The Flying Fish

For those who don't know Herbert Nitsch i will introduce you. Herbert or "the flying fish" is the deepest freediver on earth. He is known as the flying fish due to being a pilot. Herbert who began life as a normal diver began freediving when he arrived at his holiday destination to find his diving equipment lost! Not wanting to miss out on the sea he bought a mask, snorkel and fins and began freediving. After about a week he was finding himself at 40mtrs waving at divers who were exploring the depths.

It seemed he had a natural talent and took the sport up. I meet Herbert last year at the NEC dive show whilst doing some work for Depperblue.net after he gave a presentation to all about his recent WR 214mtr no limits freedive! Herbert holds world records in lots of the disciplines including a 9min 04sec breath hold which has only just been broken (10min 04sec) Herbert is currently training for a 250mtr no limits dive and still aims for a 305mtr (1000ft) dive in 2009!

Herbert was working with the guy's from "no tanx" a group of great freedivers situated in London, many of which make up the UK freediving team and highly respected. After the show we all meet up in the hotel for drinks and Herbert sat at our table (i felt like a 12yr old next to his idle) and probably acted like it too!

It was good to spend some time with him and hear some great relief that if he doesn't train constantly he drops down to a 3min breath hold within 2wks, thank god he is human after all.