Posted by on November 23, 2004 at 12:55:19:
Verna van Schaik from Gauteng set the new record by diving to a depth of 221 meters at Boesmansgat, which also gave her the record for deepest cave dive and altitude dive.
Van Schaick descended to the maximum depth of 221 meters (725 feet) in 12 minutes and then started the long ascent back to the surface, which required 40 decompression stops that totaled five hours and 27 minutes.
Near the end of the dive, Van Schaick switched to 100 percent oxygen to help flush nitrogen out of her body.
Another South African, Nuno Gomes, recently tried to set a new world record for the deepest scuba dive but failed with a dive of "only" 271 meters (889 feet), well short of the planned maximum depth of 320 meters and the current record of 313 meters set by Mark Ellyatt in Thailand on December 18, 2003.