South African man sets record for world’s deepest dive

South African engineer, Nuno Gomes, entered the Guinness Book of Records for mankind’s deepest dive ever on 13 June 2005. Gomes’318.25m plunge beat the record of 313m, set by Mark Ellyatt in Thailand in 2003. His target was a depth of 320, but he only managed 318.25, which still proved good enough for a world record. It took Gomes only 20 minutes to descend, but returning to the surface took an agonising 12 hours. The quick descend and slow return to surface is a technique used in extremely deep scuba diving. Gomes is one of very few people to have descended below depths of 250m. More people have been on the moon than below the sea.