Sports Talent athlete, Daniel Koval of Kona, Hawai’i, broke two North American Continental and USA Men’s National Freediving Records during the 2019 Asian Freediving Cup, held annually in the clear and calm waters off Panglao Island’s Doljo Beach.
On June 10, 2019, Daniel Koval became the deepest American in history by smashing his own previous Constant Weight national record of 102 meters/334 feet set last July, with a monstrous self-powered dive to 105 meters/344 feet in a dive time of 2 minutes 47 seconds. This is an extraordinary performance from Koval as the Continental record for this discipline has not been broken since 2011 by Canadian athlete Eric Fattah in the Bahamas.
The phenomenal performance continued the following day, June 11, 2019, the final day of the competition, when Koval broke the Free Immersion record. Koval added another meter/3 feet to the national record with an amazing dive to 101 meters/331 feet in a dive time of 3 minutes 30 seconds. Koval’s dive was complicated by difficulty securing a “tag” when he reached the bottom and he spent 10 seconds more than he planned at that depth—a depth at which the human body is under an astounding eleven atmospheres of pressure.
Koval eventually secured the tag and swam back up to the surface where, despite some difficulty completing the surface protocol required for an officially “clean” dive, he prevailed and was awarded a “white card” and a new USA national, and Continental, record.
With these two outstanding performances, they have earned Koval a gold medal in the discipline of Constant Weight shared with the Chinese athlete Sendoh Wang who has won the Asian Freediving Cup for the past 5 years. Koval’s Free Immersion performance had also earned him a silver medal for that discipline as well.
Daniel Koval is proudly supported by US Clothing Company BLR Athletique and Finnish Watchmaker Suunto.