A Brantford-born model and a photographer from Hamilton have achieved a third Guinness World Record for an underwater photo shoot.
Advertisement 2
Article content
Article content
Recommended Videos
Article content
Ciara Antoski — a full-time model who grew up in Brantford — teamed up once again with photographer Steve Haining and a crew of safety divers on December 19, 2024, to plunge to a depth of 163.4 feet to a shipwreck in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Boca Raton, Florida.
“The first record I had done with Ciara was just for us. It was very much a personal shoot, we weren’t even trying to get a record at that time,” Haining said of the June 2021 shoot at a shipwreck near Tobermory, Ontario that lasted for 16 minutes in 21 feet of water. “That kind of accelerated into ‘we really like doing this, let’s go to a more challenging spot’ which is when I ended up doing the 100-foot record shoot in Tobermory.”
That second world record shoot involved safety diver Mareesha Klup-Klos as the model because at the time, Antoski was not a deep diving specialist.
Advertisement 3
Article content
“We had intended on setting the bar really far but someone did beat it at 130 feet,” Haining shared. “When we talked about going to this next deeper spot, Ciara had told me ‘I want to be part of it again. I want to be the person the next time.’”
Haining said others’ attempts were made at 130 feet for 10 minutes as it was thought that was the lowest depth you could possibly go.
“We were way more ambitious than that,” he said. “Which is why we broke the no decompression limit and went significantly deeper to 50 meters or 163.4 feet, with 15 minutes of bottom time, that ended up being about 20 minutes of decompression.”
The pair followed a mooring line down to the wreck of the Hydro Atlantic with air tanks, accompanied by Haining’s safety diver Ray Marciano, lighting and backup safety Doug Vanderbilt, and Klups-Klos as rescue diver. Wayne Fryman was Antoski’s safety diver who would provide air to her during the shoot while her air tanks were removed.
Advertisement 4
Article content
The entire dive lasted about 52 minutes to compensate for a safe ascent.
The photographer explained that the maximum depth for a dive master or deep specialist is 130 feet, but with certification a technical or commercial diver can pass that limit. To do so requires adjusting the air mix to include helium to offset nitrogen that builds in the body. Staged decompression stops are also necessary to avoid the bends while ascending to the surface.
Antoski undertook a full year of training to become a technical diver, with a team from Isla Divers in Florida training her both remotely and in-person.
“The training was much more intense. We had to train not only for worse-case scenarios for the photo shoot, but I also had to become a tech scuba diver with a lot more practice and certificates,” said the 29-year-old model who now lives in Gatineau, Quebec . “I have always loved the water. I find it quite peaceful, I love the exercise, and how, when you go underwater everything becomes quiet except for your breathing and internal thoughts.”
Antoski is enamored with the thought of diving to deep shipwrecks with everything she has learned, but admitted she is taking a break from big adventures.
Meantime, Haining is busy with directing movies and documentaries for television and streaming services along with doing commercial photography.
With three world records under his belt, he said he’ll just be doing fun dives but may consider reclaiming his record if someone breaks it.
Article content