Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands — There has been no shortage of new national records at this year’s Deja Blue II but one of the most impressive by far has been offered by Kelly Smith of Canada. The 46 year-old paralympian has only been freediving for about 2 years, having been introduced to it by his girlfriend at a PFI course in Kona.
On the second evening of PFI’s Deja Blue II competition Kelly astounded the judges and other competitors with a monster static performance of 7 minutes and :27 seconds. With his new national record Smith successfully surpasses a previous longstanding record set by Luc Gosselin (7:22) which has gone untouched for nearly 7 years.
“I am simply amazed at how far I have come within a relatively short time,” said Kelly “as a kid I always played around with holding my breath for a couple of minutes, but I didn’t really know what I was doing. After taking my first PFI class I leap-frogged up to a five minute and :45 second breath-hold which I thought was pretty good but I knew I still had more in me. The training and support I have received from my diving buddies (the Vancouver Apneists) and all of the people here at the comp has been terrific.”
Next up for Smith the eight minute mark and sharing his love of freediving with others who have disabilities, as the sport is truly accessible to everyone.
