Diver Sean McGahern,
who currently holds the Maltese record for the longest cold water open sea dive, is planning to break the Guinness World Record on 3 March. He speaks to Francesca Vella about the event, his fascination with the underwater world and with world records
Sean McGahern currently holds the Maltese record for the longest warm water dive, as well as the longest cold water open sea dive, having spent nine hours and 45 minutes underwater. The current Guinness World Record for the cold water open sea dive category is 11 hours and 42 minutes.
“On my attempt to break this record on Valentine’s Day last year, I had to abort the dive due to bad weather conditions with force six to seven winds.”
However, the 36-year-old diver has not given up and is going to attempt to break the world record again. “My aim now is not only to beat the Guinness World Record, but to raise the benchmark to 15 hours.”
Last summer, Mr McGahern also attempted to break the Guinness World Record for the longest warm water dive, which currently stands at 48 hours eight minutes and 17 seconds. He said there is also the World Record Academy and the record for the warm water category stands at 50 hours and two minutes.
Guinness World Record dives of this type of duration must be in open sea water at a minimum depth of 11 metres for the whole duration of the dive, that is without surfacing. For the World Record Academy, on the other hand, one must dive below a minimum of five metres. The depth difference is what makes the dive, as well as the decompression plans, more challenging, explained Mr McGahern.
On 19 September, 2009 he broke the Guinness World Record for the longest warm water dive at 25 hours and 10 minutes. Shortly after, in mid-2010, his crown was taken from him. In another attempt last summer, the dive had to be aborted after 36 hours and 22 minutes, due to unforeseen technical issues. However, he improved his personal best by 11 hours.
“This helped me gain more experience and confidence. I do plan to re-attempt to achieve this record in summer, by pushing for 55 hours in order to break both the Guinness World Record and the World Record Academy records.”
He is very optimistic about the forthcoming events and has no doubt that he will set new records.
“Over the years we have built a strong team of motivated individuals who have shown their constant support and who I now consider family. These events would not be possible without them. Moreover, I hope that my dive event records serve as a showcase for this sport and a means of promoting Malta as an ideal destination for divers.”
Asked about his fascination with the underwater world, Mr McGahern said he is not a treasure hunter or a treasure seeker. However, he explained, so much has been lost to our oceans, and we are only aware of about 17% of what is actually lies beneath the waves.
“Curiosity got the better of me from a young age, when I used to spend countless hours exploring my uncle’s bookcase, which revealed a whole new world to me, the world that took me under the sea. The thought of being able to swim free as a fish, float the deep azure waters and see a whole new world stayed with me until eventually, in the year 2000 I was in a position to turn my lifelong dream into a reality.”
Over time, the more hours he spent underwater the more comfortable he started to feel. He said that till today, he is still impressed by the silence found underneath the surface of the ocean.
“I find that being underwater not only helps me to relax, but I seem to forget about any problems on my mind while I’m down there. I suppose I consider it some sort of get-away, so much so that I always seem to dread coming back up.”
Spending so much time underwater, after so many years of diving, he had learnt to not only observe the vast amount of marine life and explore wrecks, but through his record-breaking events, he has adapted to living underwater. In fact, his safety team has witnessed him eating, drinking and even sleeping on the seabed.
“I truly enjoy sharing this experience with others, as well as learning from other divers. My idea of a fun day out is a dive with my safety team on a sunny afternoon. Nothing thrills me more than a relaxed dive with friends.”
He first decided to start attempting to break the Guinness World Record after he lost his mother to brain cancer in 1997. During her battle she was helped by a Maltese organisation and this motivated Mr McGahern to raise awareness about those suffering from cancer.
One afternoon, while discussing different fund-raising possibilities with some friends in the UK, one of his mates jokingly suggested organising a Guinness World Record dive event.
“This didn’t sound so funny to me and I thought it would be a brilliant idea to fly over to Malta, a place I considered home for many years, and plan this event.”
During the forthcoming event, Mr McGahern will be using about 15 cylinders of air. He will keep a couple of spare cylinders down on the seabed for emergency purposes, bearing in mind that the colder the sea temperature, the more air he is likely to use.
He will be accompanied by 18 safety divers, who will need to ensure that his safety, as well their own, is not in jeopardy. They will also be supplying him with cylinders and retrieving expelled cylinders, delivering drinks, vitamins and food during the course of the dive, keeping an eye on temperature, heart rate and central nervous system levels, as well as relaying information from the seabed to land.
The team also consists of eight land support members who will ensure that everything is under control during the event, tracking all records and making sure divers do not exceed their dive times. They will also need to ensure that the correct drinks and medications are brought down to Mr McGahern on time, and will also be in charge of updating the webpage and blogs on each phase of the event. Together with the safety divers, Mr McGahern will also clean up the bay as a means of promoting environmental awareness.
The event will take place at Starfish Diving School in St George’s Bay on Saturday 3 March and starts at 11.30pm. It will be held in collaboration with Corinthia St George, Corinthia Marina Resort and Nordic+ Club. The aim is to spend 15 hours at a minimum depth of 11 metres. Any divers who are interested in joining for a pleasure dive are more than welcome.
Mr McGahern is dedicating this dive to his grandfather Lawrence Clements, who passed away on 20 December, 2011.
Thanks to the Malta Independent for the write up
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