11-Year-Old Breaks Scuba Diving World Record
Like other 11-year-olds, Ethan Evans likes playing soccer and being with his friends. But he has one hobby that not many children his age have: scuba diving.
And he loves it so much that he broke the world record for the most scuba dives completed before the age of 12.
The previous record was 102 dives. But on August 12, Ethan posted a video on his Instagram saying he had completed his 140th dive.
"Feels very very good being a world record breaker," he wrote.
Ethan's father, Paul Evans — who teaches scuba diving — told the BBC that the record has been recognized by SSI and PADI, the world's largest diving bodies. He added that they had applied to have it recognized by Guinness World Records too.
Ethan, who is from Worcester in the UK, began diving when he was 10 years old.
Paul told the BBC Ethan was determined to break the record, and spent a year diving as much as he could, sometimes doing as many as three dives a day.
And while most people would be afraid if they came face-to-face with a shark, the experience is what made Ethan fall in love with diving.
"Seeing sharks is my favorite thing to do! It's the most fun and amazing thing I've done in my whole life," he told the BBC.
He added that he'd been nervous at first, but he overcame his fear "dive after dive after dive."
Scuba diving requires different levels of training to be able to do. Children must be at least 8 years old if they want to try diving in a confined area — like a pool — while the minimum age for getting open water training is 10.
