David Vencl dives beneath the ice at a depth of over 50m in Lake Sils, Switzerland on March 14.
Freediver David Vencl (40 years old) set a record by diving to a depth of 52.1m on a single breath in a glacial lake in Switzerland, according to the Guardian.
Freediver David Vencl dives 52 meters beneath the ice of Lake Sils on a single breath. (Photo: David Vencl Organization/Reuters).
Vencl entered through a hole in the ice, retrieved a sticker from a depth of 50m to prove his achievement, and then resurfaced through the original hole.
He coughed up some blood, sat down for a minute, and then opened a bottle of champagne. Afterwards, he went to the hospital for a check-up and confirmed that nothing was serious.
Pavel Kalous, David Vencl’s promoter, stated that the Swiss temperature drop to 1-4 degrees Celsius caused the Czech diver to take 1 minute and 54 seconds, slightly longer than expected.
“David Vencl was quite pleased but admitted that he was a bit more anxious than usual and encountered some respiratory issues,” Pavel Kalous told Reuters.
“It’s not difficult for David Vencl to be in cold water… Lack of oxygen is normal for him. But this was entirely different because it’s very hard to function with pressure in the ears while immersed in cold water,” he added.
“If you combine all three factors: cold water, lack of oxygen, and pressure issues, it becomes something very unusual,” Kalous further explained.
Previously, the Czech diver was recorded in the Guinness World Records after swimming the entire length of a frozen lake in the Czech Republic in 2021.
He swam continuously for nearly 81m under thick ice, in the cold water environment of 3 degrees Celsius at Lake Lahost.
The ice covering the lake was over 30cm thick. Vencl wore only a regular swimsuit, without any protective gear.
