At the age of 58, Canadian freediver William Winram has claimed a new 140m CMAS world record in the Variable Weight No Fins discipline, in which the diver descends on a sled but has to swim back up.
The previous CMAS VWT-NF record (at sea) of 111m had been set in August 2022 by Omar Al Ghailani of Oman. Winram reached a new world-record depth of 136m on 2 December at the Freediving World Apnea Centre at Sharm el Sheikh in Egypt, with CMAS commissioners on hand to witness the event but, not satisfied with that, over subsequent days had kept trying to improve on that depth, reaching 135m but each time running short of air for equalisation.
“I am happy to report that I nailed a new world record at 140m yesterday, with air to spare at the bottom!” he announced on 12 December.
Winram, who is also known for his work as a shark conservationist, already holds the CMAS VWT bi-fins record of 130m, which he set last year. Governing body AIDA does not have a Variable Weight No Fins discipline.
The 140m dive took him 3min 33sec to complete – one second more than the 136m dive. “From day one in my breath-hold diving career I have had issues equalising,” stated Winram on social media, explaining that he had started to overcome the problem in his mid-40s only after Andrea Zuccari had become his equalisation coach.
It was Zuccari who set up Freediving World in the Red Sea to provide deep training facilities for divers at all levels. He disappeared this summer while scuba diving there, as reported on Divernet in August – and Winram dedicated his new world record to his “dear friend”.
Also on Divernet: 10 top tips for freedive equalisation, Absolute freediving world records set in Roatan, National passions as 8 freediving world records tumble, New on Netflix: The Deepest Breath
