Herbert Nitsch

Nitsch has held the world record in at least six AIDA-recognised events: Variable Weight, Constant Weight, Static Apnea, Dynamic Apnea, Free Immersion and Dynamic apnea without fins.

Nitsch's Dynamic Apnea record of 183 m set in 2002, was bested by 40 m by Tom Sietas. Women's champion, Natalia Molchanova of Russia, has also swum further than 200 m.

Sietas also holds the Dynamic apnea without fins record at 183 m, beating Nitsch's 2001 distance of 134 m{{Cite news |date=18 July 2003 |title=Free-diving disciplines |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/649731565 |access-date=2 August 2024 |work=The Miami Herald |pages=346 |quote=Dynamic Apnea: Men's world record (without fins): Herbert Nitsch (Austria), 439.6 ft, Nov 24. 2001, Wiesbaden, Germany.}} by almost 50 m.

Nitsch also held the world record in the Constant Weight event,{{Cite news |date=27 October 2002 |title=Diving: Freedivers to compete in Kona event |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/557013087 |work=Hawaii Tribune-Herald |pages=1, 12 |quote=LeMaster, who completes the Kona contingent on the U.S. team, is the U.S. record holder for constant weight dives at 265 feet. Herbert Kitsch holds the world record at 86 meters or 282 feet.}} which is considered by many to be the classic free-diving discipline: the diver descends next to a line, not using the line and unaided by a sled, and must maintain a constant weight, meaning that no weight can be dropped for the return to the surface.

Nitsch exceeded the then world record depth in 2006 when he dived to a depth of {{convert|110|m|ft|0|sp=us|abbr=on}}, but failure to complete the strict surfacing protocols within the allotted time meant that the dive was disqualified. {{citation needed|date=October 2018}}

In Hurghada, Egypt, in December 2006, he set a Constant Weight World Record dive of {{convert|111|m|ft|0|sp=us|abbr=on}},{{Cite news |date=6 January 2007 |title=InsideTrack: A look at the latest landmarks in the world of adventure |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/753399044 |access-date=2 August 2024 |work=The Daily Telegraph |location=London, England |quote=Herbert Nitsch has just broken the world record. The Austrian freediver managed to hold his breath for a staggering nine minutes and four seconds during the recent World Championships in Egypt. The 36-year-old also set a new depth record in "constant weight". This is where a diver descends and ascends using fins. He reached 364 ft (111m).}} exceeding Guillaume Néry's previous record by 2 m. Later in 2007, he also set the Constant Weight (No Fins) record during The Triple Depth in Dahab, Egypt, and went on to push the Constant record to {{convert|112|m|ft|0|sp=us|abbr=on}} during the World Championships in Sharm. Herbert also won the AIDA Individual World Championships.

His record of {{convert|66|m|ft|0|sp=us|abbr=on}} for Constant Weight without fins, set in 2004,{{Cite news |date=14 September 2004 |title=Can you fathom that? |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/476461542 |access-date=31 July 2024 |work=Edmonton Journal |pages=36 |quote=Two freedivers have set depth records off the Greek Island of Spetes.... The second record was set Sunday by Austrian Herbert Nitcsh, who reached 66 metres finless. Nitsch, 31, broke his mark of 62 metres set Friday.}} was beaten by 14 m in 2005 by Czech free-diver, Martin Štěpánek, who was also the holder of the Free Immersion record of {{convert|106|m|ft|0|sp=us|abbr=on}}; Nitsch recorded {{convert|100|m|ft|0|sp=us|abbr=on}} in September 2003, but his record was bettered by a dive of 101 m by Carlos Coste of Venezuela in October the same year and then twice improved upon by Štěpánek.

Nitsch set a time of 9 mins 4 secs for the world Static Apnea record in December 2006 when he held his breath underwater in a swimming pool in Hurgada, a time that was beaten by 4 secs in 2007 by Tom Sietas of Germany.

During the 2009 Vertical Blue competition at the Dean's Blue Hole in the Bahamas in April, Nitsch set the Free Immersion world record at {{convert|109|m|ft|0|sp=us|abbr=on}}. He also established two subsequent world record dives in Constant Weight at {{convert|114|m|ft|0|sp=us|abbr=on}}, and {{convert|120|m|ft|0|sp=us|abbr=on}} on the last day of the competition, beating by 6 m the previous record that he had set a few days earlier. He used his arms only in the last {{convert|40|m|ft|0|sp=us|abbr=on}} of this ascent, with a total dive time of 3:58.

