Guinness World Record · 2015 The longest open-water scuba dive ever achieved at the time — organised by the Top One Diving staff at Sharm El Naga, in the Red Sea.
From 4 to 6 June 2015, in the waters of Sharm El Naga (Red Sea), the Guinness World Record for the longest open-water scuba dive was set: 51 hours, 24 minutes and 13 seconds without ever leaving the water. It was achieved by Walaa Hafez, a Captain in the Egyptian Navy; organising and supporting the entire endeavour was the Top One Diving staff.
Davide Bastiani, founder and technical director of the school, was its general manager and organiser. Behind those few hours of record-breaking lay more than a year of work: preparation began roughly twelve months earlier. Davide, together with Vito, spent about six months in Egypt in total — between Hurghada and Sharm El Naga — building the endeavour on the ground: relations with the Coast Guard and the Egyptian Navy, the governorates and local authorities, the Egyptian Red Cross, dive centres and companies in the diving industry, as well as permits, logistics and safety. On the diving-safety side, DAN Europe was involved — in the person of Massimo Pieri, head of the DAN DSL (Diving Safety Laboratory) department, of which Davide is a member as a Researcher Specialist — along with Dr Adel Taher, director of the Hyperbaric Medical Center (HMC) in Sharm el Sheikh and Dahab, one of the world's foremost experts in hyperbaric medicine. The entire staff then arrived about a month before the attempt, staying on site to fine-tune and test every procedure.
The record was later surpassed — that is the nature of endurance feats — but it does not change the meaning of what happened: conceiving, organising and completing a world record takes a real team, well prepared and close-knit. It is the same team that today, in Rome, guides you through your very first dive.
From the preparations to the dive, from the team to the ceremony. Tap a photo to enlarge it.
The same passion and the same care, from your first bubbles in the pool to the open sea. Write to us: we'll tell you everything.