If you want to commemorate a historical event, one way to do it might be to hang out underwater for six days.
Which is exactly what Turkish diver Cem Karabay did recently.
On July 20, Karabay set a new Guinness World Record for the “longest open-water scuba dive” by staying under for 142 hours, 42 minutes and 42 seconds to commemorate the 42nd anniversary of Turkey’s invasion of Cyprus in 1974.
The feat nearly doubles Karabay’s previous record of 72 hours that he set in 2015.
Karabay is no stranger to spending days underwater and also holds three world records set in 2009, 2011, 2015. Karabay set a record in 2011 for the “longest scuba dive in a controlled environment”, when he stayed underwater in a pool in Istanbul for over 192 hours.
While underwater, Karabay downed food and liquids and even played backgammon. When he surfaced after the dive, Northern Cyprus Prime Minister Huseyin Ozgurgun was there to greet him.
