Gianluca Genoni, is the new new static apnea world record holder. The Italian diver has beaten thursday 27th November the previous record, realized by the famous illusionist David Blaine, of one minute realizing the TOTALLY INCREDIBLE RECORD OF 18 MINUTES AND 3 SECONDS WITHOUT BREATHING!!!

Gianluca Genoni is not new to extreme exploits having set many world records of free diving in variable weight apnea, however this new record appears so extreme and almost beyond human capacities that it has also given rise to some arguments about the dangers of this kind of attempts.
The extreme static apnea (which is an apnea inside a pool in almost trance conditions of total relax) in fact could be very dangerous but Gianluca Genoni is a professional and behind its record there is a scientific research of Dan Europe. It's not the first time that Gianluca "lend" his incredible body to the scientific research, like in 2003 when he was the first man diving at 5200m at the foot of Mt. Everest.

Let's look through this incredible record. How Gianluca managed to hold his breath for 18'03"69 when a normal person with difficulty resist more than two minutes and a professional swimmer could maybe reach five?
There are many reason, first of all his great concentration ability but that's not enough:

30 cardiac pulsation in a minute is the level he can reach during the apnea

9 litres is the extraordinary pulmonary capacity of Gianluca. Common people do not exceed 6.

80% oxygen more. Stored thanks to hyperventilation, pulmonary volume and air inhalation from an oxygen tank before the attempt

Believe it or not, Gianluca and his equipe are already thinking to surpass the twenty minutes barrier. Incredible.


Gianluca concentrating


Gianluca during his free-diving exploits