<p>The paper presents the results of experiments and direct numerical simulation of the dynamics of a rising air bubble in quiescent water and also in the presence of shear flow, simulating a drift current induced by wind over the sea surface. Direct numerical simulation was carried out using the open-access Basilisk software. A preliminary verification of a numerical scheme was carried out by calculations of a bubble’s rising in a quiescent liquid on the basis of comparison with the already available data. The obtained regimes of deformation of the bubble shape and trajectory coincide with the regimes previously described in the literature. The verification of the calculations of surfacing under the conditions of shear flow was carried out on the basis of comparison with the results of measurements in special experiments performed in the present investigation. To investigate the motion and shape of bubbles, they make use of the shadowgraph method with high-speed video recording, while the Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) method was used for measuring the velocity of induced shear flow. For correct comparison with measurement results, a complex initial bubble shape and a flow velocity profile, corresponding to experimental ones, were assigned. A comparison of rising trajectories obtained in the experiments and calculations has shown good agreement. It has been demonstrated that the presence of a shear flow results in an increase of the bubble rising time.</p>