The depth of the ocean waters has always attracted adventure seekers. Thanks to modern technology, daredevils can go down to where they could not get there before. However, even among them, brave people who plunged as deeply as possible stand out.
The first bathysphere was built in 1930. Otis Barton and William Beebe were able to use it to descend to a depth of 435 meters. It was a real record for that time. The craft itself looked like a steel cylinder with a hollow area in the center and weighing two and a half tons. The dive was not independent: a ship was connected to the bathysphere, which controlled the movement of the device.
Diving with equipment
To date, the world record belongs to James Cameron - a famous director (he shot such films as "Titanic", "Avatar", "The Terminator" and others). He managed to dive to the bottom of the Mariana Trench using a 12-ton Deep Sea Challenger deep-sea bathyscaphe. The director was directly involved in its development.
James Cameron reached 10,898 meters on March 26, 2012. In total, the duration of the expedition was 6.5 hours, of which 2.5 hours were spent research, collecting soil and analyzing samples of living organisms. The ascent took about an hour.
Prior to this, the record belonged to researchers Don Walsh and Jacques Picard. In 1960, they sank to a depth of 10,811 meters. Until 2012, no one was able to repeat their feat. The pressure at the maximum depth is over a thousand atmospheres. Even the very thick window of Picard and Walsh's device broke down and cracked. True, this did not prevent the expedition.
Freediving
In independent diving, the record belongs to Herbert Nietzsch. In the discipline NoLimit (no limits), he managed to dive to a depth of 214 meters. Previously, it was believed that the human body simply could not withstand such a load, but Nietzsche was able to prove the opposite.
This man is rightfully a freediving legend. He has set world records over thirty times. It is noteworthy that his previous result was 31 meters worse (183 m) - significant changes. At the same time, Herbert's main profession is a pilot of Tyrolean Airways, and freediving is just a hobby.
It is noteworthy that free immersion is used not only as a sports discipline. For example, specially trained people collect corals and pearls from the seabed. The maximum depth of such swimmers is unknown, but no one excludes that they are able to dive deeper than Nietzsch. Daily exercise allows the body to more easily adapt to changes in pressure, and the lungs can draw in more air.
