The global record for the longest period of time spent underground without depressurization was set Friday by a German aerospace engineer who spent 120 days in a submerged capsule off the coast of Panama.
Rudiger Koch, 59, appeared before Guinness World Records adjudicator Susana Reyes after emerging from his 30-square-meter (320-square-foot) underwater residence.
She verified that Koch had surpassed the previous record set by Joseph Dituri, an American who lived in an underwater lodge in a Florida lagoon for 100 days.
“It was a great adventure and now it’s over there’s almost a sense of regret actually. I enjoyed my time here very much,” Koch told AFP after leaving the capsule 11 meters (36 feet) under the sea.
“It is beautiful when things calm down and it gets dark and the sea is glowing,” he said of the view through the portholes.
“It is impossible to describe, you have to experience that yourself,” he added.
Koch smoked a cigar and drank champagne to celebrate before jumping into the Caribbean Sea, where he was rescued by a boat and brought to dry land for a party.
The majority of modern conveniences were there in Koch’s capsule, including a TV, computer, internet, bed, toilet, and even an exercise bike.
Situated approximately fifteen minutes away by boat from the northern Panamanian shore, it was connected to an additional chamber situated above the waves by a tube that had a narrow spiral stairway that allowed people, including a doctor, and food to descend.
Electricity was generated by solar panels on the exterior. There was no shower, but there was a backup generator.
Koch had told an AFP journalist who visited him halfway through his endeavor that he hoped it would change the way we think about human life — and where we can settle, even permanently.
“What we are trying to do here is prove that the seas are actually a viable environment for human expansion,” he said.
Four cameras filmed his moves in the capsule — capturing his daily life, monitoring his mental health and providing proof that he never came up to the surface.
“We needed witnesses who were monitoring and verifying 24/7 for more than 120 days,” Reyes told AFP.
According to her, the album “is undoubtedly one of the most extravagant” and took “a lot of work,”
Under the waters, Koch kept a copy of Jules Verne’s 19th-century science fiction classic, “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea,” on his bedside table. He was a huge fan of Captain Nemo.
