After Herbert Nitsch Broke His Free Diving Record, His Situation Took A Turn For The Worse
Herbert Nitsch is a big name among free divers. The Austrian’s accomplishments have even earned him the nickname “the deepest man on earth.” But that doesn’t mean that all of his dives have gone swimmingly. While setting a world record, in fact, things went horrifically wrong. As the diver rose to the surface, he ended up in an incredibly dangerous situation — and it had a massive impact on his entire life.
A defining accident
Interestingly, Herbert Nitsch became involved in freediving by accident, and yet it eventually came to define his life. Nitsch first came across the sport due to a common mishap: the airline he was traveling with lost his luggage. And unfortunately, that included all of the gear that he was planning to use for a scuba expedition.
Making the most of it
But Nitsch didn’t want to waste the trip, so he simply went diving without the equipment. And in the process, he found himself unwittingly partaking in a whole new form of underwater risk-taking. “[I] unknowingly trained for free diving without knowing that this sport existed,” Nitsch told Just Wanderlust in February 2019. But as it turned out, Nitsch was a natural at free diving.
Changing tides
“A friend of my father then noticed how long I can stay down, and he was quite fascinated and tried to persuade me to set an Austrian record,” Nitsch explained. And remarkably, that record was only around six feet below a dive that Nitsch had already done. “In the end, I set up my first free diving record one year later at an international competition,” he said.
Planning for the worst
One of Nitsch’s previous jobs helped him a lot when it came to taking up free diving. “In the past, I flew as a pilot for an Austrian airline. And in this profession, you are taught to think analytically and always have a way out,” Nitsch told Just Wanderlust. “At the crucial moment, one must not think twice but must retrieve the plan immediately.”
