Santa's Underwater Parade

With the festive season just around the corner, World Record Diving Malta is planning yet another fund-raising event: Santa’s Underwater Parade 2013!

WRDMalta organised a voting poll, during which the club’s team members nominated each other to dress as various characters related to Christmas. The team will be wearing these costumes during a scuba parade planned for Sunday 22^nd December 2013.

WRDMalta would like to invite all divers to come along and participate in the event, as well as any non-divers should they wish to tag along for a laugh. A minimum donation of €5.00 is encouraged, proceeds of which will be donated to L-Istrina 2013. All participants are required to turn up in fancy dress related to Christmas in order to take part in the dive parade. Prizes will be awarded to those voted ‘Best Dressed’ and ‘Best Effort’ as well as raffle prizes courtesy of our sponsors.

The event will take place in Cirkewwa, meeting at 10.00am. Mince pies & Christmas cookies will be available for purchase during the day courtesy of Mik's Cakes & Bakes, proceeds of which will also be donated to L-Istrina.

Let’s make this dive a jolly one! We hope to see you there!!!

For more information contact us on worldrecorddivingmalta@gmail.com

New Guinness World Record Achieved

World Record Diving Malta’s lead diver Sean McGahern set a new world record for the Longest Warm Water Scuba Dive by spending 49 hours and 56 minutes underwater in aid of the charity Inspire which provides therapeutic, education and leisure services to disabled adults and children. The event took place between the 3^rd and 5^th of October in collaboration with Starfish Diving School and the Corinthia Hotel - St. George’s Bay, Malta. Sean was accompanied and assisted by the World Record Diving Malta team and the St. John’s Rescue Corps who both performed outstandingly throughout the entire event.

Despite suddenly being hit by strong winds, currents, surge and 1 metre waves only 5 hours into the dive, Sean and the team were not at all downhearted and accepted this as an even bigger challenge, working strongly together to get safety divers in and out of the water safely.

Perhaps hard to believe, Sean did in fact eat, drink and sleep during his time underwater. Sean ate various types of food including grapes, chocolate bars, cup-a-soup as well as sausages and eggs for breakfast. Safety divers entered the water on shift rotation every hour, bringing down food and drink to Sean and retrieving expelled cylinders. The team also assisted Sean to clean up the seabed from any debris they could find, which was collected and brought up to the surface by the divers in order to raise environmental awareness.

Sean was ecstatic by the number of visitors who turned up to surprise him on the seabed some of which included special guests from Apeks, Aqualung, Whites & Premier Diving Equipment, his DiveMaster instructor Mr Patrik Engstrom and renowned sidemount instructor and cave explorer Mr Garry Dallas.

As the sun rose over St.George’s Bay on Saturday morning, so did the new world record holder Sean McGahern, exhausted yet ecstatic! Sean joked and smiled as he was assisted by the dive team and St John’s rescue corps out of the water and accompanied to hospital for routine checks, following which Sean spent the rest of the weekend celebrating!

Less than a week later Sean was already back at Starfish Diving School teaching. When told to take some time off work to rest he expressed “I need to come back to work please, I’m starting to feel homesick without the fish!”

Sean would like to say a massive thank you to all those involved in the event for helping him accomplish his goal and would like to encourage everyone to contribute by donating to Inspire. For more information visit www.worldrecorddivingmalta.blogspot.com

New World Record Holder

Sean has just beat the Guinness World Record at 48 hours 8 minutes and 17 seconds!!!! Congratulations Sean you have done us so proud!!! Everybody is BUZZZINGGGG on the surface!!

Sean has had a goodnights sleep and the team were in fits of laughter hearing him snoring underwater – possibily a new record he could submit for loudest snore in water?

We are all so proud of Sean for his persistence throughout the past 3 days!!! Well done Sean you are AMAZING!! You have proved the WRD Motto right "Bringing Recreational and Competition Diving to the next level!"

