Deep in the inky depths of the ocean, Mike Board reached a new record for a British freediver: 100 metres down on a single lungful of air.
Down here, where the pressure is ten times greater than on the surface and the human lung is compressed to the size of a small fist, Board, 40, checked his depth gauge, dropped the weight that had carried him down, and began his long ascent towards the light. Just half of 1 per cent of the light falling on the surface reaches such a depth.
Sadly, when the former Royal Marine emerged and breathed for the first time in three minutes, he failed to follow the strict procedure laid down for freediving record attempts and did not remove