Briton Dave King has extended, by a substantial margin, his
own national record in freediving's Constant Weight category.
Diving off Dahab in Egypt on 12 July, King reached 91m in what
is arguably the sport's most athletically demanding open-water
category.
The dive beat by 11m the British record King set at the 2008 world
championships in Sharm El Sheikh. It was his sixth national record.
The dive, organised by Freedive Dahab, was observed and ratified
by judges from AIDA (International Association for the Development
of Apnea).
His last deep dive had been to 70m in November last year, while
training with SaltFree at the National Diving and Activity Centre
in Chepstow. Since then, training had amounted to just a few more
days with SaltFree before going out to Egypt this month, where
he practiced for a week with Dahab-based instructor Brian Crossland,
of Blue Ocean Freedivers.
“I now aim to dive beyond 100m, which has been achieved
by only fourteen divers in the world,” said King after the
dive. He was confident at the prospect, having found the 91m dive “easy,
really quick and with air to spare at the bottom”.
King’s new national record tallies with world record
depths of seven to eight years ago. Venezuelan Carlos Coste
divedto 90m in March 2002, Czech Martin Stepanek to 93m in
May 2003. The Constant Weight world record now stands at 124m.
It was set b
y
Austrian Herbert Nitsch in April this year, at theSuunto Dive-off
competition in the Bahamas.
Reported in Divernet, click
here for the full article >
