What is the record in diving?
There are two types of underwater diving: scuba diving, which involves the use of scuba equipment and free-diving, which is diving under water without the use of scuba equipment. Scuba diving is not an official sport; it is more for recreational purposes so any diving record achieved in that manner is not official.
Free-diving, on the other hand, is a competitive sport and it relies on the ability of the diver to hold their breath as long as possible, until they resurface. Free-diving also includes breath-hold spear fishing and free -dive photography. But what attracts most attention is the competitive apnea, an extreme sport in which the diving record is achieved by divers who try to dive as deep as possible and the time they stay there in one breath.
There is also technical diving which is performed by professionals such as navy divers, and they are the ones that hold the diving record of 610 meters (2000 feet), although achieved with the use of an Atmospheric Diving System (ADS) suit.
In terms of scuba diving, there are limits set for different categories of divers in order for them to remain safe while roaming the depths. For example, the recreational diving limit for adult divers is 30 meters (100 feet), the absolute recreational diving limit for divers specified by RSTC (Recreational Scuba Training Council) id 40 meters (130 feet) and technical diving training limit for divers using trimix (combination of gases for breathing while diving) is 100 meters (330 feet). There are actually only nine people in the world that are known to have reached depths below 240 meters (800 feet) using compressed air apparatus. The world record for this kind of diving is 330 meter (1,083 feet).
Competitive free-diving is mostly an individual sport but there are certain competitions that involve teams, such as the bi-annual World Championship for Teams. The individual divers compete in two types of disciplines: pool disciplines and depth disciplines, each with their own separate categories. The record in the category of Dynamic Apnea With Fins is 273 meters and held by Goran Colak.
It is interesting to note that the Guinness World Records stopped publishing records about free-dive because of the increased death rate.