A new year, a fresh chance for brave and foolhardy divers alike to set new underwater records. But, before divermag.com can begin chronicling the records of 2008, special mention must be made of records that were set in late 2007.

* Just before the start of the New Year two divers successfully completed what they say was a World Record Cave Dive in Wakulla County, Florida. Jarrod Jablonski and Casey McKinlay, spent seven hours (and an additional 13 hours of decompressing) at depths up to 300 ft deep exploring a cave passage that links Turner Sink to Wakulla Springs.  The two divers travelled a distance of seven miles inside the cave system.
 
38-year old Jablonski is a dive instructor for the Global Underwater Explorers (GUE), based in High Springs, Florida, and 39-year old McKinlay works for Halcyon Manufacturing, a dive equipment company. On the expedition’s website, the pair claimed a “record for cave diving was definitely broken.” No one is saying what that record actually is!

* The Human Submarine will be launched again! 83-year old Fred Baldasare was once called the Human Submarine because between 1959 and 1962 he completed a number of underwater feats that garnered him global recognition. "The Human Submarine" used scuba gear to swim across and under the English Channel. He also was on scuba when he swam underwater from Sicily to Italy, and again to traverse Turkey’s Bosporus Strait.

According to press reports, the stunt diver (recently recovered from heart surgery) announced at his sister-in-law’s mobile in Ocala, Florida, that the Human Submarine will swim again. Baldasare said that he plans to set another underwater record by swimming from Cuba to Miami.

Neal Watson, who swam  66 miles in 1978, holds the current record for the longest underwater swim.  The record apparently remains unbroken, but Baldasare believes his proposed 250-mile dive is doable. "I could do it for my 85th birthday," Baldasare said in the Ocala Star Banner. "All I'd have to do is pace myself and get into the Gulf Stream."