Herbert Nitsch
| Herbert Nitsch | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
20 April 1970 Austria |
| Occupation | World Record Holder Free-diver and Air pilot |
Herbert Nitsch (born 20 April 1970) is an Austrian freediver who has held world records in all of the eight freediving disciplines recognised by AIDA International. He is the current freediving world record champion and “the deepest man on earth”. This title was given to him, when he set a world record in the "No Limits" discipline at the depth of 214 meters (702 feet). To date, he has achieved 69 official World Records (see the table below), and one world record in the traditional Greek discipline of Skandalopetra 107 m (351 ft). He surpassed his own no limits depth with a world record dive in June 2012 to 253.2 meters (831 feet).
Nitsch worked part-time as a pilot for Tyrolean Airways.
Nitsch holds the No-Limits record, the title of "Deepest man on Earth" in which the diver can make use of a weighted sled to descend as far as possible and uses an air-filled balloon to return to the surface. Nitsch set the world record in Spetses, Greece in June 2007 when he descended to 214 m (702 ft), beating his own record of 183 m (600 ft) set the previous year. He also held the world record in the Constant Weight event, which is considered by many to be the classic free-diving discipline: the diver descends next to a line, not using the line and unaided by a sled, and must maintain a constant weight, meaning that no weight can be dropped for the return to the surface. Nitsch exceeded the then world record in 2006 when he dived to a depth of 110 m (361 ft), but failure to complete the strict surfacing protocols within the allotted time meant that the dive was disqualified. In Hurghada, Egypt, in December 2006 he did a Constant Weight World Record dive of 111 m (364 ft), adding 2 m on top of Guillaume Néry's previous record.
Later in 2007, he also set the Constant weight (No Fins) record during The Triple Depth in Dahab, Egypt, and went on to push the Constant record to 112 m (367 ft) during the World Championships in Sharm. Herbert also won the AIDA Individual World Championships.
Of the other five AIDA recognised events, Nitsch has been the world record holder in four: Static Apnea, Dynamic Apnea, Free Immersion and Dynamic apnea without fins. He set a time of 9 mins 4 secs for the world Static Apnea record in December 2006 when he held his breath underwater in a swimming pool in Hurgada, a time that was beaten by 4 secs in 2007 by Tom Sietas of Germany. His record of 66 m (217 ft) for Constant Weight without fins, set in 2004, was beaten by 14 m in 2005 by Czech free-diver, Martin Štěpánek, who is also the holder of the Free Immersion record of 106 m (348 ft); Nitsch recorded 100 m (328 ft) in September 2003, but his record was bettered by a dive of 101 m by Carlos Coste of Venezuela in October the same year and then twice improved upon by Štěpánek. Nitsch's Dynamic Apnea record, 183 m set in 2002, has been beaten by 40 m by Tom Sietas and women's champion, Natalia Molchanova of Russia, has also swum further than 200 m. Sietas also holds the Dynamic apnea without fins record at 183 m, beating Nitsch's 2001 distance of 134 m by almost 50 m.
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