Ahmed Gabr (Photo Courtesy of H2O Divers Dahab)
On September 18, an Egyptian is going to attempt to accomplish an amazing feat – a scuba dive to a depth of 350 meters, or nearly 1,150 feet.
Ahmed Gabr, a retired Army officer and dive instructor, will attempt the dive off the coast of Dahab – a small town on the southeast coast of the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt. Ahmed was an officer with the Egyptian Military, having graduated from the Military Academy in ’94. He continued his career by joining the Special Forces, the Egyptian Rangers and eventually earned a scholarship to the USA Combat Diver Course.
After beginning his diving career in ’94 at the age of 18, Ahmed dived for his pleasure before getting his diving instructor certification in ’96. He continued to dive both for pleasure and work, all the while developing the physical and mental abilities necessary to complete a world record dive. The plan to break the world record started for Ahmed in ’10, at which time he began his training. Unfortunately, training and goals had to be put on hold due to the political situation in Egypt and, Ahmed’s responsibilities as an Egyptian Military Officer.
When the urgency of the political situation began to subside, Ahmed resumed his training for this world record dive. His training regiment includes physical and mental preparedness achieved through activities such as cardiovascular and meditation exercises. Regular diving using deep air and trimix is helping Ahmed to push past the deepest depths of the sea reached by man.
He will be supported by a team from Dahab’s H2O Dive Center. The team includes 30 volunteer members, including surface support crew, in-water support divers, a logistics team to manage setup and coordination, among others. The dive will use at least 124 cylinders of air and mixed gasses. Gabr and the team have undergone rigorous training, which have included practice dives and simulated emergencies.
“We have been doing training dives to 220m thus far and, will be doing some more build-up dives in the next coming months; including simulated emergencies at depth, equipment load and off-load and other vital simulated tasks.” Ahmed currently carries quad 20 litre plus a 12 litre aluminium tank on his back, not including deco-stages.
The attempt is a spendy one. According to Dan Goodman, the event manager, the mixed gasses alone cost $2,600 per training dive. The high cost even forced H2O to set up an online account for donations.
The current official record holder for deepest saltwater scuba dive in South African diver Nuno Gomez, who dove to a depth of 318.25 meters (1,044 feet) in 2005. The dive took him more than 12 hours, with nearly all that time spent in decompression while ascending back to the surface.
Gabr will enter the water at about 8am on Thursday, September 18 off a boat. He plans to secure a tag at 350 meters, or one of a few shallower ones past the prior record of 318 meters, to prove he broke the record.