WRDMalta breaks Guinness World Record for Longest Cold Open Water Sea Dive

Having learnt a lot from our previous attempts, the team was looking to set a new cold water record for open sea dive with the help of Starfish Diving Centre & Corinthia Group of Hotels in St Georges Bay.

This was Sean’s second attempt at the cold water record. On Valentine’s Day 2011 whilst in the water, the team was hit by a force 6 storm that made it impossible to stay in the water and carry on as not only did Sean have problems but so did the team trying to get in and out of the water. Therefore the team decided to abort the dive for safety reasons 2 hours short of accomplishing their target record time. 

In October 2011, the WRDMalta team started training and preparing for the record attempt, holding team meetings every fortnight for a number of months building up to the event. Keeping in mind the main obstacles faced in the previous cold water attempt, the team closely monitored the weather this time round, and took a joined decision on when the event should be held. Moreover, rosters were organized, divers paperwork and certifications were filed, roles of safety support delegated, as well as weak points discussed and agreed on areas for improvement.

During the months building up to the event a number of training dives were held also every fortnight in order for the safety team to practice their roles and in order for Sean to build up on duration times underwater.

As February was coming to an end, the team saw a window of great weather and therefore it was agreed that the event would take place on Saturday 3^rd of March. It was decided that it would be best to enter the water at night in order to be thrown in at the deep end and get the hardest part over with first. Therefore, Sean entered the bone-chilling water at Starfish Diving School, St George’s Bay, on March 3 at 11.45 p.m and the challenge began.

We could not have chosen a better day to start as the sea was like a glass window and there was not a cloud in the sky. Straight down to 11 metres accompanied by lead safety divers Ian Warwick and James Norris, the first thing that came into view was the sponsorship banners floating 1 metre above the sea bed. The team did an excellent job at setting these up during training dives that same morning. 

Full face mask on and working just fine they began to swim around looking for any debris in the area. It was agreed that the team would perform a beach clean up during the duration of the dive, firstly in order to raise environmental awareness and secondly in order to keep everyone occupied and moving around whilst in the cold water. The team managed to collect an immense amount of bottles, as well as car tyres. Moreover, a couple of sun beds were also retrieved which had been drifted off to sea during the winter months. Believe it or not the team also managed to find a fridge door down on the seabed. It was agreed that most of the clean up would take place during the hours of the night as this would keep the divers moving, however the team did carry on searching for debris throughout the entire morning. 

When the sun finally came up, this shot a positive note of energy and warmth amongst the entire team. Now with some natural light land support was able to monitor Sean much better on the CCTV and also used this as a means of communication where Sean would write what he required on a slate and show it to the camera. Whatever he asked for was sent down to him with the next team of safety divers which entered and exited the water on a roster at 1 hour change-overs. 

With everything running smoothly, except for the heated vest battery running low Sean was starting to feel chilly. The battery takes roughly 4 hours to charge and unfortunately was the only one on site therefore Sean had to make do without it for a while, but did use hand warmers as well as plenty of hot drinks and soup to keep him warm. The next safety team entered the water at 8am- lead safety diver Ian Warwick accompanied by Sean’s partner Mikaela swam down to base camp happy to see Sean in high spirits. 

“When I saw Mikaela swimming towards me I prepared myself for what I had been planning for months. I wrote a message on my slate and turned it towards her. Written was ‘Will you  marry me?’- she stared at me for what seemed like an eternity and then wrote back ‘yes!’. I cannot express how excited I was at that moment, the cold feeling went away and I warmed up inside,” says Sean. 

After various safety diver change-overs, and now 11 hours and 30 minutes into the dive, Sean began to feel the cold once again, even with the heated vest back on.  A message was sent up the land support to advise that Sean and the divers were beginning to prepare the deco cylinders for ascent.  Now 11 hours and 45 minutes into the dive, Sean already knew that he was the new Guinness World Record holder for the longest cold water sea dive. Even though he was aiming at 15 hours, Sean and the team agreed that he had endured enough of the bone-chilling water and therefore decided to slowly swim back towards land 12 hours into the dive, mainly to avoid hypothermia. 

The first safety stop was done at 10 metres for a total of 10 minutes. Sean was joined by his two lead safety divers once again, as it was planned for Ian Warwick and James Norris to be with him both on entry and exit. At 6 metres they did a safety stop of another 10 minutes followed by a further 14 minutes at 3 metres. Sean was then free to leave the water and join his team and fiancé at the surface once again. He emerged out of the 14°C water 12 hours and 34 minutes later, breaking the world record that stood at 11 hours and 46 minutes.

The feeling of breaking the record was over whelming, especially when being greeted by a large crowd of friends, family as well as media. With the help of the safety team, Sean got out of his kit slowly and was carted off to the deco chamber for a routine safety check and was given the all clear. Eager to return to his team and friends Sean was taken back to Starfish Diving School where the team were still showing their sincere commitment and were busy collecting the debris retrieved from the sea into one large skip, bringing the banners back out of the water, as well as retrieving spare cylinders and marker buoys from base camp. After some food it was time for some well deserved rest for the entire team. 

Sean would like to take a moment to thank everyone that was involved in the record, from the organizers, to the surface support team and safety diver team as well as all the sponsors as without your help and support this record would not have been possible let alone successful. 

Special thanks goes out to Starfish Diving School, namely Mikhail Umnov, for all his help and support not only during the record event, supplying the team with unlimited number of cylinders, but also for the assistance given the entire year through. 

Moreover, a big thanks to Corinthia St George Hotel, Marina Hotel and CT Park for supplying electricity during the event with flood lights, CCTV monitors as well as food, accommodation and parking for all the team during the entire duration of the event.

Last but not least, a final thanks to the various companies which sponsored the team with a variety of equipment used during the record which ranged as follows:
- Halcyon equipment from Silent Planet UK- including wing and halcyon cold water regulators
- Apeks & Aqua Lung from M&A Diving supplies Malta- including Legend regulators, full face mask, Apeks Tec3 Regulators, hoods and gloves for all safety divers, surface markers and light sticks.
- Custom Diver UK- including battery pack heated underwater vest
- O'three UK- including msf500 Dry suit, under-suits, semi dry gloves and hood

Now having received official recognition of his record-breaking accomplishment from Guinness World Records, Sean and his team have agreed to re-attempt the Summer Warm water record however it has been decided that this will be held in September 2013 as the team plans to endure a duration of 60 hours in order to claim not only the Guinness World Record but also the World Record. Even though this date is a while away, the team is already busy working on tactics and improvements. Further information will be published soon.