Monday, December 10, 2007 @12:09 AM
Ever heard of apnea diving?
Well it's basically free diving, going down as deep as you can without relying on any underwater breathing apparatus.
Amazing ain't it? Wait til you know at what depth the current world record stands.
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a whooping 214 meters!
And guess again how long it took Herbert Nitsch, the record holder to complete the dive.
Well, in 4 minutes and 24 seconds!
How freaking insane is that? As scuba divers, we've been warned all the time on the dangers of diving like decompression sickness, nitrogen narcosis etc from descending or ascending too fast. Even the rule of thumb was to not exceed 9 meters per minute when descending, so this is just really crazy, relatively.
How his body manages to overcome the physiological limitations is beyond comprehension. I mean the pressure acting on his body must be really really strong besides him being able to hold his breath for that long. He even holds another world record for static apnea- where the diver simply lies with his face under water- which is 9 minutes and 4 seconds!
Free diving is actually a recognised form of extreme sport. Too extreme I'd say. But I think it's cool when they can just turn off the instinctive desire to breathe like turning off a switch. And apparently, this same guy is planning on another feat, diving up to a depth of 1000 feet, which is an equivalent of 305 meters!! Siao....
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