Professional freediver Miguel Lozano has shared heartstopping footage of the moment his recent world diving record attempt went drastically wrong.
The Barcelona-born marine sports fanatic - who became the second deepest person in the world with a 400ft freedive in 2016, according to his website - recently posted a short clip of himself passing out at 410ft below the surface of the ocean. Yikes!
"We usually try to hide accidents in freediving to avoid giving a bad image and bring freediving closer to the general public. Blackout rarely occurs, but when it happens, as part of our sport and with the appropriate protocols, as you can see in the video (as it would happen in other sports like climbing) I had no consequences," wrote in his post's caption.
In the short reel, Lozano can be seen being pushed up to the surface by two members of the safety team. More members join to help speed up his ascent, with one diver unclipping Lozano's lanyard from the freediving rope. By the end of the video, Lozano is swiftly brought to the surface by four divers.
Lozano's video has been viewed over 8.7 million times since he first posted it last week, and explained how he was able to recover from the scary situation.
"Thanks to the Roatan Freediving team who put on an impeccable performance and mentally allowed me to face this world record attempt," Lozano added in the caption.
Viewers expressed their amazement in the comments section, with one person commending the swift reaction from Lozano's team. "Incredible teamwork, and impressive calm and composure of the rescue team too. That was a pretty deep grab and those deep rescuers were probably well into their breath hold to," the comment read. "Then to charge to the surface with extra weight is incredible. Glad you're ok and amazing to see this play out so well like it was routine!!"
A fellow freediver also commented his praise, adding: "Only Few people understand really what its mean... to be totally confident in the safety team, the safety team totally confident in [themselves] and each one of the team confident in himself and in each [other's] safety."
The comment continued: "The amazing athletes that you are and some of the top athletes, do your best to [succeed in those] incredible dives, but some times something [very] small can change the result, we are lucky to have one of the safer [sports] in the world, even the incidents are spectacular but [usually] the Freediver is safe, nothing to compare with some sports, mountain biking, climbing, base jumping, surf, moto... And lot of 'safe sports.'"
Though, many people were confused as to how safe it is to ascend so quickly to the surface. "So when you black out, it's ok to go as fast as you can up to surface? And in normal condition as slow as possible to the surface? (not a diver, not even dare to go swim in open sea)," someone added...
...To which another user explained that ascent speed is only limited in scuba diving due to breathing compressed air: "If you're freediving there is no limit on ascent speed. Scuba diving has limitations due to breathing compressed air at depth."
Amazingly, this story is also eerily similar to another heartstopping moment that occurred earlier this year, which saw four-time Olympic artistic swimming medallist Anita Alvarez fall unconscious during her solo free final back in June.
During the World Aquatics Championships in Budapest, cameras captured the moment the 25-year-old swimmer's coach leaped to Alvarez's rescue after the athlete fell to the bottom of the pool.
Fortunately, Alvarez made a full recovery following the scary incident.
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