Ray Woolley breaks scuba diving record at 96 years of age

“Life Begins at 90”, a documentary based on Ray Woolley’s life, is to be shown at the Bosnia-Herzegovina film festival in the month of September.

Ray Woolley belongs to Port Sunlight which is in northwest England. Ray Woolley now lives in Cyprus. Ray was a radio operator in world war second.

Ray Woolley before the dive

Ray has successively broken the two previous records that he had held in 2017 and 2018. This time when he dove in, he broke his previous record of being underwater for 44 minutes at 40.6 meters. The event organizers confirmed that this time he dove to a depth of 42.4 meters for 48 minutes. Ray and the other divers spend some time and sat on the hull of the submerged ship. Fishes and a couple of turtles swam by them as they sat there.

“It’s 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,” Ray said after completing the dive with the 47 other divers who had dived 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,” Ray told Reuters.

Ray Woolley photographed in the water

He dove in Larnaca which is a popular dive site. It is here that a cargo vessel named Zenobia had sunk. Zenobia was carrying trucks in it. The event was organized by the Larnaca municipality and the town’s tourism board.

Second world war veteran Ray Woolley turned 96 on the 28th August. “I refuse to accept the fact that I’m getting old,” Woolley is heard saying in the trailer.