The competition will be hosted at the 203 metre deep Dean’s Hole in the Bahamas, with 15 of the world’s best freedivers from nine nations. Between them they hold a total of 58 world or national records.

At the 2009 competition, 5 new world records were created and 30 national records broken. The current record holder, William Trubridge, 29, from New Zealand, who dived unassisted, constant weight, no fins, to a depth of 90 metres.

The others competing are Eric Fattah (Can), Carla-Sue Hanson (USA), Misuzu Hirai (Jpn), Robert King (USA), Dave Mullins (NZ), Guillaume Nery (Fra), Niki Roderick (NZ), Alfredo Romo (Mex), Jared Schmelzer (USA), Carolina Schrappe (Braz), Ryuzo Shinomiya (Jpn), Walter Steyn (AUS) and William Winram (Can).

The reigning world champion and record holder in the constant weight category is 40 year-old Herbet Nitsch. In 2009 he achieved 123 metres at Dean’s Blue Hole. Throughout his career he has achieved 28 world records.

When asked what free diving is like, Kerian Hibbs, 38, said “Try walking up stairs, five or six storeys with no breath. Just make sure someone is with you if you try it!” Hibbs is ranked seventh in the world in constant weight no-fin freediving.

Champion diver Mandy-Rae and husband Kirk used their free diving ability to secretly dive eight stories underwater, without apparatus, to capture footage and audio for the film The Cove. The film won an Oscar award for best documentary. It revealed Japan’s controversial dolphin slaughter and capture program. The Japanese fishing industry say the film is ‘one-sided’. The film has won wide acclaim in both Europe and Australia. The film as created wide spread controversy over its proposed filming in Japan.

Mandy-Rae can dive 88 metres with a single breath. The couple were featured on the Oprah show in 2008. Neither Mandy-Rae or Kirk will be diving at the competition in the Bahamas.

The annual competition at Cooper’s Hill Cheese-Rolling and Wake has been going on in the U.K. for around 2oo years. This year it drew around 6,000 spectators and featured 200 dare-devil competitors across five races, risking serious injury. The prize is the round of cheese the competitors were chasing.

Injuries such as concussion and broken bones are common. This year three of the competitors were hospitalized.

Across the seas Canada has just had its second cheese rolling contest at a Farmers Market at Whistler’s Resort, in British Columbia. New Zealand and Italy too, are getting in on the act, as well as a contest at Mount Washington alpine ski resort in northeastern United States.

Some believe the ancient competition dates back to Roman times and may have been part of a pagan ritual for health, or the changing of the seasons.

This year the much safer competition, the Celebrity Swiss Cheese Rolling classic, at Emmentaler Festivile, on Berne’s Waisenhausplatz, Switzerland, was won by world champion ski jumper, Andreas Kuettel, 30, who beat Miss Earth Graziella Rogers. The competitors rolled 100 kilo wheels of cheese round an obstacle course in Bern, demanding great dexterity and skill.

Kuettel said, “This run was a great deal of fun. Of course, since I am rather competitive by nature, my ego got the best of me when taking part in the Cheese Run”. Among other entrants at the start were former Miss Switzerland Anita Buri, football legend Stéphane Chapuisat, hit singer Marianne Cathomen, TV chef René Schudel, and Berne’s mayor Alexander Tschäppät.

This event commemorates the ancient practice of rolling full-size cheese wheels, up to one meter in diameter and 27 centimetres thick, around dairies by hand.

Professional cheese-makers can move the cheese wheels, at jogger-like speeds.

No doubt Kuettel found cheese rolling a much safer sport than winning the gold medal, in the individual large hill event at the Nortic World Ski Championships in Liberec, Czech Republic.

Less than four seconds later he was celebrating the world record for kayak free-falls.

Bradt reached speeds of 100 mph as he plummeted over Palouse Falls in eastern Washington.

He disappeared under the water at the base of the torrent, to emerge, six seconds later, still in his fibre glass kayak, with a broken paddle and a sprained wrist.

The previous record was set only weeks before, by Pedro Olivia, who plunged 127 feet over the Salto Bello falls in Brazil.

“There was a stillness, followed by an acceleration, speed and impact unlike anything I’ve ever felt before. I wasn’t sure if I was hurt or not. My body was just in shock,” said Bradt.

He had prepared for the world record by dropping over 80 foot waterfalls in Oregon. His previous best record was 107 feet down Alexandra Falls, in Canada’s Northwest Territories.

Bradt had visited Palouse Falls many times, in order to ascertain if it was humanly possible to survive the descent. “There’s a smooth green tongue of water that carries about a third of the way down the falls. That was my route.”

A resuce team waited for Bradt at the base of the falls.

Bradt said he wanted to attempt the plunge over the falls, not to set a world record, but to show what humans are capable of achieving.”I wanted to do it because I guess I can. It was a calculated risk, no doubt dangerous, but also one of the most amazing days of my life.”

As a final piece of advice Bradt said, “The only limits that exist are the ones you create, no matter what you are doing.”

A little over a decade ago, a 50 or 60 foot waterfall was thought to be the biggest drop a kayaker could survive.

Bradt is currently searching out waterfalls in Norway and Iceland. So far no one has died kayaking massive waterfalls, though deaths have and near-drownings have been recorded on smaller falls. The most common injury for extreme kayakers, is a broken nose.

Mini Helicopter

No longer will do you have to only dream about flying like James Bond. The day is fast approaching when you will be able to do it yourself, right from your own backyard.

Martin Aircraft, a New Zealand-based firm, has just released information about a strap-on mini helicopter, that travels at 62 mph for about 31 miles. There is also a smaller version that travels at only 6 mph in a controlled outdoor area, such as a football field. With very few instructions you too could be airborne.

Inventor Glenn Martin said, “To be able to fly solo in a fixed-wing aircraft can take 15 hours of flight training, but most people are able to learn to fly the jetpack in a few minutes.”

This new sport could begin to compete with bunjee jumping, or skydiving.  The only catch is you will have to travel to New Zealand for the experience. The company hopes to be able to expand to Australia and the United States in the near future. Orders started pouring in to the company, after the mini helicopter was shown at a trade show in Wisconsin.

Each Martin Jetpack costs around $150,000, the price of a high end sports car.

If the jetpack is not your speed, there is always the rocket belt, designed by Stuart Ross, a commercial pilot. It can shoot the wearer 1000 feet into the air at 60mph.

In preparation for his upcoming unattached test flights, Ross sought advice from the Civil Aviation Authority, who referred him to a psychiatrist from their medical department. The content of the visit was never revealed.

The rocket belt has cost Stuart around $200,000.

As an alternative for the more daring, you can climb into a light aircraft and cruise to a few thousand feet, strap on a jet-powered set of wings and open the door and fall out.

The wearer can then cruise at around 190 mph and is able to dive, soar and perform figure eights. You can even perform a spectacular roll. All this in the matter of just a few minutes.

Portable Jet Powered Wings

“It’s like being on a motorbike. But I have to focus on relaxing, because if I show any tension, I start to swing around,” says extreme sports enthusiast and former fighter pilot, Yves Rossy, who flies commercial planes for Swiss airlines.

It took five years of training before Rossy would display his wings in public.

Rossy is making plans to cross the English Channel later in the year, knowing this will test man and machine to the limit. He also has plans to fly the Grand Canyon on his jet powered wings.

The cost of the wings is too high to ever become a commercial proposition. To date Rossy and his sponsors have poured over close to $300,000 into the project.