Underwater World Records set in the summer of '07

Eating underwater and holding one’s breath for over 11 minutes were just two of the underwater records that divers claimed to have set this summer. While some records were made simply to gain a strange form of public recognition that comes from being listed in the Guinness Book of World Records, others actually set records to raise money for charity.

What follows are a half dozen or so of the underwater milestones achieved during the underwater Dog Days of 2007.

§     Underwater charity dinner party

The British press is reporting that close to 500 people put on tuxedos, formal gowns and dive gear and jumped into the Park Club swimming pool in West London to set a record for taking part in the largest sub-aqua dinner party. 40 PADI dive masters supervised the event and donned scuba gear to serve the dinner guest a three-course meal of salmon, crab and hazelnut praline packed in jelly.

Organizers are waiting for The Guinness Book of Records to confirm that a record had been achieved. Since the previous record for diner guests eating a three-course meal underwater was just 100 (set in 1991) there is no doubt that a record has been set.

“To eat, the diners had to remove their aqua lung mouth pieces,” reported the Manchester Evening News, “...fork in the food and then replace the breathing equipment while pressing a button to purge away the water. A number of fashion houses provided dinner jackets and ball gowns for all the guests at The Park Club in West London.”

Over $400,000 was raised for charity.

Organizers of the event have established a website at: www.underwaterdinner.co.uk

§  Ashrita Furman goes underwater to set pogo sticking and hula hoop world records

Serial record setter New Yorker Ashrita Furman accomplished two underwater world records in just one day. Furman is quite accustomed to setting weird records, he has set 164 Guinness Records, 68 of which still stand.

This summer he dove into the Nassau County Aquatic Center New York, and broke the world record for underwater pogo sticking. To celebrate, he returned to the pool later that same day and broke his own record for underwater hula hooping.

Ashrita Furman traveled 1,680 feet on his pogo stick at the bottom of the pool establishing a new milestone … err, footstone. The second record, continually hula hooping underwater, was set at 2 minute 38 seconds (18 seconds longer than his original record).

Why does he do it? Writing in his Blog, the record-setter wrote, “if it weren’t for Guinness, I also would never have discovered frog jumping, constructing stilts out of cans and string, or backwards bowling. And that would have been a shame because backwards bowling is one of the coolest, most fun sports ever invented!”

§  Illusionist sets world record for underwater breath holding

At the start of the summer, Associated Press reported that two Lithuanian illusionists had apparently set a breath holding record.

“Brother and sister Arvydas and Diana Gaiciunas were chained on the bottom of a swimming pool at Druskininkai water amusement park in southern Lithuania in front of hundreds of onlookers,” said the news agency. “Diana stayed under water for 11 minutes and 7 seconds. Arvydas held his breath for 15 minutes and 58 seconds.”

Because the pair are self-advertised illusionists, it does not appear that the record will be accepted by Guinness. The brother and sister are not strangers to setting records. The Lithuanian government awarded them $3,000 euros for spending three days frozen in a block of ice.

§  Guess Tom doesn’t accept the Gaiciunas record either!

Two months after the Lithuanian couple made their supposed record breaking breath holding demonstration, Tom Siesta, a German free-diver, broke his own Guinness world record for holding his breath underwater. While competing at a free diving championship in New York, the 30 year-old engineering student exceeded his old Guinness record by 37 seconds.

While being filmed on network television, Tom Sietas remained underwater, on a single breath for 15 minutes and two seconds! This is his 12th world record. 

§  Underwater Four!

Five scuba diving golfers have set a world’s record by competing in an underwater golf tournament. The first eversubsurface golf tournament was staged in a 50 ft deep tank in the Zuohai Aquarium in Fuzhou City China.

According to the Chinese media, the “aqua players were judged on how long it took them to complete the hole rather than the number of strokes taken.” The winning putt was made in one minute and 20 seconds.

§  Setting a record scootering down a freshwater cave near the base of Mount Doom!

In July a team of Weeki Wachee cave divers took to their underwater scooters and headed 407 feet down to the base of an underwater mountain known as Mount Doom. The cave and Mount Doom are located under the famed underwater Mermaid Stage, attraction in Weeki Wachee Springs, Florida.

According to the Hernando Today newspaper, the dive team believe that they have set a record by exploring the deepest underwater, spring-connected tunnel in the United States.

“The team explored more than 6,700 feet of underwater tunnels beyond the source of the river,” read the newspaper. “Usually, the force coming out of a doorway-sized split in the limestone about 145 feet below where the mermaids perform is too strong for a diver to access. But the recent drought helped drop flows to record-low levels. While it was still a struggle to get through the split, the flow was low enough for divers to swim in with powerful lights and scooters.”

Once the summer rains returned in August, current returned and the expedition was shut down. But, again according to the newspaper, not before the team left a mermaid figurine to mark the furthest point they had explored. The dive expedition was led by Jeff Petersen, president of Karst Underwater Research Inc.

§  Another free-diving record

Plunging into the murky depths has paid off for New Zealander William Trubridge who has set a new world free-diving record earlier this summer.

The 27-year-old from Hawkes Bay reached an unassisted free-dive depth of 81m, shaving a metre off the previous record set by Czech diver Martin Stepanek in 2005.

§  Another Kiwi sets free-diving record

On September 21st New Zealand free-diver set another free-diving record. This record was for length rather than depth.

“The Wellington man swam 244 metres underwater on one breath, blitzing a record he set on Friday by 18 metres,” reported the Dominion Post newspaper. “Using a mono fin, Mullins swam nonstop for four minutes and two seconds, completing nearly five lengths of the 50-metre pool.”

Mullins sees his record swim as a warm-up for the Freediving World Championship which will be held in Egypt this November. The Kiwi will compete in an ocean freediving event, in which divers go as deep as they can without breathing equipment.

§  Going under with a pair of deep sixes

Divermag.com never did make it to play poker at the bottom of Nanaimo, British Columbia's Finns Beach. Back in June we received an email from the British Columbia Sink or Swim dive shop who were organizing the Great Nanaimo Poker Dive.

The goal was to have a fun event for local divers and possibly set a world’s record for underwater poker. Twelve teams of two divers swam underwater to five stations where numbered cards were stuck to coloured boards. The swimming pairs collected five cards, then return to the surface to exchange the numbered cards for real playing cards.

According to the shop’s website, www.sosscuba.ca, the grand prize winner was Brian C. He had a hand with four 5’s. He won 75% of the $390.00 poker pot.



Editor’s note – did we miss a glug glug, underwater world’s record? If so, let us know. Drop a note to divermag.com’s Stephen Weir.