This dynamic apnea attempt will take place at Lago Santo in Val Cembra (Trento – Italy), where Tomasi will swim under the ice, using a monofin.

Just two holes will be be cut throught the frozen surface of the lake at a distance greater than the previous record. The thickness of the ice has to be at least 30 cm for this attempt.

The current record is held by Turkish freediver Sahika Ercümen, an International Apnea Academy Instructor, who did 110 meters in February 2011, in the Waissense lake in Austria.  The athlete started from a hole dug in the 40cm thick ice, and re-emerged through another hole 110m away. She broke the record 110m in 2 min 20 sec.

More on Tomasi’s record attempt can be read on the Rane Neri website.

Related posts:

1. Roderick Announces World Record Attempt
2. Guinness World Record in O2 assisted Static Apnea
3. Pipin To Attempt New World Record in 2002

Blue holes were once sinkholes that formed on land and later filled with ocean water. The deepest blue hole known on earth is Dean’s Blue Hole in the Bahamas which reaches some 663 feet and is known to divers as a world class freediving destination where competitions are held annually.

Originally sinkholes were formed during the ice age when ocean water was locked up as ice, and freshwater rain caused erosion through the coastal limestone rock causing deep caverns. As Earth warmed up and the oceans rose many of these caverns collapsed and filled with saltwater.

The bacteria found down in these depths which are yet unreachable by divers except on SCUBA or by submarine, are living in sulfur-based ecosystems. Scientists have become interested in these life-forms as similar conditions could exist in pitch-black oceans millions of miles away— “perhaps under the icy crusts of Jupiter’s moon Europa and Saturn’s moon Enceladus”, Kevin Hand reports in National Geographic. Kevin Hand is an astrobiologist and NASA’s deputy chief scientist for solar system exploration.

Rich ecosystems thrive in the inhospitable depths of these blue holes, including species of shrimp, aquatic mites, copepods, and other crustaceans and survive on microbial nutrition.

“It’s through our study of life’s extremes on Earth that we can extend our understanding of habitable environments off Earth,” he said.

You can read more about this on the National Geographic website.

Related posts:

1. Carbon Based Life Forms Call Home
2. ,"IMAX film on ""Extreme Life Forms"""
3. New Species of Marine Life Emerge from the Deep

Eelis Rankka, Tommi Salminen and Jukka Pelttari are seen with a wheelbarrow, bucket and fishing tackle and are standing upside-down under an ice shelf.  Watching the video their bubbles can be seen trailing in the “wrong direction” as they move along the ice shelf.  The divers have perfected the knack of allowing air to fill their dry suit boots, keeping them stable on the ice.

A full news story on this can been seen in Discovery News.

Related posts:

1. Fishing and Diving in Zambia
2. Rescue at Sea – Tawainese Scuba Divers Saved
3. Divers search Mayan Ruins Submerged in Guatemalan Lake

Best Male Newcomer: Antonio Koderman
Best Female Newcomer: Jody Fisher
Best Instructor: William Winram
Best Coach: Martin Zajac
Best Judge: Grant Graves
Best Aida Volunteer: Carla Hanson
Best Athletic Sportsmanship: Goran Colak

Related posts:

1. People’s Choice – Cast Your Vote for the Best AIDA Freedivers
2. Vote for the “Best” in AIDA Freediving
3. ICARE issues final nominations for best freedivers

Editor-in-chief Jesper Kjøller extolls what his new publication will and won’t do: ”In our opinion many dive magazines kill the underwater images by cramping too many and too small photographs together in too little space – and then they suffocate the pages further with ugly advertising. Diving is visual activity and with DIVE THE WORLD we will let the images speak for themselves. Our goal is to take the reader along with us on a dive, even if they are relaxing in an armchair or airplane seat with the magazine. Properly telling a story requires space, and we will gladly let an article fill 16 to 20 pages if that is what it takes to bring a story to life.”

A relatively new idea in dive publishing, DIVE THE WORLD is for the traveling diver who enjoys easy tropical diving, marine life encounters and exotic adventures. Get your own subscription here and see a publication schedule here – DTW is on newsstands now.

Related posts:

1. UK Dive Magazine publishes First Digital Cover
2. Golden Dolphin Magazine Releases Outstanding New Dive DVD
3. Dive Chronicles Magazine Announces Three Significant Partnerships with Well-known Consumer Dive Shows

• Best Manta Ray Covershot
• ADEX Photo of the Year
• ADEX Video of the Year

The prizes range from a Canon 60D with accessories to a Canon Legria HF S21.  The deadline for entries to win these fabulous prizes is the 15th of March 2012.  For further details on ADEX and the competition visit the Underwater3some website.

Related posts:

1. UWPG Ocean Art Photo Competition 2010
2. Ocean Art Photo Competition
3. TEK Week 2012 set for Grand Cayman this August