For this paper, we created a virtual underwater experience to research the extent to which a user feels present in such an environment, when hand movements are redirected to mimic water resistance, and how this would affect the experience of being When an immersive virtual environment represents a space larger than the real world, it is necessary to consider a locomotion technique to travel through that space. The traditional solution is to make the user traverse the environment with controls that change their position in their environment indirectly, for example by using a joystick. In this paper we a present a natural locomotion technique for moving the user through an underwater environment with the motion of the users hands. The locomotion technique we introduce is a breaststroke swimming method for traveling through a virtual environment, in which the connection between the user’s actual movement in the real world and their apparent movement in the virtual environment is as optimal as possible. We describe the technical implementation of our locomotion method and the parameter we varied in the attempt to find an optimal value. We present the results of the experiment we conducted in an attempt to gain knowledge about the method. Based on the experiments we confirm that users feel a significant difference in how natural the locomotion technique felt. But more work is required to find the optimal swimming technique.. This effect was implemented using a movement opposing drag force and a gradually recovery force. The effect was tested using a questionnaire integrated into the virtual environment, to prevent breaks in the sense of presence. The experimental results were inconclusive due to large variation in data, but suggested possible improvement in presence.