Jerry Hall made history on Thursday at 12:25 p.m. when he surfaced after spending five days underwater in South Holsten Lake in Bristol, Tennessee after breaking the record for "longest scuba dive in open fresh water," according to ABC News.
Hall began the dive at 12:10 p.m., according to a live blog run by his diving team and updated regularly throughout the five-day period. The previous record was 120 hours, 14 minutes and 11 seconds, which was set by Allen Sherrod in 2011, according to the World Record Academy.
Prior to Sherrod's 2011 dive, Hall had been the record holder in 2002 and 2004. In the just completed dive, Hall aimed to break the record again, and hopefully make it more difficult for someone else to break.
"Last time, there were a number of people who almost broke his old record, and someone finally did by mere minutes," Jim Bean, the co-captain of Hall's diving team. "He decided he wanted to try to get the record back and add, not just minutes, but hours."
Hall then decided to stay underwater until Friday at 1:41 p.m., which was approximately 25 hours more, or more than a day longer than the previous record-breaking point.
The Facebook page Hall has to follow his dive says that Hall wanted to leave a lasting record because "this is his last attempt at the world record breaking dive."
Bean said that Hall completed the dive by sleeping and eating regularly by using special accommodations to do so, such as using a full-face mask while he slept so that he didn't have to be concerned about accidental water inhalation, and food was delivered to him underwater by diving team volunteers.
"When eating, he uses the normal regulator," Bean said. "We cut up the food into bite size pieces, stick them in a baggy, and dive it down to him.
"Jerry then takes out his regulator, sticks foods in between his lips, spits out any water that slips in and chews and swallows," he continued.
Hall also watched television while underwater to entertain himself.
"An underwater TV that is attached to a DVD player is providing entertainment for Hall after he returned to the platform this morning," read his blog. "A speaker provided by Lubell Labs is allowing Hall to listen to music and the TV audio throughout the dive."
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