Special thanks to all the sponsors involved namely Starfish Diving School, Corinthia Hotel St. George’s Bay, Marina Hotel Corinthia Beach Resort, Premier Diving Equipment, Thermalution, M&A Diving Supplies, Apeks, Aqualung and Whites Drysuits.HUGE thanks to the safety team and St.John's Rescue Corps for their outstanding performance throughout the whole weekend!!!! 

Stay tuned!!!!!

Beats Personal Best!

With less than 20 hours to go, Sean has proudly beat his personal best of 36 hours and is over the moon about it!! Divers continue to head out to him on shift rotation by the hour and are doing a marvelous job at keeping Sean in high spirits. Well done to the team for bringing up loads of bottles and other bits of debris from the seabed this afternoon.

His fiancée Mikaela kept him company for some time earlier today and she did manage to make him chuckle quite a bit! She spent quite a while forwarding messages to Sean from all the viewers, he says a big thank you to all for the messages and support and continues to encourage you all to donate to Inspire!

Sean has spent a lot of time napping today – lucky for some!!! He has also had some dinner and grapes tonight. Although still quite windy in the bay with a bit of current, Sean is determined to carry on to reach his final goal!

Weather permitting tomorrow, we do encourage people to come down and attend the demo-weekend, participate in try dives (for non-divers) and greet Sean back to land on his exit from the water! We can’t wait to see you on land again Sean – keep it up you’ve impressed many today!! 

Half Way There!!!

Coming up to 30 hours underwater, Sean has reached the half way mark!!! Well done Sean you’ve made it up the top of the hill, time to start coming back down again ;)!

All ok here on land, many of the divers are getting some rest and catching up on some much needed sleep, while others are returning on shift. Premier Diving Equipment representatives are having a blast and seem to be very impressed by Sean’s persistence.

At this point I’d like say a huge well done and thank you to our  land/dive team and sponsors/guests for the amazing performance yesterday when we were suddenly hit by 1 metre waves. You were all outstanding and pushed yourselves as best you could and Sean would not still be under if it wasn’t for all of you! On his behalf, I’d like to cheekily say that he owes you all a beer ;) 

A Day Underwater!

Sean and the team have taken on the battle against the weather in full force with admirable enthusiasm and extreme 'can-do' attitude! Seems the weather is finally giving in and the wind and waves have started to calm down! 

Sean is still content at his base camp and has been asleep for a while now on his sun bed, getting some well needed rest before tomorrow's big clean up! At the moment, apart from WRD safety divers, Sean is also being watched over by Rachael Bell and Paddy Green from Premier Diving Equipment. Hats off to Rachael who is on her first ever night dive!! What a great opportunity to give it a try - Sean will be delighted!! 

Just a few more hours of darkness until the suns rays shine down on the seabed - we are sure this will be quite a rewarding feeling for Sean! Well done Sean we are all very proud of you and well done team who have been outstanding!!! 

The demo-weekend tomorrow will be open from 10am, weather permitting. Any divers wishing to join in and help with the clean up are more than welcome to do so. 

For those of you who were not watching the live stream yesterday, Sean sent a message on screen saying "Donate to Inspire" !!! - Let's do our best to meet his requests ;) Donate now direct via www.inspire.org.mt

A Quarter of the Way

Updates from the jetty! Apologies for the delay but wifey decided to pay Sean a not-so-quick visit on the sea bed and have only just warmed up and returned to IT Support! 

After being struck by horrific weather this afternoon which does not seem to want to improve, the team have accepted the challenge with even greater enthusiasm and are ready for an epic win!

Despite the very limited visibility, Sean has managed to collect several glass bottles and other debris and is forming a little heap by base camp to bring out of the water once the waves have calmed down. Sean made some new friends at base camp including a sea horse, octopus and pipefish. 

The team, jolly as ever, have relocated land support to higher levels and are happily watching Sean who is fast asleep on his sunbed for night.

