Put Cancer Under Pressure: Cristi Quill Sets Guinness World Record Scuba Dive

This is Cristi Quill.

Success for #TeamAmazing2015 and our #Awesome diver Cristi. We blew that 12 hours out of the water! A photo posted by Team Amazing (@team_amazing_2015) on May 2, 2015 at 7:34pm PDT

In 2014, she lost her mother to breast cancer.

She wanted to do something to help fight cancer.

But she doesn’t run marathons or ride bikes across the country. She dives.

So she decided to attempt a Guinness World Record scuba dive to raise money for the American Cancer Society.

Watch this video to learn more about her motivation.

In order to get the Guinness World Record for the longest open circuit scuba dive, she has to stay underwater for 52 hours. I joined her underwater for hour 48.

Doing this safely means she needs a lot of backup. Support divers are with her around the clock, bringing her food, water, and fresh tanks of air.

What’s life like when you spend over two days underwater? I can only speculate from what I saw...

Cristi is spending her 52 hours in a roped-off “playground” on the sand in La Jolla, California.

She rests on a lounge chair. And because the ocean in San Diego is cold—around 60 degrees—she wears a drysuit with an electric heating system underneath. Divers bring her fresh batteries so she doesn’t get too cold.

There’s not much to do. She has games like a Rubik’s cube and a gun that shoots bubble rings.

And she spends time walking around on the bottom of the ocean. It’s kind of like she’s walking on the moon.

Sometimes she just hangs out—maybe imagining how good it will taste to enjoy her victory beer. A Guinness, of course.

It was an honor to get to spend time underwater with Cristi during this epic dive. Congratulations to her and Team Amazing for Putting Cancer Under Pressure.

You can donate here.

To learn more, visit Team Amazing all over the web:

Team Amazing Site http://puttingcancerunderpressure.webs.com

Team Amazing Blog https://puttingcancerunderpressure.wordpress.com

Team Amazing on Twitter https://twitter.com/TeamAmazing2015

Team Amazing on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/PuttingCancerUnderPressure

[Update 12/2016] With a total dive time of 51 hours and 25 minutes, Cristi and her Put Cancer Under Pressure campaign did, in fact, achieve the goal of setting the Guinness world record for the longest open saltwater scuba dive (female).

Filed Under: California, Catalina, News, Underwater Photography, United States · Tagged: