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Martin Štěpánek (born June 5, 1977 in Náchod, Czech Republic) is a world class freediver and record-holder.
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Martin Štěpánek (born June 5, 1977 in Náchod, Czech Republic) is a world class freediver and record-holder.
From 1984 to 1997 he was a competitive monofin swimmer (finswimmer) (distances 50m and 100m). Martin's academic background follows a degree in Forestry Engineering with advanced studies in Sports Biology at the Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic. After moving to the United States he became USA Certified as a Deep Sea and Saturation Commercial Diver in May 1999. In 2000 Martin met Douglas Peterson, who went on to become his freediving coach and mentor, guiding him to his first World Record in July 2001. Since then, Martin continued to set freediving world records annually up to his retirement from competitive freediving in 2012. He is now recognized as one of the pioneers of modern freediving education.
Martin was on hand during David Blaine's "Drowned Alive" stunt in Lincoln Center in May 2006. Blaine was attempting to hold his breath (known as "apnea") long enough to break the current world record of eight minutes, fifty-eight seconds. [1]
Martin is the founder of Freediving Instructors International (F.I.I.) the largest[ according to whom? ] freediving education agency in the United States. He is an advisory board member of DiveWise a non-profit organization dedicated to freediver education and safety and celebrity supporter of Oceana. [2]
In May 2009, utilizing only his monofin for propulsion, Martin became the first man to dive over 400 feet (120 m) on a single breath of air.
| Apnea | Association | Record | Date | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FIM | 110 m | 23 May 2009 | Sharm (Egypt) | |
| CWT | 122 m | 22 May 2009 | Sharm (Egypt) | |
| FIM | 108 m | 5 April 2006 | Cayman (BWI) | |
| FIM | 106 m | 3 April 2006 | Cayman (BWI) | |
| CWT | 106 m | 1 April 2006 | Cayman (BWI) | |
| VWT | 136 m | 14 April 2005 | Cayman (BWI) | |
| CNF | 80 m | 9 April 2005 | Cayman (BWI) | |
| CWT | 103 m | 10 September 2004 | Spetses (Greece) | |
| FIM | 102 m | 3 Mars 2004 | Cayman (BWI) [3] | |
| CWT | 93 m | 29 May 2003 | Limassol (Cyprus) | |
| FIM | 90 m | 8 September 2001 | Miami (USA) | |
| STA | 8 min 6 sec | 3 July 2001 | Miami (USA) [3] | |
| STA | 7 min 47 sec | 1 July 2001 | Miami (USA) |
Freediving, free-diving, free diving, breath-hold diving, or skin diving, is a mode of underwater diving that relies on breath-holding until resurfacing rather than the use of breathing apparatus such as scuba gear.
Mandy-Rae Cruickshank is a world champion free-diver and record-holder from Vancouver, British Columbia.
Patrick Musimu was a Belgian freediver, sport business manager, marketing and event manager, and physiotherapist. He was born in Kinshasa, Zaire. On 30 June 2005, he beat the previous "No Limits" world record in freediving by almost 40 meters by diving to 209 meters. Following his request, this dive was done without the supervision of the International Association for Freediving agency, from which Musimu dissociated since 2002. According to him, extreme deep freediving should not be considered as a sport but as an adventure.
Freediving blackout, breath-hold blackout, or apnea blackout is a class of hypoxic blackout, a loss of consciousness caused by cerebral hypoxia towards the end of a breath-hold dive, when the swimmer does not necessarily experience an urgent need to breathe and has no other obvious medical condition that might have caused it. It can be provoked by hyperventilating just before a dive, or as a consequence of the pressure reduction on ascent, or a combination of these. Victims are often established practitioners of breath-hold diving, are fit, strong swimmers and have not experienced problems before. Blackout may also be referred to as a syncope or fainting.
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.
Performance Freediving International (PFI) is a freediving training agency founded in 2000 by Kirk Krack. Krack coached World Champion Freedivers, Mandy-Rae Cruickshank and Martin Stepanek. PFI teaches freediving clinics around the world and is involved in both team and athlete development. Since 2004, PFI has hosted DejaBlue, which is an international freediving competition. In July 2019, PFI was purchased by International Training, the owner of companies including Scuba Diving International and Technical Diving International.
William Trubridge is a New Zealand world champion and world record holding freediver.
Underwater sports is a group of competitive sports using one or a combination of the following underwater diving techniques - breath-hold, snorkelling or scuba, usually including the use of equipment such as diving masks and fins. These sports are conducted in the natural environment at sites such as open water and sheltered or confined water such as lakes and in artificial aquatic environments such as swimming pools. Underwater sports include the following - aquathlon, finswimming, freediving, spearfishing, sport diving, underwater football, underwater hockey, underwater ice hockey, underwater orienteering, underwater photography, underwater rugby, underwater target shooting and underwater video.
Alexey Molchanov is a Russian champion freediver, 34-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.
Stig Åvall Severinsen is a Danish freediver. He is a four-time world freediving champion and holder of multiple Guinness World Records. He also wrote Træk Vejret – mere energi, mindre stress (2009), published in English in 2010 as Breatheology – The Art of Conscious Breathing.
Peppo Biscarini is an Italian-American swimmer, freediver, entrepreneur and evangelist. He represented both Italy and the United States in various international competitions and also won many titles. After retiring from his athletic career, he had a long stint as coach and entrepreneur. Later in life he responded to a higher calling and directed his life towards evangelism.
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.
Simone Arrigoni is an Italian free-diver. He holds multiple free-diving world records. He is an ActionAid Ambassador and Honorary Member of the Centro Studi Cetacei, a non-profit Italian association that is concerned with the study and rescue of marine mammals and reptiles since 1986.
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 has set world and Italian records in freediving.
The following index is provided as an overview of and topical guide to underwater divers:
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 their 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.
Stephen Keenan was an Irish safety diver and co-owner at Dahab Freedivers. He held several Irish national freediving records and known as a Chief of Society at various freediving events and organisations such as Vertical Blue Freediving Competitions.
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