Posted on 07/02/2014 9:06:09 AM PDT by Rebelbase
Video at link.
French free diver Guillaume Nery jumped into the largest sinkhole on Earth with no scuba gear, no snorkel, no gear of any sort. Just a pair of massive, rock hard cojones. "Dean's Blue Hole" is a 663-ft deep sinkhole in the Bahamas.
A couple helpful little factoids to aid you in understanding the gravitas of Guillaume's dive. The average human being can hold their breath for 45 seconds - or a minute if they have an exceptionally healthy set of lungs. After that, your body essentially starts to suffocate, as cells in your organs shut down from lack of oxygen. Typically, this is when your body initiates panic mode, and will automatically try and thrust you to the surface. Rapid changes in pressure also affect the brain and bloodflow - too quick a descent can cause blackouts, bloody noses or popped eardrums. Anyone who has dived into a ten foot pool will tell you, you definitely feel a change in pressure at the bottom. At a depth of 663 feet (which is just the depth of the whole, not the full dive) there's a pressure of 287 psi. To give you some frame of reference - normal tire pressure (which holds up your entire car, which may weigh in at over 2 tons) is around 44 - 50 psi. - StarPulse
With only one lung-full of air, Guillaume swims all the way to the bottom of the sinkhole and then back up. Freedivers are able to condition their lungs to enable them to hold more oxygen. The journey to the bottom of the sinkhole took 4 heart pounding minutes.
One time, I tried swimming across a lake. Halfway to the other side I was too exhausted to continue, so I swam back.
I have my doubts on the reality of this video.
The whole dive was deeper than the whole hole. The hole is greater than a sum of its parts ;-)
I googled “deepest free drive”.
http://www.herbertnitsch.com/Home.html
According to my internet search Herbert Nitsch holds the world record at over 800’. He also held the previous record.
I guess he can hold his breath for over 4 minutes.
Also, apparently, many people DIE attempting to break these records. Half the articles that came up in my search were about the deaths of people trying to dive deeper.
Thermalclines are a danger in Rock Quarries also. Rapid drop in Temps at certain levels can cause muscle cramping.
Well, I got snookered.
Sorry, Mea Culpa.
He can hold his breath for 9 MINUTES. Can you say HOILY CRAP!
“Herbert can hold his breath for more than 9 minutes and has set 32 world records in all of the 8 recognized disciplines – unrivaled achievements in the freediving history.”
Are we sure that this isn’t a man with brain cells of custard?
Did you make it? :^}
We did the same thing here in NH. There are many abandoned granite quarries around here. Some of them have over 100’ of water in them. One has train cars at the bottom.
There are a pair that are separated by a wall of rock about 10’ thick. There is a hole/cave that connects them about 20’ under the water line. The big thing to do was dive down and swim from one into the other.
We also had cliff/walls to jump off. I jumped off the 30’ a couple times. There was also a 60’. I never stepped off of that one.
There was another quarry that had a gravel road right up to the edge. If a car got stolen, many times it would go right off that edge. It was 60’ straight down from there I was told. I remember going back there one time and seeing tire tracks going right up to the edge and then....
This was back in the 1980’s or before. Most of them now have been fenced off. The twin quarries have houses built right around them now. One house was built so their deck with diving board and slide extend over the water. Pretty cool, but I bet their homeowners insurance most be high.
Yes, and thank goodness I had the smarts to turn around before I had gotten three-quarters of the way across.
It reminds me of a time, when I was working off a 40” ladder and fell.
Thank God, I was only 3 rungs up.
That would have been a big factor also. The water was really cold. Get in and get out.
Amazing. Even more so if he was able to do this without those long flippers free-divers often use.
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