Sean has eaten several random items – however the strangest food he has asked for this evening was Sausages for dinner. These have been sent down – not sure if they’ll go down a treat.

Even though the weather is not in our favour, the team will continue to fight as long as you continue to donate. Donate to Inspire by following the link: www.inspire.org.mt

Well done Sean – you’re a quarter of a way there – and we will be behind you the rest of the way!

Follow Sean’s progress on www.ustre.am/15sNE, www.instagram.com/corinthiasg and www.twitter.com/corinthiasg

Visitors and more visitors!

7 hours into the dive and Sean is still as chirpy as ever – despite the slight winds and currents. At the moment he is paddling along with his Dive Master Instructor Patrick Engstrom; a great surprise for Sean no doubt!

 Apeks, Aqualung, Whites, Premier Diving Equipment and Thermalution are on site and have set up their demo stands, promoting their latest available equipment and gear! Special Guest Garry Dallas is also lending a helping hand on the surface at the moment and will pop over for a swim with Sean soon!

Rachael and Paddy from Premier Diving Equipment have just joined safety divers Stefan Cirillo and Patrick Schembri to visit Sean – he’s definitely being kept busy!

Sean has eaten loads of food varying from grapes and oranges to chocolate and eggs. Safety divers continue to work on rotation bringing down full cylinders and expelling empty cylinders while monitoring Sean’s progess.

The WRDMalta team, set up at Corinthia Hotel St George’s Bay is in high spirits and continue to encourage Sean in his 60 hour challenge attempt. Go on Sean – You’re doing great!!!!! 

Approaching 4 hours underwater Sean is as happy as can be in the world he likes to call his home! Sean had a nice swim around at night, started collecting debris for the clean-up and was rewarded with a nice breakfast of hard boiled eggs! Sean smiled at the camera and rubbed his belly in content!

Safety divers are keeping Sean company on shift rotation – 2 divers per hour! Sean is in high spirits with the sun beaming down over the bay!

Any divers wishing to come and help with the beach clean we will be on site until Saturday at 5pm when Sean plans to exit the water. Those wishing to participate in the clean-up of the sea bed are kindly ask to donate €5.00 on site which will be forwarded to INSPIRE (v0/0199).

The Scuba-Demo weekend starts in an hour with guest exhibitors Apeks, Aqualung, Whites Drysuits, Premier Diving Equipment and Thermalution. 3 Day admission tickets cost €10.00 and can be baught at the entrance on the jetty at Corinthia Hotel St.George’s Bay. Will you be there? – We will!! 

Live from the Jetty

And we’re offffff! Sean entered the water super confident and excited to begin his 60 hour challenge! Escorted out to the 11 metre mark by safety divers James Norris and Ian Warwick, Sean will spend the first couple of hours underwater at this depth, following which he will slowly make his way to his home for the next 60 hours “Basecamp!”

Special thanks goes out to the WRDMalta team, St.John’s Rescue Corps as well Premier Diving Equipment who turned up on site to watch Sean get in the water and make sure he is comfortable in his new Thermalution heated undersuit.

To follow Sean’s progress watch the live stream on http://ustre.am/15sNE and stay tuned on our Facebook page www.worldrecorddivingmalta.com

You can also keep up to date by visiting http://instagram.com/corinthiasg & https://twitter.com/corinthiasg

Less than 7 Hours to Go!!!

Wow - what a busy couple of days it's been! The team have been super busy at the dive site all week being as creative as ever! Thank you to all those involved and who contributed to get everything prepared in time for the big day!

Banners set up underwater, banners on land, marker buoys and lines in place, CCTV and live stream running, all divers & guests in Malta, time for Sean to relax in the Corinthia Hotel St.George's Bay Apollo Spa before it's time for his dip! 

