Diving Into the Record Books

 

Making 701 scuba dives during your lifetime is an accomplishment. Making your 702nd dive at 100 years old and counting puts you in the Guinness Book of World Records. Who is this person diving into the record books? Arthur Graf, Jr. of San Antonio, Texas.

Arthur started diving in 1984 with his son. Since then Arthur has been all over the world pursing his passion. From shipwrecks in Italy to the Jamaican sea floor, he’s been there, done that. To make this next, he’s saying final, dive, Arthur had to pass a pool refresher course and get the go ahead from a cardiologist, one specially certified under the Diver Alert Network (DAN). Having passed both, it’s full speed ahead for the dive which is planned for November, when he will be 100 years and six month old, thus breaking the existing world record.

According to Dr. John Joseph, Arthur’s personal physician, “He’s in amazing shape. In fact, on his stress test they made a comment that he has ‘excellent exercise tolerance for age.’  He has a better heart function that a lot of 60 and 70-year-olds.” Sounds like a 100 Year Lifestyle!

Why has this centenarian pursued diving into the record books? Because he is scuba-obsessed and that hasn’t changed with age! He loves the sport! Arthur has been in the water since he was three. “I’ve seen a lot of things underwater that you don’t see on the surface, and you’re in a three-dimensional environment.” Curious about where this next adventure will take him? Keep reading.