Croatian freediver Goran Colak this past weekend broke the Guinness World Record for the longest pure oxygen-aided breath hold at 22 minutes and 30 seconds.

According to a post on Colak‘s Facebook page:

Crazy evening today, main square in Zagreb, with rain and cold weather, I manage to hold my breath on pure O2 for 22:30min in front of live audience and live TV broadcast. And brake Guinness WR in this discipline! Thanks to all that help with organization, the city of Zagreb and my coach!

Goran was gracious enough to answer a few emailed questions from DeeperBlue:

DeeperBlue: How long did you train for this event? What did that training entail?

Goran Colak: I did not have special preparation for this event, I am on my normal training routine and schedule and I was just lucky enough that this kind of event fitted perfectly at my current training regime.

Training at this point in season for me is mainly focused on my [Dynamic No Fins] and prolonging my static times, so that was basically what I was doing the whole time, specific training for that.

DB: During the event, did you ever feel strange or out of place? Were there any challenges during the attempt?

GC: Event was held at the main square in Zagreb, in front of live audience ant with live TV broadcast in prime time. Like that alone was not enough there was heavy rain during the whole day and the temperature dropped to 10 degreases Celsius. So overall it was quite a challenge to do it under this conditions in a 3mill suit.

DB: How did you overcome those challenges, if any?

GC: No special trick how I manage to overcome all that, just kept my head under the water.

DB: What is your next goal?

GC: My next goal, well I hope to advance my DNF distance for a bit till the end of the year. After that, I’ll take few weeks of rest and travel around before we start everything all over again.

Photo credit: marjanradovic.com