Sean will be entering the water at 5am tomorrow morning accompanied by the WRDMalta safety diver team and will start off his challenge in water deeper than 11 metres. Later on during the day Sean will move to base camp where the live CCTV will be set up! To follow the live stream kindly visit: http://ustre.am/15sNE -The stream will go live at 5am! 

Apart from the live stream and blog you can keep track of Sean's progress and monitor his whereabouts by visiting the following pages: 

Facebook: www.facebook.com/worldrecorddiving

Twitter: https://twitter.com/corinthiasg

Instagram: http://instagram.com/corinthiasg

The demo-weekend with guest exhibitors Apeks, Aqualung, Whites, PDE & Thermalution will take place on Thursday to Saturday from 10am to 5pm. 3-Day Admission tickets cost 10€ per person, giving guests access to the demo and try out top of the range kit and gear. Visitors will also have the chance to take part in our raffle to win some awesome prizes and non-divers will be given the opportunity to take part in a happy hour of free try dives everyday! 

The team would like to welcome any divers to come down and help clean the sea bed of any debris in order to raise environmental awareness and promote marine conservation. 

All proceeds will be donated to the local charity INSPIRE (VO/0199). WRDMalta would like to encourage donations to Inspire which may be done by following the link https://pg.alert.com.mt/inspire/

The team would like to wish Sean the best of luck for his 60 hour challenge! 

Stay tuned .... 

All for a Good Cause: In Aid of Inspire!

It’s been a busy couple of weeks but hard work pays off and everything seems to be all-set for the upcoming 60 Hour World Record Challenge & Scuba Demo-Weekend in 3 weeks! The teams getting super hyped up now and we are really looking forward to greeting our guest exhibitors here in Malta- it’s going to be a great fun filled weekend all round!

During the record challenge for the Longest Warm Open Water Scuba Dive, World Record Diving Malta will be hosting a Scuba Demo-Weekend in collaboration with Corinthia Hotel St. George's Bay and Marina Hotel Corinthia Beach Resort. Guest exhibitors comprising of leading international enterprises within the scuba community, will be setting up stands on site, giving visitors the opportunity to try out some of the latest gear available on the market and the chance to win some amazing prizes!!! 

Exhibitors include: 

- M&A Diving Supplies 

- Apeks

- Aqualung 

- Whites Drysuits 

- Premier Diving Equipment 

- Thermalution 

Special Guest: 

- Garry Dallas from Simply Sidemount with Garry Dallas / Apeks Cave Exploration Team 

This event will take place on the 3rd, 4th and 5th October in collaboration with Starfish Diving School & the Malta St. John's Rescue Corps. 3-day admission tickets (€10.00) are available to purchase from Starfish Diving School & Henry J Bean's at Corinthia Hotel St. George's Bay as from Monday 16th September. A happy-hour of free try-dives will take place everyday giving visitors the opportunity to get in the water and see what all the scuba fuss is about (term & conditions apply). Moreover, we have some amazing prizes to be won by raffle courtesy of our sponsors! 

In order to raise environmental awareness and promote marine conservation, Sean and the team will spend most of their time underwater cleaning-up the sea bed from any debris which has not yet developed into a home to any marine life. We encourage fellow divers to come along and help with the beach clean - the more the merrier ofcourse! Those interested are kindly requested to contact us on worldrecorddivingmalta@gmail.com for more details. 

Finally, at World Record Diving Malta we do not only base our events on physical challenges but also on charitable goals. For this reason, all proceeds will be donated to the local charity INSPIRE (vo/0199). World Record Diving Malta would like to encourage donations to INSPIRE. This can be done by direct bank transport to 'The Eden and Razzett Foundation' - Account number: 40017862343.

About Inspire 

The Foundation for Inclusion is the creation of two leading NGO's working in the disability sector in Malta and Gozo. The Eden Foundation and the Razzett tal-Hbiberija joined forces to help over 1000 children and adults with learning and physical disabilities across 5 centres. 

