About Ahmed Gabr

Ahmed Gabr is a 42 year old Ex Egyptian Army officer; at some point in his career he eventually earned a scholarship to attend the US Army Combat Diver course. He is the only certified US Combat Diver in the Middle East. He began his diving career at the age of 18, diving for pleasure then later decided to get his diving instructor training. During his diving years he dove both for work and for pleasure, while continuously building and developing both his mental and physical abilities.
 

Before attempting the dive Ahmed had to research and read many books in the field of deep sea medical scientific research trying to find any information that would give him any insight on the reactions of the human body to such a dive and such pressure. But unfortunately he couldn’t find what would satisfy his curiosity, so, he decided to take the risk and go ahead with the dive.
 

He began his intensive training for this attempt in 2010, but unfortunately everything had to be put on hold due to the political situation and unrest in Egypt. When after a couple of years, the political situation began taking a more stable route, Ahmed resumed his training schedule, which included extensive mental and physical preparations achievable through a diversified concoction of exercises and mental stimulation; cardiovascular activities and meditation. Ahmed had to exert tremendous effort on the psychological part of his training having to put himself in a frame of mind that would empower him to achieve his target dive.
 

To aid him in this dive, Ahmed had to organize, research, prepare, find funding, form his support team, correspond with the Guinness World Records representatives and much more. This was not an easy task, this was an event that will and had to astound the world. It took him four years to finalize the preparations and achieve the maximum in his training abilities, both physical and mental; in addition to pin-pointing the best spot for the actual dive. Primarily the dive was going to take place in Safaga on the Red Sea, but due to strong water currents happening in that area at this time of year, Ahmed and his support team of 30 diversified dive experts, technicians, and doctors among others decided it would be best to move the dive to Nabq protectorate, South of Dahab, Sinai. The proposed date was September 18, 2014.
 

All the necessary preparations were finalized, and it was time!! Everything was set in place, the team was prepared, the Guinness World Record representative present and it was time to roll.

The actual duration of the dive was 13 hours 50 minutes, Ahmed went down in 14 minutes exactly, and that is when he reached the 335m marker (but due to water currents that moved the rope a little to the side, the judges decided to scratch off 2.65 m thus the achieved record of 332.35m). He then came up in 13 hours 36 minutes. The last 27 m alone took him 7 hours to reach the surface. But HE DID IT!!!!

The moral of this story is every person needs to challenge themselves and have an objective and a goal to achieve. Ahmed’s perseverance, dedication and hard work finally paid off!!