#World record for holding breath free#

That's something the world of competitive free diving has worked hard to prevent by adding safety divers, underwater monitoring and doctors at every event. A fate that claims the lives of about 60 recreational free divers each year. Because there is a risk of blacking out underwater.īlackouts happen when divers push their limits too far,Īnd oxygen reserves are drained. How dangerous is the sport of free diving?Īlexey Molchanov: The most dangerous side of free diving I would say is if you go out to sea and free dive alone, then that's very dangerous. Sharyn Alfonsi: People think of free diving as this very extreme sport. Once he reaches his designated depth, he grabs a tag to prove he's gone the distance.Īlexey Molchanov: In free diving during the dive, it's very important to be zen, very important to be relaxed and not to think about the goal, how far or deep you want to go because that will damage your mind state, your current state where you need to stay to be very focused, very still and relaxed.

He is clipped to a dive line that can yank him back to safety. His lungs are now a third of their surface size and he starts to sink.

He looks like a goldfish desperate for water, he's packing his lungs with air, then, slips beneath the water's surface, his whale-like monofin helping him fight buoyancy.Īt around 65 feet he drops his arms to his side and enters free fall. With judges looking on, he takes in his final breaths. We watched as he prepared for his most ambitious dive attempt 430 feet - more than the length of a football field. Going into last year's competition, Molchanov held the world record in three of the four disciplines and wanted to break them all. With or without the use of a rope to pull them down. Our photographers circled beneath the surface as free divers tested themselves in four disciplines. We were given the sports equivalent of a side-line pass.

World record for holding breath