"Our vision remains to see complete inclusion and understand the needs of our clients by working closely with families, carers, the state and other NGO's and the community. The children and adults we help depend on us to ensure that there is help and support at hand to assist them in their day to day lives. Through Inspire we can help people with disabilities achieve greater potential. Inspire depends on voluntary contributions, without support we would not be able to survive. We strive to use our funds in the most cost effective and efficient manner possible. This is beneficial to the future development of our facilities". 

Training & more training!

It's been a busy couple of weeks on our end with preparation for the upcoming 60 hour dive challenge, but we are enjoying every moment of it!

Training for the longest scuba dive in warm water has begun with dives taking place regularly as we build up to the day of the event. The first of thestraining dives took place on the 27th of July during which Sean was submerged for 5 hours accompanied by various members of the dive team. During their time underwater the team had a great time trying out their new Thermulation heated undersuits courtesy of Premier Diving Equipment. These kept everyone quite snug throughout the training dive. To top it off the team were delighted to have a spectator watching their every more; an adorable seahorse. 

The main scope behind these training dives is for the team to be able to test out the new sponsored kit so as to ensure that all team members are comfortable with the configurations they have chosen to use during the record event. With that being said, we would like to say a massive thank you to M&A Diving Supplies, who on behalf of Apeks, Aqualung and Whites Drysuits, have supported us for many consecutive years now, as well as to Thermulation and Premier Diving Equipment who have recently hopped on board in supporting our events. Sean and the team are extremely content with all the kit being provided by these leading international companies and strongly recommend these products to all divers. To find out more on which products will be used during out event kindly visit the following pages: 

http://worldrecorddivingmalta.blogspot.com/2013_02_01_archive.html

http://worldrecorddivingmalta.blogspot.com/2013/07/pde-thermulation-new-sponsor-for-2013.html

Thanks once again to the above companies from all of us at World Record Diving Malta! 

These training dives also serve for Sean and the team to build up their stamina in preparation for the 60 hour challenge. For this reason, the duration time spent underwater is increased for every training sessions. The next training dive will take place on Sunday 18th August at Starfish Diving School. Stay tuned for more updates in the coming weeks!

PDE & Thermulation - new sponsor for 2013!

World Record Diving Malta is proud to announce Premier Diving Equipment as our latest sponsor for the upcoming Warm Water 60 Hour Dive Challenge in partnership with Thermulation's heated vest.

About Thermalution

Petatech ® International Co. Ltd was established in 1996 specialising in the manufacture of a non-metallic heating element: ThermalTek®. Being pioneers in this field Petatech have successfully developed portable power heating products for domestic, medical, health care, underwater and outdoor purposes. Thermalution® is their latest innovation to take the water sports market by storm.

About Premier Diving Equipment 

PDE was launched at the London International Dive Show in March 2011 bringing some must have products for Scuba Diving and water sports to the UK market. Thermalution® has fast become their most sought after product, turning any wet or dry suit into a heated one and bringing warmth to your underwater adventures!

PDE & Thermulation® will be providing the World Record Diving Malta Team some awesome new toys to play with, namely the new wireless Heated Under-suit for Wet-suits and for Dry-suits. The Thermulation® Power Heated Undersuit is the world’s first of its kind. The philosophy behind the brand is to bring warmth with style: “Fashion + Function = Thermulation®”.

These under-suits are slim, durable and weigh a mere 700g allowing you to have maximum flexibility and agility underwater whilst being lightweight at the same time. They are powered by two Lithium Polymer 7.4V batteries. These are the same batteries found in your mobile phone or mp3 player: no danger of radiation, electric shock or explosion. They are compact and lightweight; a set consists of two 130g batteries. The battery pockets are positioned outside of the under-suit at the sides of the chest, under the arms, offering maximum freedom of movement.

