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