Forgot Everything

“I was so distracted by taking pictures that I sometimes forgot the time. My friend was interested to find out how deep I could go and when we checked it with a depth gauge, I went to 32 meters (105 feet). At that time that was two meters short of the Austrian record. It is a laughable depth at today’s competition standards.”

No Idea

As much unbelievable it may sound, Nitsch who later got famous as “Deepest” had no idea what freediving was some years ago. His journey could be called accidental. It was all unplanned. Nobody knew that the stealing of his luggage would make him embark upon a new journey. 

Beat It

Nitsch eventually, accepted his friend’s father’s suggestion and went on to take additional training. His training was way different from the other freedivers. He admitted, “My training is controversial and very different to the training of other freedivers.” How was it different? 

No Easy Training

“Whereas they train more or less by freediving in the ocean, I train in stages, and mainly out of the water, because of living in a landlocked country. I do breath-hold training on the couch while watching a sitcom, endurance training on the bicycle, and strength training with weights at home. But when in training I am very disciplined,” said Nitsch. 

Over The Years

He further added, “In the early years I only trained two days in the water prior to a competition, simply because of time constraints with my job as an airline pilot. During the last few years I extended this to between two and three weeks of ocean training, but that is still very little compared to other freedivers who train throughout the year.”

In The Championship

After gaining required confidence and training, he enlisted himself in the freediving championships in 2007. Nitsch’s courage was admirable as the man took up the challenge only after a few months of training. In the competition, he had only one sled to guide his way. Nitch took a deep breath and threw himself into the less explored part of the waterbody.