Later that same year in December at the Dean's Blue Hole in the Bahamas, Nitsch broke three world records: Variable Weight at {{convert|142|m|ft|0|sp=us|abbr=on}}; Free Immersion at {{convert|112|m|ft|0|sp=us|abbr=on}}; and Constant Weight at {{convert|123|m|ft|0|sp=us|abbr=on}}.

During his last competition before retiring from competitive freediving, in April 2010 at Vertical Blue again at the Dean's Blue Hole in Bahamas, Nitsch set another three world records. He landed two subsequent ones in Free Immersion at {{convert|114|m|ft|0|sp=us|abbr=on}} and {{convert|120|m|ft|0|sp=us|abbr=on}}, and a world record in Constant Weight at {{convert|124|m|ft|0|sp=us|abbr=on}}.{{Cite news |last=Sortal |first=Nick |date=22 May 2011 |title=Man of Great Depth |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/286407770 |access-date=2 August 2024 |work=South Florida Sun Sentinel |pages=1G and 9G |quote=In May 2009, Stepanek logged the deepest constant weight dive ever, going 400 feet (122 meters) in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt. But Herbert Nitsch went two meters deeper in April 2010 in the Bahamas, so Stepanek will try again, back in Egypt in October.}}

Nitsch focused solely on the "No Limit" events after this, in which the record attempts fall outside of regulated competition.

Nitsch holds the No-Limits record and the title of "Deepest man on Earth" in which the diver can make use of a weighted sled to descend as far as possible and uses an air-filled balloon or other buoyancy device to return to the surface.

Nitsch set the world record{{cite web |title=World Records |url=http://www.aida-international.org/aspportal1/code/page.asp?sType=wr&CountryID=4&actID=3&ObjectID=136 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131206130900/http://www.aida-international.org/aspportal1/code/page.asp?sType=wr&CountryID=4&actID=3&ObjectID=136 |archive-date=6 December 2013 |access-date=24 May 2014 |publisher=AIDA International}} in Spetses, Greece in June 2007 when he descended to {{convert|214|m|ft|0|sp=us|abbr=on}},{{Cite news |last=Cocking |first=Susan |date=5 September 2013 |title=El cubano abandonó hace 10 ańos el buceo libre después de que su esposa murió haciendo el mismo deporte. Esta vez, quiere honrar su memoria |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/650354021 |access-date=31 July 2024 |work=El Nuevo Herald |location=Miami, Florida |pages=A1 |quote=el récord mundial de 702 pies en "no limites" establecido en el 2007 por Herbert Nitsch, de Austria en las costas de Grecia. |trans-quote=the world record of 702 feet in "no limits" set in 2007 by Herbert Nitsch, from Austria, off the coast of Greece.}} beating his own record of {{convert|183|m|ft|0|sp=us|abbr=on}} set the previous year.{{Cite news |last=Campbell |first=Matthew |date=15 April 2007 |title='Fish man' dies 20 metres from safety after deep dive |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/487996456 |work=Calgary Herald |pages=10 |quote=last year, Nitsch notched another world record of 183 metres. |agency=The Times (London)}}

In 2012, Nitsch returned to the "No Limit" category in the waters off Santorini, Greece, with a project labeled "Extreme 800", aiming for a depth of {{convert|244|m|ft|0|sp=us|abbr=on}}.{{Cite web |date=2012-06-06 |title=Herbert Nitsch Receiving Treatment After Failed Record Attempt - DeeperBlue.com |url=https://www.deeperblue.com/herbert-nitsch-receiving-treatment-after-failed-record-attempt/ |access-date=2024-07-31 |website=www.deeperblue.com |language=en-US}}

