Martin Štěpánek (free-diver)

Martin Štěpánek (born in Náchod, Czech Republic on June 5, 1977) is a world class freediver and record-holder. From 1984 to 1997 he was a competitive monofin swimmer (finswimmer) (distances 50m and 100m). Martin's academic background follows a degree in Forestry Engineering with advanced studies in Sports Biology at the Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic. After moving to the United States he became USA Certified as a Deep Sea and Saturation Commercial Diver in May 1999. In 2000 Martin met Douglas Peterson, who went on to become his freediving coach and mentor, guiding him to his first World Record in July 2001. Since then, Martin continued to set freediving world records annually up to his retirement from competitive freediving in 2012. He is now recognized as one of the pioneers of modern freediving education.

Martin was on hand during David Blaine's "Drowned Alive" stunt in Lincoln Center in May 2006. Blaine was attempting to hold his breath (known as "apnea") long enough to break the current world record of eight minutes, fifty-eight seconds.[1]

Martin is the founder of Freediving Instructors International (F.I.I.) the largest freediving education agency in the United States. He is an advisory board member of DiveWise a non-profit organization dedicated to freediver education and safety and celebrity supporter of Oceana.[2]

In May 2009, utilizing only his monofin for propulsion, Martin became the first man to dive over 400 feet (120 m) on a single breath of air.

On August 6, 2011, Martin married his partner and fellow freediver, Niki Roderick.

Official World Records by Martin Štěpánek
ApneaAssociationRecordDateLocation
FIM110 m23 May 2009Sharm (Egypt)
CWT122 m22 May 2009Sharm (Egypt)
FIM108 m5 April 2006Cayman (BWI)
FIM106 m3 April 2006Cayman (BWI)
CWT106 m1 April 2006Cayman (BWI)
VWT136 m14 April 2005Cayman (BWI)
CNF80 m9 April 2005Cayman (BWI)
CWT103 m10 September 2004Spetses (Greece)
FIM102 m3 Mars 2004Cayman (BWI)[3]
CWT93 m29 May 2003Limassol (Cyprus)
FIM90 m8 September 2001Miami (USA)
STA8 min 6 sec3 July 2001Miami (USA)[3]
STA7 min 47 sec1 July 2001Miami (USA)
gollark: Huh. 86WPM with autocorrect, actually.
gollark: Due to phone bad.
gollark: If I did a typing test on my phone I'd only get 40WPM or something.
gollark: I'm on my phone. This would work very poorly.
gollark: I don't have any opinions on what things are fun to type since if I pay much attention to typing I can no longer actually do it.

References
  1. Paul Kotik (9 May 2006). "David Blaine: Drowned Alive? Part VII 'Curtain Down'".
  2. http://oceana.org/press-center/press-releases/champion-freedivers-martin-stepanek-and-niki-roderick-partner-oceana
  3. McKie, N (2004). "Freediving in cyberspace". Journal of the South Pacific Underwater Medicine Society. 34: 101–3. Retrieved 2013-10-05.
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