Characteristics of Heated Under-suit for Dry-suits

• Suitable for wearing beneath wetsuits and dry-suits up to depths of 100 metres.
• The wireless temperature micro-controller wristband has an on/off switch   with three temperature settings allowing you to adjust the temperature of the thermal layer even underwater!!
• Built in microchip within controller providing extra stability for temperature control.
• Non- metallic heating panel positioned on the back to warm up your core area.
• Heat lasting 180- 240 minutes (depending on temperature setting).

Characteristics of Heated Under-suit for Wetsuits

• Suitable for wearing beneath wetsuits up to depths of  70 metres
• The temperature micro-controller with on/off switch has three temperature settings and light indication. The controller is on a stretchable cable that feeds though the neck/hood of your wetsuit so temperature can be controlled under water.
•  Built in microchip within controller providing extra stability for temperature control.
•  Non- metallic heating panel positioned on the back to warm up your core area.
•  Heat lasting 100-140 minutes (depending on temperature setting).

PDE will also be providing the team with Innobeam torches. Innobeam specialise in the advanced design and manufacture of portable lights and torches, meeting the demand of a wide range of consumers including divers. These torches encompass multiple functionality; with high, medium, low and blinking settings. Lasting up to 20 hours these torches will be extremely useful to the WRDMalta team bearing in mind that we plan to remain below the surface for a total of 60 hours.  

Lastly, PDE will be supplying the team with Gearmarker – extremely useful and efficient for us, having a team of around 25 divers getting in and out of the water during the event. Gearmarker is a 3d paint that is flexible once dry. It is ideal for marking and personalising items such as wetsuits, weight belts, bags, etc. It may also be used for slick, smooth surfaces like on masks and fins. Gearmarker is non-toxic, completely waterproof and stands proud on any surface. What a fantastic innovation!

“Having met Sean and some of the Malta World Record Diving Team at the London International Dive show in March 2013, it soon became clear that Thermalution would be the perfect product to support Sean and his team of support divers through their next challenge – 60hrs continuous diving! We’re delighted to be supporting Sean and his team. Good luck to all the team from all of us here at PDE!”

For more information kindly visit: visit www.pdeuk.com / www.thermalution.com or contact Ms Rachael Bell on rachael.bell@pguk.net

What's Next?

Over the past few years WRDMalta has organized a series of world record breaking dive events based on saturation and endurance diving for which we have received record achievements and recognition both by Guinness World Records as well as by the Malta National Records Office. However, the WRDMalta team strongly believes that “you are only as good as your last game”, therefore we always strive to improve our achievements and exceed further.

For this reason we are not only planning to break our own personal record of 36 hours underwater without breaking the surface, but we are also aiming at breaking the Guinness World Record for the longest warm water dive (48 hours 8 minutes & 17 seconds), whilst pushing the benchmark further to a 60 hour total dive time.  This event will take place on the 3^rd, 4^th and 5^th October in collaboration with Starfish Diving School, the Corinthia  Hotel - St.George's Bay and The Marina Hotel - Corinthia Beach Resort.

Throughout the record event, our lead diver Sean McGahern will be submerged for a duration of 60 hours during which he will be accompanied by the World Record Diving Malta safety diver team as well as by a number of divers from the St. John’s Rescue team. The divers will spend a large amount of their time underwater doing a clean-up of the sea bed (collecting any debris which has not yet developed into a home to any marine life) as a means of promoting environmental awareness. We would like to wish a big welcome to all the new divers who have joined the team for the upcoming event - it's great to have you on board!

Apart from team meetings and training which will begin shortly, we are currently super busy working very closely with our above mentioned sponsors as well as Apeks, Aqualung, Whites Drysuits and M&A Diving Supplies (who have constantly shown extreme support during our past events) in order to organize this event and bring something innovative, new and exciting to the table for Malta. More details to follow in the not so distant future!!

Finally, World Record Diving Malta is ecstatic to announce our new sponsor for 2013: PREMIER DIVING EQUIPMENT in partnership with THERMALUTION. Welcome on board from all of us at World Record Diving Malta!!