Iceman's record free-dives

HE'S one cool customer, and they call him The Iceman to boot - but he's no comic-book superhero. Instead, Christian Redl earned his nickname by setting world records and going to places that might send shivers up the spines of mere mortals: under the ice and underwater in a single breath to unheard-of depths.

Redl is a professional freediver and an elite member of a small but growing community of people who dive under their own lung power, without the use of scuba gear. Freediving is both a recreational activity and - in the competitive sphere - an extreme sport. In Redl's world, it means pushing his body to physical extremes, breaking established boundaries and creating new ones.

Among the records he currently holds are freediving under ice to a depth of 61 metres (1 minute 51 seconds) and freediving at the highest altitude (5,160 metres above sea level in a Nepalese lake). In warmer waters in 2008, he set the record for deepest cave dive (71 metres) in Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, where he was underwater for 2 minutes and 20 seconds. It's not a long time for someone who can hold his breath for several minutes longer but in the closed confines of an underwater cave system, it can seem like an eternity.