Wil Dasovich sets national record for holding breath underwater
How long can you hold your breath underwater? For Wil Dasovich, it was long enough for him to be able to secure a national record.
The TV personality and content creator took to Instagram to announce his achievement of setting an official national record in the sport of Static Apnea (STA), a pool discipline where a person holds their breath face down in the water for as long as possible.
Dasovich was able to hold his breath for a total of five minutes and 39 seconds, and this was recognized by AIDA International, a worldwide rule- and record-keeping body for competitive breath-holding events.
How did he manage to hold his breath underwater for so long? According to him, it was all because of one simple message from Florian Dagoury, a prominent freediving athlete who holds an STA record for an impressive breath-hold of 10 minutes and 30 seconds.
"I was watching Joe Rogan on a Sunday afternoon talk about the health benefits of breath holds and the legendary freediving GOAT @mr10minutes (Florian Dagoury). I quietly fanboyed, slid in his DMs, and said I thought he was cool and asked how he became an amphibious mutant," Dasovich recounted.
He continued, "He surprisingly replied and told me he can turn me into a mutant just like him with his three-month plan. We had weekly meetings, I did what he told me to do, and just like that I joined his army of 5+ minute breath-holding mutant students from all over the world."
Highlighting the lessons he learned from the experience, the Filipino-American vlogger wrote: "Moral of the story, don’t be afraid to ask someone for help and if you want to be the best, learn from the best!"
He learned this the hard way, recalling that he had walked into a freediving competition four months ago with no coach or training and tried to do this all on his own by watching YouTube videos.
"I blacked out at [the four-minute and 20-second mark] and was extremely embarrassed, leaving me with a heavy feeling of shame I knew I could never get rid of until I came back and redeemed myself. This is my redemption and I can now sleep at night!" Dasovich shared.
He ended his post by expressing his gratitude to Dagoury for the "superhuman ability" that he will cherish for life.
"I can’t wait to use my super lungs and adapted red blood cells for when I go diving in the ocean, go on trail runs, and do specific cool party tricks that need not be mentioned on social media!" he wrote.