Shark Freediving

Herbert and his 214 meter No Limits setup. What will be different this year? (Click on it for bigger version)

40 year old Herbert Nitsch is still planning his incredible journey to a depth of 1000 feet or 305 meters while holding his breath. November in Greece is the time and place we here more and more. So Herbert will attempt to break his already 3 year old No Limits record when he reached a depth of 214 meter. He wants to improve his own record with 91 meters extra depth!

We all know the incredible skills of Herbert but is this 305 meters not just too much? For sure this record has nothing to do with the sport side of freediving, but it’s probably more a personal quest for Herbert to reach that magic number of 1000 feet. What improvements will he make to his already pretty out-of-the-box setup for his last no limits record.

It’s still essential that he will remain around a dive time of 4:30 minutes because of DCS and narcosis problems. And if you see his dive graph of the 215 meter dive it has already got ridiculous ascending and descending speeds. But there is room for speed increase; When Herbert dives down he stops at around 20-25 meters to empty his lungs into a  bottle around. This way he reduces narcosis/DCS problems and he has air left which he can use to equalize in the deep part when air is needed which normally he couldn’t get from his lungs anymore at that depth. To start at the surface, go to 20 meters and fill the bottle and continue takes around 30 seconds.

On the way to the surface Herbert takes it very very slow in the last 20 meters again. Doing a static hang at around 10 meters depth. So his time to surface from 25 meters on is around 1:30 minutes. That leaves 2:30 to go from 25 meters to 215 and back to 25 meters.  1:15 to descent 190 meters and 1:15 to ascent 190 meters, which is around 2,5 meters per second.

To go from 25 meters to 305 in 1:15 minutes is 280 meters with a speed of 3,73 meters per second. For his 215 meter dive his maximum speed going down was 3,1 m/s and going up 4 m/s. If Herbert could descent with a continue speed of 3m/s and ascent with 4,5m/s he would still be in the 2,5 minute time-frame.

Can you imagine stepping into the lift of the eiffeltower elevator on the third floor and touching the ground in 1:30 minute? That would be scary as hell! And now imagine standing at the bottom of the eiffeltower and being on the third floor in only a minute! Pretty Extreme! Puts things into perspective.

Good luck and safe dives to Herbert Nitsch and his crew. Any updates on the expedition can be read here.

Below a video of the 214 meter no limits dive and two teasers from his upcoming documentary about his 1000 feet quest.

What do you think about his 1000 feet quest?

Herbert Nitsch (Austria) broke the Free Immersion record by diving to 120 meters. That’s 4 meters deeper then the previous record which was set a few day ago by William Trubridge. Great competition going on between these athletes and an amazing dive by Herbert! It took him 4:28 minutes of pulling down and up the line. Can you imagine holding your breath for 4,5 minutes? And then you have to equalize and pull yourself down and up? There will be a time that you have to do 5 minutes of active diving to break these kind of records!

Lot of people didn’t start today. William Winram who announced a world record attempt didn’t start either due to equalization problems. Ryuzo set a new Japanese free immersion record with a freedive to 104 meters.  Eric Fattah lost his noseclip at the start and aborted the dive. William Trubridge couldn’t complete the surface protocol after his dive and Dave Mullins didn’t reached his announced depth.

Besides the day to day competition there is also an overall ranking going on during this competition; The Suunto Dive-Off. Results are based on percentages of the world record and the person who has the highest percentage in all three disciplines combined will be crowned as the best all-round freediver. William Trubridge is currently ranked number 1, but Herbert has ‘only’ to do a 91% constant no fins dive , which is 84 meters and he will be standing at the top. So with two days to go, it will be interesting to see what Herbert will do and if he wants the crown!

And to complete the post, below is the video of competition day 4 to 6. Some great images and footage to be seen, so go and watch it!

Amazing day once again! Biggest news is for sure the two new world records today during the Vertical Blue competition in the Bahamas. Herbert Nitsch from Austria took back the freediving world record in the discipline constant weight. He did this by diving with his monofin to 124 meters depth in 4:10 minutes. William Trubridge from New Zealand broke Nitsch his 3 day old world record in the discipline Free Immersion by diving tot 116 meters, two meters deeper then the previous record. The dive took him 4:09 minutes.

Besides the two world records there were also two new national records set. Misuzu Hirai took the Japanese women’s constant weight record by diving to 73 meters in 2:20 minutes. William Winram took the Canadian national record in the discipline free immersion by diving to 96 meters in 3:27 minutes. Dave Mullins didn’t achieve his depth of 118 meters but managed to get close with a dive to 110 meters. Congrats to all and yet another amazing day!

More info soon!

The hard life of Austrian freediver Herbert Nitsch. This time he went on a liveaboard in Palau (Micronesia) en did some freediving for a week. And to make us all jealous he decided to film the whole thing and put it online.

5 great video’s embedded below in one playlist for a total of 30 minutes. Enjoy!

Just received an email from William Trubridge announcing the Vertical Blue competition of this year. And wow, it will be very special!

The competition takes place from April 17 to 27 and will have a very special competition format. All three disciplines will take place during this comp and the special thing is that Martin Stepanek, Herbert Nitsch and William Trubridge will compete against each other during this event!

This already impressive field will be completed by divers like Guillaume Nery, Ryuzo Shinomiya, Dave Mullins, Walter Steyn, William Winram and Robert King.  All in all it looks like it’s going to be the deepest competition of the year!

More information about the event and the special rules on William Trubridge his website.

With a dive to 123 meters in the discipline constant weight, Herbert Nitsch reclaims the world record in this discipline. With a dive time of 4:00 minutes and a surface protocol done within 6.5 seconds it seems there is more to come!

An even more news about Herbert Nitsch. He also set a new free immersion freediving world record with a dive to 112 meters. More info later!

Yet unconfirmed, but it seems that Herbert Nitsch has set a new world record in the discipline of variable weight with a dive to 142 meters.

More info when it gets confirmed.