Herbert Nitsch
Template:Short descriptionScript error: No such module "infobox".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".Script error: No such module "Check for clobbered parameters".Template:Wikidata image Script error: No such module "Unsubst". Herbert Nitsch (born 20 April 1970) is an Austrian freediver, the current freediving world record champion, and "the deepest man on earth"[1] having dived to a depth of Script error: No such module "convert"..
Nitsch has held 33 world records across eight freediving disciplines recognised by AIDA International and one in the traditional Greek discipline of Skandalopetra.
Competitive freediving
During his career, Nitsch has held 32 world records across eight AIDA-recognised disciplines: Dynamic Apnea, Dynamic apnea without fins, Static Apnea, Constant Weight, Constant Weight without Fins, Free Immersion, Variable Weight, and No-Limits. Currently AIDA is no longer involved in No-Limits events.
Dynamic Apnea and Dynamic without Fins
Nitsch's last Dynamic Apnea record of 183 m set in 2002, was bested by 40 m by Tom Sietas.
Sietas also holds the Dynamic apnea without fins record at 183 m, beating Nitsch's last 2001 distance of 134 m[2] by almost 50 m.
Constant Weight and Constant Weight without Fins
Nitsch also held the world record in the Constant Weight event,[3] which is considered by many to be the classic free-diving discipline: the diver descends next to a line, not using the line and unaided by a sled, and must maintain a constant weight, meaning that no weight can be dropped for the return to the surface.
Nitsch exceeded the then world record depth in 2006 when he dived to a depth of Script error: No such module "convert"., but failure to complete the strict surfacing protocols within the allotted time meant that the dive was disqualified. Script error: No such module "Unsubst".
In Hurghada, Egypt, in December 2006, he set a Constant Weight World Record dive of Script error: No such module "convert".,[4] exceeding Guillaume Néry's previous record by 2 m. Later in 2007, he also set the Constant Weight (No Fins) record during The Triple Depth in Dahab, Egypt, and went on to push the Constant record to Script error: No such module "convert". during the World Championships in Sharm. Herbert also won the AIDA Individual World Championships.
His record of Script error: No such module "convert". for Constant Weight without fins, set in 2004,[5] was beaten by 14 m in 2005 by Czech free-diver, Martin Štěpánek, who was also the holder of the Free Immersion record of Script error: No such module "convert".; Nitsch recorded Script error: No such module "convert". in September 2003, but his record was bettered by a dive of 101 m by Carlos Coste of Venezuela in October the same year and then twice improved upon by Štěpánek.
Static Apnea
Nitsch set a time of 9 mins 4 secs for the world Static Apnea record in December 2006 when he held his breath underwater in a swimming pool in Hurgada,[4].
Free Immersion and Variable Weight
During the 2009 Vertical Blue competition at the Dean's Blue Hole in the Bahamas in April, Nitsch set the Free Immersion world record at Script error: No such module "convert".. He also established two subsequent world record dives in Constant Weight at Script error: No such module "convert"., and Script error: No such module "convert". on the last day of the competition, beating by 6 m the previous record that he had set a few days earlier. He used his arms only in the last Script error: No such module "convert". of this ascent, with a total dive time of 3:58.
Later that same year in December at the Dean's Blue Hole in the Bahamas, Nitsch broke three world records: Variable Weight at Script error: No such module "convert".; Free Immersion at Script error: No such module "convert".; and Constant Weight at Script error: No such module "convert"..
Retirement
During his last competition before retiring from competitive freediving, in April 2010 at Vertical Blue again at the Dean's Blue Hole in Bahamas, Nitsch set another three world records. He landed two subsequent ones in Free Immersion at Script error: No such module "convert". and Script error: No such module "convert"., and a world record in Constant Weight at Script error: No such module "convert"..[6]
Nitsch focused solely on the "No Limit" events after this, in which the record attempts fall outside of regulated competition.
'No Limits' freediving
Nitsch holds the No-Limits record and the title of "Deepest man on Earth"[1] in which the diver uses a weighted sled to descend as far as possible and uses an air-filled balloon or other buoyancy device to return to the surface.
World record
Nitsch set the world record[7] in Spetses, Greece in June 2007 when he descended to Script error: No such module "convert".,[1][8] beating his own record of Script error: No such module "convert". set the previous year.[9]
Later attempt and serious injury
In 2012, Nitsch returned to the "No Limit" category in the waters off Santorini, Greece, with a project labeled "Extreme 800", aiming for a depth of Script error: No such module "convert"..[10]
Following extensive training using an innovative torpedo-type sled design of very high descend and ascend speed, on 6 June 2012, Nitsch managed to reach a depth of Script error: No such module "convert".,[11] a Guinness World Record,[12] but ten minutes after the dive he began experiencing serious symptoms of decompression sickness. Nitsch temporarily fell asleep due to nitrogen narcosis during the last part of the ascent (as opposed to through oxygen starvation), and woke up prior to reaching the surface. Following a planned post-dive decompression, breathing medical oxygen at a shallow depth, he signaled to his support team that he felt much weaker than normal and his condition was assessed as critical enough to require an air transfer to a pre-alerted decompression chamber in Athens, where he received treatment. He incurred multiple brain strokes due to severe decompression sickness. He subsequently received extensive decompression treatment in Germany.
The initial prognosis was that he would need home care and be unable to walk without assistance. However, through extensive rehabilitation, he made a strong recovery. He still has balance and coordination problems on land, but does not experience them underwater. He continues to deep free-dive.
Other career
Nitsch also worked part-time as a pilot for Tyrolean Airways.
