Images of new Free Diving World Record under Ice

There are two different disciplines in free diving: Depth and distance. In both the free divers use just one breath to get as far as possible.

Valentina Cafolla, 19, set a new world distance record on Sunday 12 March when she swam for 125 meters beneath a sheet of ice up to 70 centimeters thick on the Lago Di Anterselva Lake in the Italian Alps. This effort beat the previous world record held by Turkey’s Denya Can. Cafolla accomplished the feat on the second and final attempt after aborting her first attempt.

“I didn’t get the perfect breath before the start and started to panic a bit so I had to abort it after 75 meters,” the new world record holder said after making the full 125 meters on her second attempt. It took her exactly 1 minute and 27 seconds. When she surfaced Cafolla struggled to maintain consciousness and thus fulfill the AIDA resurfacing requirement protocol. “I’m really happy that all the intensive preparation paid off,” said the Italian-Croatian dual citizen. “I’m also happy that I’ll be able to dive into warmer water next time.”

Subal ambassador and well known extreme sports photographer Predrag Vuckovic was responsible for all the images during this project.

He used a Nikon D5 in a Subal ND5 housing with Nikon 16mm f2.8 fisheye and 16-35mm F4 lenses. The water was clear but really cold (2°C)! The biggest issue was the low light levels underwater because of 50 cm thickness of ice and a large quantity of snow on the surface. It was fortunate that it was a sunny and bright day. The final results of the pictures are really amazing!   A day earlier, 32 year old Arthur Guerin-Boeri of France also set a new world record: 175 meters under the ice at the Sonnanen See in Finland.
  Photo credits: Predrag Vuckovic/extreme-photographer.com