William Trubridge: Free Diver; Record Holder; Teacher
Born on May 24, 1980 in Britain, the first few years of William Trubridges’ life were spent sailing around the world on his parents' yacht before the family settled in New Zealand. He learnt to swim at the age of 18 months, and was freediving to 15m by the age of eight. When he was 22, he discovered that freediving was a sport, and began serious training. He has a lung capacity of 8.1 l (2.1 Gal). Impressive, considering the lung capacity of the average human male is about 6 l (1.58 Gal).
In 2005 he was the first freediver to dive at Dean's Blue Hole, the world’s deepest marine cavern, now recognised as the world's premier freediving venue. It is also the site of the annual Vertical Blue event, one of the largest freediving events in the world, which Trubridge organizes, and the location of his free diving academy. There he broke his first world record in the discipline of CNF (Constant Weight No Fins) in April 2007, diving to 81m. Since then he has broken this record multiple times. In 2010 he became the first human to descend to 100m (330 feet). William also holds the world record in Free Immersion, at 124m (406 feet), set at Vertical Blue in May 2016. After falling 10m short in 2014, he set a new freediving world record of 102m, in Dean's Blue Hole. Submerged for 4min 14s on a single breath, Trubridge surfaced and was informed of his latest record, to tumultuous cheering. Two days later, he then held his breath for 4 mins 24s to break his own freediving record, plunging 124 meters, and achieving his 17th world record.
In 2011 and 2012 he received the World's Absolute Freediving Award (WAFA), which ranked him as the world's top freediver. Mostly based in the Bahamas, he trains at Dean's Blue Hole, location of many of his record breaking dives.
Trubridge is the subject of the 2011 documentary “Breathe”, detailing his pursuits in 2010 to become the first ever free diver to reach 300 feet with a single breath in the CNF discipline.
Trubridge is the epitome of focus, training, and will; qualities that have helped him achieve greatness. While we at Tomkins won’t help you to increase your lung capacity by 25%, we try to epitomise these qualities in Supporting you in your own quest for Greatness.
William Trubridge has been chosen by us as an example of someone who has achieved greatness in his field; Greatness being a quality we support every day. William features in our “Defying Nature” collection of inspiring examples of Greatness, the first in a series of examples of Greatness across science, medicine, engineering, design and exploration we will be showcasing here. By featuring individuals such as William, we hope to illustrate that Greatness comes in many forms. William Trubridge is in no way connected with us, nor does he endorse our firm.