Guinness record confirmed

Sean McGahern, 35, set the record of 25hr 10min off Westin Dragonara Resort's Reef Club, Malta, on 19 September last year.

But it was not until this month that, as McGahern told Divernet, he received “full approval from the records office” that his dive stood as an official Guinness record.

Supported by divers from the resort’s DiveWise centre, McGahern spent his time in water of about 25 degrees C, at depths ranging from 12m to 15m.

On ascent, he decompressed on gas of 50 per cent oxygen between 12m and 6m, and on pure oxygen from 6m up.

Food included nutritious soups and an energy gel. To deal with bodily functions, a “special mix was used to clear my insides for the whole dive, my dry suit was fitted with a pee valve and as back-up a nappy was worn”.

On 11 February, Guinness confirmed to Divernet that McGahern’s record stood, while acknowledging that it was also considering an application for the record by Will Goodman, from Borehamwood in Hertfordshire.

Goodman, 32, is claiming to have spent 48hr 9min under water off Indonesia's Lombok Island at the beginning of February, sustained by liquidised foods taken by tube and tended by a seven-strong support team.

Last year, at around the time that McGahern made his dive, Brazilian Robert Silva claimed to have set a record with an uninterrupted dive of 48hr 3min. The claim has not been recognised by Guinness.

According to a report in the Times of Malta, McGahern's next project is to make the first underwater circumnavigation of Gozo.

Previously a Malta resident for 14 years, McGahern is now visiting the island to raise sponsorship for the attempt, planned for summer 2011.