Awards and honors
The asteroid 295471 Herbertnitsch, discovered by Italian amateur astronomer Vincenzo Casulli in 2008, was named in his honor.[13] The official Template:MoMP was published by the Minor Planet Center on 27 August 2019 (M.P.C. 115895Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".).[14]
Official records
Nitsch remains to date the only person that achieved world records across all of AIDA's eight freediving disciplines, in addition to the one he had set in the Greek discipline of Skandalopetra.
| apnea | Federation | Record | Date | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DNF | AIDA | Script error: No such module "convert". | 27 January 2001 | Geneva |
| DYN | AIDA | Script error: No such module "convert". | 24 February 2001 | Geneva |
| CWT | AIDA | Script error: No such module "convert".* | 16 June 2001 | Millstätter See |
| CWT | AIDA | Script error: No such module "convert". | 11 October 2001 | Ibiza |
| DYN | AIDA | Script error: No such module "convert". | 10 November 2001 | Berlin |
| DNF | AIDA | Script error: No such module "convert". | 24 November 2001 | Wiesbaden |
| DYN | AIDA | Script error: No such module "convert". | 2 February 2002 | Vienna |
| FIM | AIDA | Script error: No such module "convert". | 27 February 2002 | Austria |
| DYN | AIDA | Script error: No such module "convert". | 16 November 2002 | Berlin |
| FIM | AIDA | Script error: No such module "convert". | 5 September 2003 | Millstätter See |
| CWT | AIDA | Script error: No such module "convert". | 5 September 2003 | Millstätter See[15] |
| CNF | AIDA | Script error: No such module "convert". | 6 September 2003 | Millstätter See |
| CNF | AIDA | Script error: No such module "convert". | 11 September 2004 | Spetses (Greece) |
| CNF | AIDA | Script error: No such module "convert". | 12 September 2004 | Spetses |
| NLT | AIDA | Script error: No such module "convert". | 2 October 2005 | Žirje (Croatia) |
| NLT | AIDA | Script error: No such module "convert". | 28 August 2006 | Žirje |
| CWT | AIDA | Script error: No such module "convert". | 9 December 2006 | Hurghada (Egypt) |
| STA | AIDA | 9 min 04 sec | 13 December 2006 | Hurghada |
| NLT | AIDA | Script error: No such module "convert". | 13 June 2007 | Spetses |
| NLT | AIDA | Script error: No such module "convert". | 14 June 2007 | Spetses |
| CNF | AIDA | Script error: No such module "convert". | 21 October 2007 | Dahab (Egypt) |
| CWT | AIDA | Script error: No such module "convert". | 1 November 2007 | Sharm (Egypt) |
| CWT | AIDA | Script error: No such module "convert". | 4 April 2009 | Long Island (Bahamas) |
| FIM | AIDA | Script error: No such module "convert". | 6 April 2009 | Long Island (Bahamas) |
| CWT | AIDA | Script error: No such module "convert". | 11 April 2009 | Long Island (Bahamas) |
| SKA | Script error: No such module "convert". | 26 June 2009 | Lindos (Greece) | |
| VWT | AIDA | Script error: No such module "convert". | 7 December 2009 | Long Island (Bahamas) |
| FIM | AIDA | Script error: No such module "convert". | 8 December 2009 | Long Island (Bahamas) |
| CWT | AIDA | Script error: No such module "convert". | 9 December 2009 | Long Island (Bahamas) |
| FIM | AIDA | Script error: No such module "convert". | 19 April 2010 | Long Island (Bahamas) |
| CWT | AIDA | Script error: No such module "convert". | 22 April 2010 | Long Island (Bahamas) |
| FIM | AIDA | Script error: No such module "convert". | 25 April 2010 | Long Island (Bahamas) |
| NLT | Guinness WR | Script error: No such module "convert". | 6 June 2012 | Santorini |
72m = AIDA Lake Record; after 2001-12-31 AIDA International no longer separated the records achieved in a lake from those in the sea.
Personal bests
| Discipline | Result | Accreditation | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Time | STA | 9:04 min | AIDA |
| Distance | DNF | 138 m | AIDA |
| DYN | 183 m | AIDA | |
| Depth | CNF | 83 m | AIDA |
| CWT | 124 m | AIDA | |
| FIM | 120 m | AIDA | |
| VWT | 142 m | AIDA | |
| NLT | 253.2 m 214 m |
Guinness WR AIDA | |
| SP | 107 m | ||
Filmography
- Documentaries and TV
- 2017: Herbert Nitsch, The Deepest Man On Earth, by UPROXX – Template:Trim Video on YouTubeScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
- 2016: Supertalent Mensch: Körperbeherrscher, by Terra X – Template:Trim Video on YouTubeScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
- 2013: Back from the Abyss / Züruck as der Tiefe, the multiple award-winning documentary by Red Bull Media House - Trailer Back from the Abyss: Template:Vimeo and Video on YouTubeScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
- 2012: La Dernière Frontière, by Camera Lucida - Template:Trim Video on YouTubeScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
- 2011: The man who can hold his breath for nine minutes – Inside the Human Body: First to Last, by BBC One- Template:Trim Video on YouTubeScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
- 2009: Apnoetauchen: Neun Minuten ohne einen Atemzug, by Focus Online – Template:Trim Video on YouTubeScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
- 2009: Stefan Raab by TV Total Template:Vimeo
- 2009: Aeschbacher by SRF Template:Vimeo
- Publicity
- 2017: Hyundai Fuel Cell Car Unveiling, by Hyundai - Template:Vimeo and Template:Trim Video on YouTubeScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
- 2011: Extreme 800, by Breitling - Template:Trim Video on YouTubeScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
References
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External links
- Personal website - Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- TED Talk - Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".