LARNACA: A 96-year-old celebrated his birthday on Saturday by breaking his own record as the world’s oldest active scuba diver for the third year running, plunging to the depths of the equivalent of a 15-storey building to explore a shipwreck off Cyprus.

World War Two veteran Ray Woolley, who turned 96 on Aug 28, plunged to a depth of 42.4 metres for 48 minutes, the event organisers said. He beat his previous record of 40.6 metres for 44 minutes.

“Its just unbelievable. I’ve been diving now for 59 years and these are the sort of dives that you remember because there are so many divers with you,” Woolley said, of the other 47 divers who swam with him.

“If I can still dive and my buddies are willing to dive with me I hope I can do it again next year,” Woolley said after the event organised by the Larnaca municipality and the town’s tourism board.

Woolley, who lives in Cyprus, was a radio operator in World War Two. Has successively broken two previous records he held in 2017 and 2018. He is originally from Port Sunlight in northwest England.

The Zenobia, a cargo vessel laden with trucks that sank off of Larnaca in 1980, is a popular dive site.

Published in Dawn, September 1st, 2019