World Record Freediving Under the Ice
Posted By Sam Kirby on 21 February 2003
As the snow fell, the wind sent shudders down the spine and the more traditional amongst us settled into a few months of semi-hibernation by a blazing fire, Christian Redl, an Apnea Academy instructor from Austria dug out his chainsaw, took his wetsuit from the warmth of the airing cupboard to the chill of the Austrian lakes and broke two freediving world records - under ice.
On the 14th February, while the rest of us were wining and dining our loved ones, Chris and his team made it to 90m Dynamic Under Ice with Fins and 150m Dynamic Under Ice with Scooter, smashing the unofficial records previously held by Italian, Nicola Brischigiaro.
What drives a freediver to face wind chilled surface temperatures of - 20 C, carve his way through 30cm of ice and plunge into the biting, 4 C green depths of a lake? I was intrigued so I sent along my envoy, the Deepest Bear in the World, to join Christian for a few dives and find out.
Performing a breath hold under ice is nothing new. Diving mammals in the
Antarctic have been showing us how to do it for centuries. Weddell Seals
regularly dive for up to 15 minutes at a time with a maximum recorded dive
time of 82 minutes. They have been tracked to depths of up to 700m beneath
the ice, able to glide gracefully most of the way down. True, seals have a
few adaptations to help them along, including the ability to store a large
amount of oxygen both in their blood and muscles but they do still suffer
some of the problems we, less accomplished freedivers, come across. Weddell
Seals have been seen, after making several dives, coughing up a white foam
thought to be lung surfactant. Emperor Penguins can make it down to 500m and
stay under up to 20 minutes on shallow feeding dives. So how would a human
fare? And first of all what's the motivation?
Aside from the pure need to get wet over the winter months, Christian was first introduced to ice free diving through the rather odd means of a music video. In January 2002 he was asked to be the lead actor in a short film for German act DJ Friction. Admittedly rather cheesy, and with a plot blatantly stolen from the "Big Blue"- the video shows him preparing for and making No Limits dives under the ice before being dramatically reunited on the surface with a beautiful lady - not entirely career credible but the sheer beauty of the under ice shots and the shivers that run down your spine as you watch soon explain why he went back to the lake.
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