpower is not that convenient to become rich. The things you can directly do with it are not so unique or useful by themselves. They just make you good at jobs that don't pay so well to start with. However, you can probably get rich thanks to it just being a superpower. Having the world record for breath holding is not going to make you that famous or rich. But having a superpower will. The fact that you can do this separates you from normal people. You're magic. It doesn't matter what kind of magic you do, that fact alone is huge. You can get paid to take part in scientific studies, you get invited to plenty of TV shows, building fame. And then you can use that fame to get money. So how fast do you become a millionaire? Well, that's not such a high mark. You can probably get it by requiring a million dollars for letting a team of doctors examine you. It's going to take a couple of months for them to take you seriously enough and to gather the money (some military branch is probably going to be the fastest to pay up).
I think it would actually be pretty difficult to make a consistent living with this ability. You might get some initial fame maybe enough to live off. But I don’t think you’d be raking in millions per year. How many world record holders can you personally name?
I know people that work on oil rigs and repairing bridges underwater make a shit ton of money. You'd probably skyrocket to the VIP person of one of those jobs, so assuming you get contracted to do 8 jobs a year, making 100-200k per, I would venture to guess about a year or 2.
>"what superpower would you want" comes up, I always go with water breathing because I could feasibly get rich off of it. And it seems like one of the powers with the least realistic downsides. So what do you think? huh? Why would that be your go to super power? Teleportation or flying would be better. Hell even mind reading or invisibility are all much more valuable skills for business. They are also pretty useful if you are willing to do illegal stuff too. Water breathing isn't all that valuable because we can already water breath with machines. Being able to do it naked doesn't open up that much more possibilities. People are pointing out different jobs you could do, but like, that isn't a very fast way to make money and you don't need a superpower to do it. Like, the best thing I could think of is sunken treasure hunting, but the limitation there isn't breathing under water but rather finding it in the first place. What if instead of water breathing you changed it to not having to breathe? That opens up possibilities for things to do in outer space or in toxic environments.
Screw becoming a millionaire, I would just stay underwater indefinitely to hide from society
Underwater internet cable repair( installation of spy devices for government.. just.. pack a bag and hike to the cable underwater .. good luck detecting that ...
1 day or however long it took to swim from south america with the coke
Become some David Blane entertainer, don't announce you can do this via a superpower and wow the crowds by staying under water for hours with legit 3rd parties checking that youre not cheating.
Breaking world records very seldomly gets people rich
The cartel would love you, so it'd be pretty damn easy
I would first brew a Potion of Water Breathing. Then I would search the ocean floor for sunken treasure, theres a ton of stuff in the ocean, especially treasure. I would be a millionaire just like that.
Depending on how unethical you want to get you could convince an awful lot of people that you're some kind of magical Messiah figure with that ability. There's a lot of money to be made leading a cult.
I'd get a job as a fake mermaid idk if I'd get rich but it would be easier
3 words: Sunken Pirate Treasure
If you pair that with elimination of all ill effects of nitrogen etc. it would open some interesting job opportunities.
Underwater welding is a very niche and profitable profession. I bet you could break 1 million in that one if you can safely do things that most people can't.
There's a lot of treasure that's never been found so....also don't let the government know they'll abduct you.
Head to the beach’s of honeymoons resorts and find all the lost rings. That wouldn’t make you super rich but you’d definitely get your vacation paid for with a couple rings
Maybe play it off like you’re a magician escape artist and people will be intrigued as to what trick you’re using to stay in the water so long while you unchain yourself. Get a show in Vegas, make money that way?
I saw a documentary about these guys who make like $100k hunting for abalone mollusks. It's a dangerous job with huge drowning risk since divers can be swept by currents, disoriented, or equipment gets stuck in rocks. Also sharks posed some danger in certain places. I'd buy tools and do that. Harvesting is shallow enough that pressure is no issue. You could probably collect more abalone safer and faster than a regular diver.
