Freediver smashes British depth record

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.

In Constant Weight, the diver fins down and back up the dive line, carrying any chosen weight throughout the dive.

King used the de rigueur monofin and was submerged in Dahab’s Blue Hole for 2min 32sec.

The dive, organised by Freedive Dahab, was observed and ratified by judges from AIDA (International Association for the Development of Apnea).

King was thrilled with the result, having been out of competitive freediving for the past two years.

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 dived to 90m in March 2002, Czech Martin Stepanek to 93m in May 2003.

The Constant Weight world record now stands at 124m. It was set by Austrian Herbert Nitsch in April this year, at the Suunto Dive-off competition in the Bahamas.

Related links
AIDA
British Freediving Association