World Free Diving Records About To Take A Dive
Posted on 14 April 2010 by LynThomas in sports
The world’s premier freediving invitational competition is all set to kick off in the Bahamas on April 17.
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.
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14 April 2010
[...] Read how the current world champion, at 40 years old, has reached depths of 123 metres… [...]
I was first tuned into Diners, Drive-ins and Dives on a trip to Portland for my birthday. I love greasy spoons so we made our way over to the Byways Cafe (yummy yummy). From then I was hooked, we’ve been on a couple trips so far like Utah and Chicago which was awesome! Plan on hitting up a few more soon.