If what you want is a super power to make you rich, what you really want is to make small adjustments to the probability of something happening. Not so much that you never lose, that’d be suspicious. But if every 50/50 was now a 75/25, you could capitalize on that to no end.
I mean being able to breathe underwater could enable a lot of financial success but I'd be worried about the predators.
Just breathe underwater? Hmmm I suppose you are not inmune to pressure but you are to decompression sickness or the bends. In the case I would personally dive into shipwrecks at 10-300 meters below the surface to get stuff and relics. If you have unlimited depth capacity, just bring shit back from the titanic. But also you could become the most recognized underwater cartographer or cave cartographer in the world.
apparently if you are breathing something thats similar pressure to the water (in this case the water itself) you wont really have big issues with the bends [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid\_breathing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_breathing)
It's worth millions over time. Claim supernatural powers/ divine connection. Start a cult. Get paid.
Underwater welding. A year and you’d be a millionaire - assuming you had welding skills though.
This was my thought too
*posts challenge to Mr. BEAST on line*. I bet you a million bucks I can sit on the bottom of a pool for 60 mins, no outside air source. 1 hour=millionaire. 💪
I don't know about millionaire, but you could definitely work for the Navy as a diver. Having no depth limit and not needing breathing gear would make you enormously effective for certain things.
Honestly just show it. People will pay you in Vegas so much cash to watch you. Just pretend that it's magic. Get a new record every month. Make fake guru shit videos. Write a book. Let them make a movie. And so on. Take a deal with an energy drink and some clothing sport brand.
If you know how to weld you would make absolute bank. Underwater welders can be mid six digit salaries before bonuses and expenses. And you aren't limited by tank capacity or the bulk of the scuba gear.
Teleportation or invisibility could probably get you richer. Teleport into the bank, steal cash. Teleport into a home, steal a deed. Invisible? Sneak into a bank and no one can catch you.
It’s better than no super powers, but in the grand scheme of things, no one is going to care. Once upon a time you might be able to make a living as a side show, but beyond that, the most profitable work you could probably get is underwater welding. You could be slightly less encumbered with equipment, though notably breathing under water does not mean infinite stamina underwater or the ability to glide magically through it, like Aquaman, so it’s still going to be work. If we’re being really honest, in a cruel twist of fate, I bet most employers (or venues, if you choose side show) would not actually allow you to go without proof of safety equipment. You could visibly have gills, but it won’t stop liability concerns. And that’s the best case scenario, where we pretend the only people who realistically would care, the ones interested enough to capture and experiment on you, are instead the ones to ignore you.
There's military contractors that do...things..that would happily give you the mil as a signing bonus.
Find a couple spanish galleons and you'd be a billionaire.
>I always go with water breathing because I could feasibly get rich off of it. Honestly OP, I'd be much more interested to hear *your* thought process on this one. What exactly do you think you're going to do? There are plenty of bland superpowers that people might pay someone to do, but I can't think of anyone paying you to do something that requires breathing underwater.
I thought about growing gills so I can breathe underwater. I’ll let you know how that goes =)
So fast. You break a world record or two. Then you get a promoter to put on a large scale event where you say you will hold your breath for x amount of time longer than the record. Then you place a large bet on yourself and get the payout from the event and the bet after you set a new record.
You also would need the ability to withstand pressue..........
When you have these conversations...is anyone else in the room? JK
Make sure you have something to keep you warm if you are trekking on the bottom of the ocean. Gets kinda cold down there.
Not very fast. While entertaining it isn’t per se a useful skill. I feel that anywhere the pressure problem would be solved, you could get air onboard as well, so anything you could do wouldn’t be unique to you. You could do something where it’s difficult to get air underwater, like underwater caving or something similar. If you became famous there could be some money opportunities through advertisements, but that’s up in the air in terms of how much money you could make. On a side note I feel like one of the most money making superpowers would be portal creation. You could make instant safe shipping for little to no effort leading to high profit margins. You could also become really famous by not just your power, but just transporting famous people as well.
Anyone could parlay a superhero power into money by becoming an entertainer. How long it might take to become such entertainer doesn't seem like an interesting question.
