The Tunisian freediver Walid Boudhiaf made freediving history by beating, yesterday, Sunday January 17, 2021, the world record for the discipline. He achieved this feat by diving 150 meters deep, in Sharm Echeikh in Egypt. Walid Boudhiaf consequently beats the former world record of Greek Stavros Kastrinakis, who had dived 146 meters in 2016.
A week before delivering his feat, Boudhiaf had already dived 146 meters deep in an informal exercise, as he describes on his Facebook page. “146 meters of variable depth and unbelievable sensations today! I have subsequently succeeded in surmounting one of the most and ultimate obstacles I have fought against for a long time in my career as a deep freediver: narcosis. I clearly fixed the compensation issues, as well as the pulmonary adaptation, but strangely, that annoying torpor proceeded to stun me every time I reached new depths. I tested various methods to calm it down or attempt to adapt to it, (…) to the hard tables of CO2, to changes in diet. But I finally realised that the best method is in our mind. How we grasp the experience of a deep dive has a great influence on the result. I usually put myself in a separated and 100% relaxed state of mind during my deep constant weight dives, and go on autopilot, but that is not sufficient and can in fact become counterproductive. I served a lot on a different mindset, where I try to be present and examine every detail of the dive, every feeling and make it an even more pleasant experience. And it works! Now all that remains is to formalize it all. See you in a week for the official attempt.