DEEPEST SCUBA DIVE IN SEAWATER - WORLD RECORD ATTEMPT
SUPPORT THE FIRST MAN TO DIVE TO 350M
Ahmed Gabr, a Dive Instructor and Technical Diver of 14 years experience is attempting to smash the current deepest dive world record of 318m (Nuno Gomez) with a dive to 350m. His attempt has been assessed and accepted by Guinness who are coming out to adjudicate Ahmed’s World Record Attempt on the 18th of September 2014, in the crystal clear waters of the Red Sea, off the coast of Dahab, South Sinai, Egypt.
This extreme dive is a real feat of human endurance. It will take 14 hours, and use about 90 tanks, breathed by Ahmed and his in-water support team of 14 multinational divers from H2O Divers Dahab.
This blog is about the technical aspects of the dive, what equipment will be used and how the actual dive is going to be undertaken. At this stage, pre-dive, no information will be released on the dive plan and gas mixes that will be used. Once the dive has been undertaken it is hoped that knowledge and learning from the dive can be provided to the diving community.
So firstly we mentioned that there are approximately 90 tanks that we are going to use, this itself takes some organisation to make sure the right tank is in the right place, to be used by the right person. A system has been designed to ensure that the team know whose tanks they are, and what mix and maximum operating depth they can be used at. For Ahmed we also label who is carrying it for him, or at which depth each stage should be leashed to the deco ladder or the line itself. This allows the team on the day to easily identify the tanks and prepare the stages that are pre-placed.
The deco ladder. This is 3 metres wide and has pipes at 3 metre intervals from 3 to 30 metres. The deco ladder is tied to the actual dive line. Once Ahmed gets to this stage of the decompression, it allows two divers to hang with him on the ladder to easily monitor Ahmed. It also allows us to leash the deco stages at the correct depth in advance of Ahmed starting the dive. The right side of the deco ladder is designated for Ahmed and the left side of the deco ladder for the dive team, this again allows the divers to be clear about which stages are for which member of the dive support team or for Ahmed.
The pyramid. This provides a stable environment for the actual dive line. It’s the mooring point for the dive line and also allows us to move the line should this be necessary during the dive due to weather conditions. It also means we can bring it nearer to the shore towards the end of the dive when Ahmed is at the shallower decompression levels. The dive line has been measured independently by a professor at the University of Cairo for stress, bend and tension.
The tags. We can’t guarantee that the dive computers will work to the depth that Ahmed is going to, because no one has gone to that level before. So for the dive itself Ahmed will be using three dive computers and will be collecting a tag at the deepest point. These tags will be attached and signed by independent witnesses who are not part of the dive team.
Other aspects of the dive that we have had to consider include how all the divers are going to drink and eat throughout the dive, how Ahmed is going to be able to see in the deeper parts of the dive and how we are going to remove the quads that he will be descending with and replace them with a lighter and more comfortable dive kit for the many hours that he continues in deco.
In answer to these, all the divers will have rehydration bladders on their tanks and bananas to eat. This will reduce the risk of dehydration, and help keep motivation levels up. Ahmed has lights attached to his helmet to be able to see even at 350m.
To remove the quads, the plan is to lift them off Ahmed in water, and replace them with the xdeep sidemount kit. This is mainly for comfort as the quads are extremely heavy for Ahmed to carry for the whole duration of the dive.
That is just a sample of the hardware side of the dive, and the deco ladder and pyramid have been designed and built in Dahab and are a unique to this dive.
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