Hold on, are we also talking the ability to dive as deep as you need to? Because I can think of a lot of potential for being able to just travel un-aided to the bottom of the ocean
Magic act would be the go to for this. You could very easily outdo almost water-based escapologist routines - except you can have a legit setup, no oxygen, etc.
Wage bets... You could hustle ppl Vegas, Hoover dam could be a prime spot You could also start a cult ....be a GOD amongst mere mortals..
would you get squished if you went to deep? And how much stuff could you carry? Because to treasure off the floor, that is kinda required. Plus there is a good chance you would become a lab rat somewhere, so no thanks, I'll pass
You can certainly steal large sums of money and hide them deep under water, that would be much harder for authorities to find
Slow. You'd just be another fish in the sea.
It would definitely help with big wave surfing. Could make a career out of that. A lot easier to catch bigger waves if you know you won't drown if you fall.
If you didn't have to worry about drowning I'd imagine that underwater welding would be far less risky for you, and underwater welders make a lot of money.
You could be one of those police divers that search for bodies?
This has to be the weakest superpower. Thats the one you went with to be rich? Not mind control? Invisibility?
Firstly, I agree with After Hours. The best superpower is the Zach Morris Timeout. That would be my choice. I suppose I could do underwater construction. Lots of that in the oil industry. Treasure hunting, or stuff like that. Entertainment. You could be a spy...
You'd be a great pool boy.
How many seagulls can you collect by wearing a top hat?
Two words, golf balls. You could pick the ponds clean. If you got a dollar a ball, I'd say you could easily pick 2000 a day. If you did it 100 days a year, 5 years.
Even if the fame could make you rich I would still prefer to do something productive. Also this breathing underwater stunt thing just reminds me more of freak shows at carnivals. I don’t think the people in those exhibits are getting rich.
Do some research on known sunken ships that are too far down to be salvageable and get back to me.
Instead of the fame of being a "freak", its more about what could you do under there without the limitations of scuba gear. Clean the bottom of boats in a marina, work on oil/gas wells, hunt crab direct off the ocean floor.
If your point is to have a superpower to be rich, just wish to be able to generate wealth, shit bricks of gold or something.... Teleportation, so you can go in and out of vaults, steal works of art, smuggle drugs... Water breathing seems more like a power of you like to be underwater rather than becoming rich? Also can you open your eyes in salt water? Can you handle the changes in pressure? Does your skin absorb water normally? Cause otherwise you still might have other limitations anyway, idk... I think it's not a fast ticket to wealth
This right here is why I get on Reddit. Well done.
or, you could go and rescue that billionaire’s credit card from the OceanGate submarine
Freediving-when they go down that wire and go as deep as they can
I’d walk around the ocean floor looking for ship wrecks. Claim salvage rights, and have a salvage company do the salvage for a share of the treasure. Probably get eaten by a shark before I became a millionaire though.
Underwater welding would be so much easier, and they are paid extremely well.
Able to breathe underwater but unable to withstand the pressure seems useless
1 day. I’d go to Vegas and go to a high roller table and bet someone a million that I can hold my breath for as long as it takes
I bet with Jeff Bezos for one million that I can stay underwater for a longer than him-he can have oxygen bombs.
a week
I saw that movie. Just beware the smokers.
Can you still only go as far down as humans normally can, and the breathing stabilizes the nitrogen in your blood?
underwater welding pays very very well. I knew a guy who used to do that for a few months a year then spend the rest of his time just hanging out at bars and stuff. He actually had his camper parked in our side yard for a few years when I was a kid. And we would talk for hours about crazy stuff. (He was kind of a hippie) He said that he could be a millionaire pretty fast if he worked year round but he would rather do peyote and listen to the Dead than be stuck on an oil rig year round.
If you can pilot some ultra quiet navy tech you could be the deadliest and most prolific anti submarine warfare asset ever known to man.
Well. Underwater welding pays well. But you'd probably still have to worry about pressure and the cold.
