JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (23 June 2004) -- South African technical diver Nuno Gomes has announced he will attempt to set a new world scuba diving depth record of at least 320 meters (1050 feet). Gomes and his team of support divers will attempt the record dive next month in the Red Sea. The current record for the deepest scuba dive is 313 meters set by Mark Ellyatt in Thailand on December 18, 2003. That dive eclipsed the previous record of 308 meters set in 2001 by John Bennett who died earlier this year on a commercial salvage dive in South Korea. For six years before Bennett's record dive in 2001, Nuno Gomes was the world's deepest scuba diver after descending to a depth of 282.6 meters at the Bushmansgat sinkhole in South Africa in 1996. That dive, which is still the deepest cave dive on record, almost ended in tragedy due to a combination of a silt-out at the bottom, nitrogen narcosis and helium tremors. This time Gomes will attempt to reclaim his title as the world's deepest scuba diver in the Red Sea which is better suited to extreme deep diving thanks to warm water, excellent visibility and availability of hyperbaric infrastructure and medical support. The record attempt is being organized by the Witts Underwater Club (WUC), which is affiliated with the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. | | Nuno Gomes setting 282.6 meter record Gomes is a 4 star CMAS diver and an Instructor trainer who holds a BSc and MSc in engineering. When he's not on cave diving expeditions, he works as a civil engineer. Underwater hockey is another one of Gomes' passions and he led South Africa to the underwater hockey world championships in 1996, 1998 and 2000. © CDNN - CYBER DIVER NEWS NETWORK |
