Following a review of the regulations, AIDA event judges Bill Stromberg and Nicolas Laporte have ruled George "Doc" Lopez’s 34m U.S. record dive of March 25 , 2004, invalid.
While the discpline regulations specify that the diver must touch the bottom plate to have attained the measured depth, general regulations define "touch" as touching with the hand. Doc, as my earlier report recounted, completed the last few meters of his descent heads-up to resolve an equalization problem, and so touched the bottom plate with his foot, rather than with his hand.
While this was very disappointing all around, Doc cheerfully accepted the verdict and is determined to do the same dive in a rule-compliant manner tomorrow, thus nailing down that record.
