William Trubridge MNZM (born 24 May 1980) is a New Zealand world champion and world record holding freediver.
Trubridge was the first diver to go deeper than 100 metres (330 ft) without oxygen and as of 2013 held the world record in the free immersion and constant weight without fins disciplines. [1]
Trubridge was born in Northumberland in northern England, [2] but moved with his family to New Zealand when he was eighteen months old. [3]
As a diver, Trubridge mainly competes in depth disciplines. He has scored the highest number of points for an individual at the Team's World Championships, 313.3, which he achieved at the 2010 Freediving Team's World Championships held in Okinawa, Japan.
On 18 January 2011, Trubridge won the World's Absolute Freediver Award (WAFA), as the best all around freediver, with the highest combined score in six freediving disciplines: static apnea, dynamic apnea with fins, dynamic apnea without fins (pool disciplines), constant weight apnea with fins, constant weight without fins, and free immersion (depth disciplines).
Trubridge is an Apnea Academy instructor and as of 2013 [update] operated a freediving school and annual competition, both called Vertical Blue, at Dean's Blue Hole in Long Island, Bahamas from September to May. During the summer he teaches courses in Europe and has trained at the Tenerife Top Training Center.
Trubridge was the main subject of a documentary entitled "Breathe" directed by Martin Khodabakhshian, which documents Trubridge's pursuits in 2010 to become the first free diver ever to reach 300 feet with a single breath in the discipline of constant weight no fins. [4]
On 15 February 2019 Trubridge became the first man to complete an 'underwater crossing' of one of the major channels, swimming across the Cook Strait as a series of 934 breath hold dives. He wore fins and swam with a dolphin kick horizontally underwater at a depth between 3–5 meters, surfacing only for short recoveries during which he remained immobile. The crossing took 9 hours 15 minutes and was done to raise awareness of the plight of New Zealand's Hector's and Māui dolphins, which are both threatened with extinction due predominantly to over-fishing in their ranges.
In the 2021 New Year Honours, Trubridge was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to free diving. [5]
| Discipline | Result | Accreditation | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Time | STA | 7:29min | AIDA |
| Distance | DNF | 187m | AIDA |
| DYN | 237m | AIDA | |
| Depth | CNF | 102m | AIDA |
| CWT | 121m | AIDA | |
| CWT BF | CMAS | ||
| FIM | 124m | AIDA | |
| VWT | |||
| NLT | |||
| Team | 313.3pts | AIDA | |
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.
Mandy-Rae Cruickshank is a world champion free-diver and record-holder from Vancouver, British Columbia.
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".
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.
Free immersion (FIM) is an AIDA International freediving discipline in which the freediver dives under water without the use of propulsion equipment, but only by pulling on the rope during descent and ascent.
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).
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 is a discipline of competitive freediving, also known as competitive apnea. 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.
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Vertical Blue is a freediving competition which has been held annually in The Bahamas at Dean's Blue Hole since April 2008 by freediving world record holder William Trubridge. It is an AIDA International or CMAS in 2021 judged competition and has been the venue for multiple world and national records for athletes coming from countries all over the world.
Deborah Andollo Lopez, also known as Deborah Andollo, is a Cuban free-diving athlete who held several world records in different disciplines. In 1996, she set a free-diving record of about 357 feet. On the "AIDA website’s world record history in both constant weight and No-Limits. In 1996 she excelled in constant 61 metres (200 ft) and no-limits 110 metres (360 ft), and did 100 metres (330 ft) in variable weight in Italy.
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.
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Olivia K. (Liv) Philip is a record breaking freediver and AIDA International instructor who represents Great Britain. In January 2011 she was awarded AIDA's Absolute Freediver Award 2010 for the highest combined score in six freediving disciplines: static apnea, dynamic apnea with fins, dynamic apnea without fins, constant weight with fins, constant weight without fins, and free immersion. In March 2011 she broke the UK women's dynamic, no fins record at the Great Northern Dive Competition, with a 111m swim.
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.
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