Lignano, Italy — In a pre-qualifying heat at the AIDA Individual Indoor Freediving World Championships, the founder of Immersion Freediving, set a new US national record in the freediving discipline of Dynamic Apnea (DYN). Two minutes and :42 seconds after he submerged with his monofin, Ted Harty successfully surfaced from a personal best dive of 170 meters / 558 feet to capture his very first national title on October 10, 2011.
The top twenty-three male and female athletes from qualifying heats at this pool comp are selected for the finals. Consequently, Harty has also qualified for the finals that will take place later in the week in Ligano. Competing alongside such freediving giants as Alexey Molchanova and William Trubridge make getting into the finals an accomplishment in and of itself.
Ted’s performance surpasses the previous USA record of 167 meter / 548 feet which was set in London, England back in 2006 by Theo Ivanovic. This was the longest standing US Men’s National Record. “I’ve been looking at Theo’s 167 M record setting performance for a long time. I knew that all I needed to do was put in some good training time and I could get there.” shared Harty. “I did some solid pool and dry land training to prepare for this event. Even when I’m not training in the pool, I teach PFI freediving classes and leading up to the competition, I taught a lot of courses! Which was great training as well because I do so many dives with short surface intervals.”
Ted continues, “The day of my dive I felt relaxed all day. I was able put the record completely out of my mind and just focus on hitting the wall at 100 M and making the turn. The contractions never got too bad. I had a moment at the end of the dive where I almost kept going, but thankfully I stuck to the plan and came up right past 168 M. I’m excited to go to the finals and represent the USA. I can’t wait to see what else I can do.”
All of DeeperBlue staff offer a hearty congratulations to Harty on his new national record.
