A couple sealed it with a kiss in style and made their way into the record books for the longest underwater kiss lasting four minutes and six seconds.
Freedivers Beth Neale from South Africa and her fiance Miles Cloutier from Canada, who are engaged to be married, locked lips in the Maldives on Feb 4.
They smashed the previous record by kissing for 42 seconds longer than an Italian couple who had kissed for three minutes and 24 seconds and held the Guinness World Record for 13 years.
Freediving is a type of underwater diving in which divers do not rely on a breathing apparatus. Instead, they see how deep they can go on a single breath.
Despite having practised the kiss since the idea was hatched three years ago, the couple said the smooch was more challenging than they had expected.
Mr Cloutier, 33, said: “The longer you’re in the breath hold, the higher the level of discomfort rises, so it was a bit disorientating.”
The feat was accomplished in a pool at the LUX South Ari Atoll resort, which is about a three-hour ferry ride from the Maldives capital Male in the Indian Ocean.
Ms Neale, 40, is a four-time South African freediving champion and has set a number of South African national freediving records and African continental Records.
She said: “It was very interesting for me because I’m a freedive instructor. And all the things I tell my students, I wasn’t able to follow myself for the first time in my life.”
She added that the secret to the successful kiss was putting on her underwater earphones and listening to rapper Eminem’s song Lose Yourself, which helped her make it through the final seconds.
The love birds, who have a 1½-year-old daughter, have been together for nearly five years after meeting in Bermuda through a shared love for ocean conversation.
Ms Neale said she wanted to take on the challenge to inspire others to share the couple’s love of all things underwater, The Independent reported.
She said: “Through sharing our underwater love story, we hope to inspire others to fall in love with the magic and wonder of the underwater world.
“You protect what you love, and the oceans need all the love we can give to safeguard them for future generations to come.”