Following extensive training using an innovative torpedo-type sled design of very high descend and ascend speed, on 6 June 2012, Nitsch managed to reach a depth of {{convert|253.2|m|ft|sp=us}},{{Cite news |last=Drs. Oz & Roinen |date=19 June 2018 |title=Breath easier with anthocyanin flavonoids |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/567873333 |access-date=31 July 2024 |work=LNP Always Lancaster |location=Lancaster, Pennsylvania |pages=B6 |quote=The [freediving] record currently is 253.2 meters (831 feet) set by Herbert Nitsch in 2012.}} a Guinness World Record,{{cite web |url= https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/673884-deepest-no-limit-freedive-male |title=Guinness World Records, Deepest no-limit freedive (male) |publisher=Guinness World Records |access-date=4 November 2021}} but ten minutes after the dive he began experiencing serious symptoms of decompression sickness. Nitsch temporarily fell asleep due to nitrogen narcosis during the last part of the ascent (as opposed to through oxygen starvation), and woke up prior to reaching the surface. Following a planned post-dive decompression, breathing medical oxygen at a shallow depth, he signaled to his support team that he felt much weaker than normal and his condition was assessed as critical enough to require an air transfer to a pre-alerted decompression chamber in Athens, where he received treatment. He incurred multiple brain strokes due to severe decompression sickness. He subsequently received extensive decompression treatment in Germany.

The initial prognosis was that he would need home care and be unable to walk without assistance. However, through extensive rehabilitation, he made a strong recovery. He still has balance and coordination problems on land, but does not experience them underwater. He continues to deep free-dive.

Nitsch also worked part-time as a pilot for Tyrolean Airways.

The asteroid 295471 Herbertnitsch, discovered by Italian amateur astronomer Vincenzo Casulli in 2008, was named in his honor. The official {{MoMP|295471|naming citation}} was published by the Minor Planet Center on 27 August 2019 ({{small|M.P.C. 115895}}).

Nitsch remains to date the only person that achieved world records across all of AIDA's eight freediving disciplines, in addition to the one he had set in the Greek discipline of Skandalopetra.

72m = AIDA Lake Record; after 2001-12-31 AIDA International no longer separated the records achieved in a lake from those in the sea.

;Documentaries and TV

• 2017: Herbert Nitsch, The Deepest Man On Earth, by UPROXX – {{YouTube | tCpJST_c2Ko}}
• 2016: Supertalent Mensch: Körperbeherrscher, by Terra X – {{YouTube | RQ6nEYXT_uw}}
• 2013: Back from the Abyss / Züruck as der Tiefe, the multiple award-winning documentary by Red Bull Media House - Trailer Back from the Abyss: {{Vimeo|id=192678505}} and {{YouTube|id=ZT-L8Zbw-GM}}
• 2012: La Dernière Frontière, by Camera Lucida - {{YouTube | qWkh1rJBR5E}}
• 2011: The man who can hold his breath for nine minutes – Inside the Human Body: First to Last, by BBC One- {{YouTube | 9Vcv01Jm-Ow}}
• 2009: Apnoetauchen: Neun Minuten ohne einen Atemzug, by Focus Online – {{YouTube | axYzNdsUzo0}}
• 2009: Stefan Raab by TV Total {{Vimeo|id=6824591}}
• 2009: Aeschbacher by SRF {{Vimeo|id=6784427}}

;Publicity

• 2017: Hyundai Fuel Cell Car Unveiling, by Hyundai - {{Vimeo | id=230199424}} and {{YouTube | LcPVPHIDLa4}}
• 2011: Extreme 800, by Breitling - {{YouTube | 2KGfBIdPD3M}}

{{reflist|30em|refs=

{{cite web

|type = 9 February 2019 last obs.

|title = JPL Small-Body Database Browser: 295471 Herbertnitsch (2008 QM11)

|url = https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=2295471#discovery

|publisher = Jet Propulsion Laboratory

|access-date = 26 September 2019}}

{{cite web

|title = MPC/MPO/MPS Archive

|work = Minor Planet Center

|url = https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/iau/ECS/MPCArchive/MPCArchive_TBL.html

|access-date = 26 September 2019}}

}}

• Personal website - {{cite web|url=http://www.herbertnitsch.com|title=Herbert Nitsch - The Deepest Man on Earth|access-date=21 July 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070126023021/http://www.herbertnitsch.com/|archive-date=26 January 2007|url-status=dead}}
• TED Talk - {{cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INqG2YtgU08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130724010240/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INqG2YtgU08&gl=US&hl=en |archive-date=24 July 2013 |url-status=dead |title=Herbert Nitsch presenting a TED talk in Vienna in November 2010 |website=YouTube}}

{{Underwater diving|frediv}}

{{Authority control}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2022}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nitsch, Herbert}}

Category:1970 births

Category:Living people

Category:Austrian freedivers