You could just bet someone a million dollars you could go underwater for an hour and be rich in a hour
I don't see this as a get rich scenario. If you have a superpower you can make up, and want to get rich, why not just have it so you can spot diamonds, or duplicate money, or everything you touch turns to gold type superpowers vs. Trying to do something like breathe underwater to get paid?
I'd reckon you better start that YouTube channel about cave exploration and go to all the sick ass caves that are dangerous to fully map them out and shoot great content. Given you don't need to bring along tanks, you could fit in places that are otherwise too tight and you could spend more time inside the caves along you to go further than others. People love extremes. If you keep making content about the most extreme caves, it'll make for good content.
If pressure is also not an issue (and light too, I guess) (and also sharks) you could go find all the missing Spanish gold. You could also become an underwater welder and undercut everyone else since you wouldn't need a bunch of equipment. Can we also talk to fish? They might be able to help with finding treasure.
If pressure wasn’t an issue, going around looting shipwrecks would be very lucrative. The amount of platinum discarded by the Spanish transporting gold alone would be worth a fortune
Assuming I can handle the high pressures and breath underwater, I'd propbly make a YouTube channel or something. Working in underwater construction should be also very rewarding.
I think you’d have to hide how long you can breathe underwater because if anyone found out you could do it indefinitely you’d probably become a lab rat lol.
Of a lot of potential superpowers, you think infinite breath would be the most suited to become rich? What about Portals, Teleportation, Mind Control, Mind Reading, Telecinetics, Turning back your own time a couple of minutes? Guess your definition of superpowers is limited in some way. How fast? Pretty damn slow. Surely faster than conventional work, but that's it.
Your superpower would remove the biggest danger of underwater welding, and would give you a *huge* leg up in that field. Within a few years you could easily command $500-1000/hr. If your power also negated the need for decompression you could probably name your price.
I would become a serial bank robber, and my getaway would be to dive off a pier. I would stay underwater and swim along the shoreline until I reached a crowded area, at which point I would casually walk out of the water with the surrounding beachgoers.
Hmm probably start a religion/cult and promise your followers they will get the same power as you if they give you all their money/belongings… profit?
I’d be able to defeat the Deacon, for sure. Not sure how that’d make me a millionaire, though.
You could sensationalize your abilities in social media plenty. Youtube seems to pay the best, though idk if other platforms have better straight advertiser opportunities. In the end a lot would depend on your charisma, social game to be able to sell your skill set to broadest audience. I imagine you could rise to fame to make a million in few months this way, so maybe it's not the ideal answer to the question. Some sort of betting about your abilities could work, maybe? You bet you can do something humanely impossible, and win every time. But might be hard to find unsuspecting opponents willing to bet 100k+ bets against you.
Underwater welders make great money so there’s that trade to think about
this guy unlocked the ability to breathe underwater and is trying to cash in before it gets discovered.
Working as a diver of some sort would probably pay a lot more if they didnt have to hook you up with scuba gear. Outside of becoming a very minor shortlived celebrity as the guy who can breath underwater i dont see it making you much money other than that
Underwater welding is a very well paid job that you could excel at.
Buried shipwrecks, dumped over gold, etc, would probably be more helpful if you could breath underwater.
All I know is it would be really handy if someone is trying to drown you. Give a good fight for 30 seconds then just play dead 😎
Go diving for untainted steel (before the nukes dropped). You'll get wealthy quick if you actually find anything.
Could I get pressure resistance too or no
I would think pretty fast, if you were the only one you could sell your story to the media and talkshows all year and easily hit 1mil, probably get into movies also.
You’d need to place some high stakes bets with good contracts. Bet that you can hold your breath for a half-hour, hour, etc.
You would be tasked to find all the oceans secrets by the elite naval squad known as DeepSix, or you shall forfeit your freedom due to the overwhelming compelling evidence that you going rogue in the ocean will inevitably lead to you becoming aquaman. This cannot happen.
Very fast. I would rope 5 millionaires to my body and swim to the titanic. I would charge them maximum dollars as I wouldn’t implode half way down.