28 Oct 2017

William Trubridge: the life aquatic

From Saturday Morning, 8:15 am on 28 October 2017

UK-born New Zealander William Trubridge started freediving at the age of eight, and began to train seriously in Italy when he was 23.

Two years later he was the first freediver to dive at Dean's Blue Hole, now recognised as the world's premier freediving venue, and site of the annual Vertical Blue event, which Trubridge runs.

In 2007 he broke his first world record in the discipline of CNF (Constant Weight No Fins), diving to 81m; three years later he became the first human to descend to 100m during Project Hector, an event aimed at bringing awareness to the plight of New Zealand's critically endangered Hector's and Maui's dolphins.

In July 2016 he furthered this record to 102m, in an event broadcast live.

William Trubridge lives in the Bahamas to train and teach freediving, and has just released his memoir, called Oxygen.