Breathlessly easy

Freediver goes without air for almost 20 minutes to grab world record...... 

Bahrain from space Peter Colat New World Record for holding breath . Photo credit: Keystone

At Big Earth we love to while away the cold winter months with a good game. And sometimes bad games. The kind you play when you’re about 8 years old and you think holding your breath is the most fun since the rain stopped playground games of British Bulldog. The best we’ve managed this morning is about 48 seconds and even that left us rasping and a special shade of Pete Doherty purple.

We were inspired by the lungbursting exploits of Peter Colat who has just broken the world record for holding his breath under water. The Swiss freediver grabbed the record after sticking it out in a specially designed tank for 19 minutes and 21 seconds. Claiming back the crown lost to David Blaine in 2008, Colat smashed the current record by 19 seconds and even went as far as to say the first twelve minutes were ‘no problem’.

You might have put the Big Earth team to shame in the breath holding stakes Peter, but we’d totally take you at 40/40.

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