The abstract is viewable for free here, to view the full article you need to purchase it first.

Some interesting picks from the article:

-Patrick can perform the technique on dry land with a bottle of tap water. Water pressure is not involved. The technique is completely passive.

-The team has not come a cross any side effects, such as middle ear infections or sinusitis, which is suprprising

-According to the article, Patrick did not use packing for his deepest dives

His exhibition sponsored by the Rolex Institute has been visited by more than 1.5 million persons around the globe.
Venice, Tokyo, New York, Los Angeles…mexico city.

His website is pure magic with some astonishing pictures putting together men freediving with and animals…Visit ashes and snow wesite here ( sound on will make the visit even more magic )

The competition will take place from the 1st to the 11th of april in the BLUE HOLE ( Bahamas ).

Seems that the competition is limited to 18 freedivers, among the best in the world says William who just sent us this information.

Nery, Ryuzo, Mullins are some of the athletes who will probably compete…we don’t know yet who the others will be.

You can find some more information about the comp on www.verticalblue.net/blog or just by visiting his website on www.verticalblue.net

The AIDA Team World Championships include the disciplines of Constant Weight, Static Apnea and Dynamic Apnea and each AIDA National organization are entitled to participate with teams (women’s and men’s) of three athlete. Each national team is judged based on the total score of all three athletes in all three diciplines. This setup makes the Team World Championships one of the most respected events in the freediving world.

Possible dates that are being discussed for the 2008 AIDA Team World Championships are between late September to October 2008. Stay tuned for more information…

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Unfortunately the quality in the lunocet footage is hard to make out due to the murky visibility of the pit, but it demonstrates nicely how the fin behaves in motion.

The site still lists 300m as the ultimate goal for Herbert.

Herbert Nitsch was a guest on a German TV show. You can watch the clip on-line here (only in german).

The clip includes good moments such as Herbert being interviewed while holding his breath and coaching the host to an almost 2 minute static via excessive hyperventilation.

BinFins monofins offer a good alternative to the other popular monofin types used by freedivers currently. In the finswimming world they have been received well and many world records have been broken with their design. A Chen Bin fin was also used by Guillaume Néry on his 109 m constant weight world record.

The “Life Amphibious” project has many parallels to the previously mentioned “Sub Human Project”, as it also includes the idea of crossing great distances in the sea using a human powered submarine. Also similar is the is the re-design of the concept of the monofin, achieving greater efficiency by dynamically changing the angle of the blade. There are not much technical details yet, but it is very interesting that the latest update hints at Herbert Nitsch using this design on a world record attempt in 2008.

On the last update you can also see a picture of a kind of early prototype of the device, which is very strange looking indeed.

Looks like the year 2008 will be the battle of the monofins. Will the lunocet or Alex’s invetion take the trophy? Or will traditional monofins still hold their place? In any case this year should be interesting for freedivers.

For more information check the subhuman project web site or this PDF.

How long until we see more completely different solutions to this problem? Or is this just a marketing gimmic and the current monofins are just “perfect”?