Freediving, free-diving, free diving, breath-hold diving, or skin diving is a form of underwater diving that relies on breath-holding until resurfacing rather than the use of breathing apparatus such as scuba gear.
Tom Sietas is a German freediver. He specializes in the static apnea event, holding his breath under water, and the dynamic apnea event, swimming the greatest possible distance underwater without breathing. Sietas started free diving in the year 2000. Since then, he has set many world records and won many titles, including taking the world record from American extreme performer David Blaine about four and a half months after Blaine's much-publicised achievement in mid-2008. Sietas went on to add over five minutes to that record, which stood at 22:22 minutes when it was broken by Goran Čolak.
Carlos Coste is a legendary world-class freediver and record-holder. He started his training in Apnea and Free-diving in 1996, and got his first national record in 1998. In October 2002 he broke his 1st Official World Record. In October 2003, he became the first human to achieve a Free Immersion dive of more than 100 meters, certified by AIDA World Record and Guinness World Records, He also was the first freediver to pass 100 meters in Constant Weight. Coste became First AIDA Depth Individual World Champion, He won the World Championship making a new World Record in Constant Weight -105m, celebrated in Nice, 2005. He broke the AIDA world record for Variable Weight Free-diving, with a 140-meter immersion in the Red Sea, Egypt, on May 9, 2006. This record was superseded by Herbert Nitsch, on 7 December 2009 at Dean's Blue Hole in the Bahamas. In 2010, after a long relationship, he married his manager Gabriela Contreras (Gaby)
Natalia Vadimovna Molchanova was a Russian champion free diver, multiple world record holder, and the former president of the Russian Free Dive Federation. She has been described as "possibly the world’s greatest freediver".
Association Internationale pour le Développement de l'Apnée (AIDA) is a worldwide rule- and record-keeping body for competitive breath holding events, also known as freediving. It sets standards for safety, comparability of Official World Record attempts and freedive education. AIDA International is the parent organization for national clubs of the same name.
Herbert Nitsch 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 Limit" discipline at the depth of 214 meters. To date, he has achieved 33 official World Records across all freediving disciplines, and one world record in the traditional Greek discipline of Skandalopetra 107 m (351 ft). He surpassed his own No Limit depth with a dive in June 2012 to 253.2 meters, suffering injury in the process.
Constant weight (CWT) is a freediving discipline recognised by AIDA, the International Association for the Development of Apnea, in which the freediver descends and ascends using their monofin and/or with the use of their arms without pulling on the rope or changing his ballast; only a single hold of the rope to stop the descent and start the ascent is allowed. Constant weight is one of the eight disciplines considered for international competition, the others being constant weight bi-fins (CWTB), constant weight without fins (CNF), static apnea (STA), dynamic apnea without fins (DNF), dynamic with fins (DYN), free immersion (FIM), and dynamic apnea bi-fins (DYNB).
William Trubridge is a New Zealand world champion and world record holding freediver.
Constant weight without fins (CNF) is an AIDA International freediving discipline in which the freediver descends and ascends by swimming without the use of fins or without pulling on the rope or changing his ballast; only a single hold of the rope to stop the descent and to start the ascent is allowed. Constant weight without fins is the depth discipline of freediving that is most challenging, because of the physical effort needed to swim without assistance.
Dynamic apnea covers two of the eight competitive freediving categories recognised by the AIDA International : dynamic with fins (DYN) and dynamic without fins (DNF). Both disciplines require breath held dives where the diver travels in a horizontal position under water under their own power without aid/physical contact of a static surface, with the exception of the pool wall when done indoors. The records can only be recognized in pools of 25m or greater.
Marcus Greatwood is a British freediving coach. He is most noted for his creation and development of "NT Style" Freediving, based on relaxation and breathing techniques.
Karoline Mariechen "Karol" Meyer is a Brazilian free-diver. She is a Guinness Book of World Records record holder for apnea free diving, with a dive of 121 m (328 ft) and another static record with O2 for 18 minutes and 32 seconds.
Alexey Molchanov is a Russian champion freediver, 24-time world champion, world record holder, and freediving promoter. He is also president of the "Freediving Federation" association, president of AIDA Russia, head of freediving school named in honor of Natalia Molchanova, and designer and engineer of the freediving equipment brand Molchanovs. Alexey is a son of Natalia Molchanova – multiple champion and world record holder in freediving.
Elisabeth Kristoffersen is a Norwegian freediver and the current president of AIDA Norway. She won the silver medal in the AIDA World Championships 2007 in Maribor, with a dynamic dive to 174 meters.
Goran Čolak is a Croatian free-diver.
Flavia Dias Eberhard, known as Flavia Eberhard, is a Brazilian free-diver, presenter of TV series "APNEIA", freediving instructor trainer, international fashion and underwater model, conservationist, and TV personality. She has nine freediving records including a South American Absolute Record on the discipline of free immersion. Eberhard also works with underwater videography and underwater photography with Sea Dragons audiovisual and has presented documentaries for the TV and film festivals.
Nataliia Zharkova is a 2017 freediving champion of Europe and Ukraine. Zharkova holds multiple records in the discipline of freediving. She was also a freediving runner-up champion of the world in 2013. She is the first Ukrainian and the second woman to ever dive below the arch of the Blue Hole vertical underwater cave in Dahab, Egypt, on a single breath.
Alessia Zecchini is an Italian freediver who set world and Italian records in free diving.
Sofía Gómez Uribe is a Colombian freediver and civil engineer. She holds six national records in three different freediving disciplines, a Bolivarian Games record set at the 2013 Games in Trujillo, Peru, that won her a gold medal in the Women's individual dynamic apnea free-diving event, and a Pan-American record in dynamic apnea with equipment.
Constant weight bi-fins, denoted by the acronym CWTB in competition notation, is a competitive freediving discipline wherein the freediver wears a pair of bi-fins to descend along the line with or without the use of his arms. Pulling on the rope or changing ballast will result in disqualification; only a single hold of the rope is allowed in order to turn and stop the descent and start the ascent. The diver is prohibited from using a dolphin kick; doing so will result in disqualification of the day's dive.
