Freediving World Record

      [May 2] CAYMAN ISLANDS / The waters off Seven Mile Beach were the site of an astonishing World Record set on Sunday, 29 April by Mandy-Rae Cruickshank of Canada. Remaining underwater for two minutes and 48 seconds, Ms Cruickshank reached a depth of 289 feet (88m) on a single breath of air to set a new freediving World Record.
    Photo:
Mandy-Rae Cruickshank of Canada who set the Women’s Freediving World Record on Sunday, 29 April off Seven Mile Beach, reaching a depth of 289 feet.

     Ms Cruickshank’s dive falls into the category of constant ballast, in which competitors descend and return to the surface with weights using nothing but their own power.
     Previously the record had stood at 282 feet (86 m) and was held by Natalia Molchanova of Russia.
      Ms Cruickshank is a member of Performance Freediving International Inc (PFI) and has been in training here in Cayman since 8 April. It was during the second day of the second PFI Cayman Competition, that Ms Cruickshank set the seventh World Record of her career.
    Delighted by her latest accomplishment, Mandy-Rae spoke modestly of what makes her the best in the world at what she does. “Just wanting to do it… I love being in the water and I have a real competitive streak in me,” she said. “The mental aspect is the hardest part, pushing your own limits and staying focused on what you are doing, not where you are going.”
    “The conditions here are fantastic. The visibility is great and the water is warm,” said Mandy-Rae.
    It was only in 2000, when she moved back to Canada, that Mandy-Rae became involved in freediving. Meeting up with an old acquaintance, PFI founder and her future husband Kirk Krack, Mandy-Rae discovered a real passion and talent for the sport.
    Kirk is a world class coach and trainer who helped develop Mandy-Rae’s potential at such a rapid rate that, just a year and a half after first becoming involved in freediving, she set her first World Record.
    Kirk also trained Cayman’s very own Tania Streeter, one of the sports pioneering athletes. “Tania Streeter really led the way,” said Mandy-Rae. The re-crowned World Record holder is still pushing to go deeper and says the main source of competition for the divers is actually themselves.
   So what is next for this one-breath wonder? “We’ve got the World Championships in Egypt at the end of the year and we’ll be back in Cayman next spring,” Mandy-Rae explains. “I’ve always wanted to try a record at every discipline,” she adds.
     Officiating at the event were judges Grant Graves and Matthew Charlton of the Association for the International Development of Apnea (AIDA), one of two governing bodies for the sport of freediving. As well as witnessing the new record, these two AIDA Level A Judges were also present to ensure the sport’s strict safety protocols were observed.
   Freediving, or breath-hold diving, has several disciplines with athletes competing in events measuring time, depth and distance, each with different sub categories. Competitive freediving emerged in the late 1940s and is today enjoying unprecedented growth and booming popularity with underwater enthusiasts the world over. While the sport of freediving is still relatively new, the practice of diving on a single breath of air has been used for numerous purposes and can be traced back 4500 years.
     More information on freediving can be found at
     www.performancefreediving.com

  Soources: Performance Freediving International Inc and media reports