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Free-diver

Free-diver

Free-diving refers to various aquatic activities that share the practice of breath-hold diving. Examples include breathhold spearfishing, freedive photography, Apnea competitions and, to a degree, snorkeling. The activity that garners the public's attention is Competitive Apnea, considered an extreme sport, where divers attempt to reach great depths on a single breath and without direct assistance of breathing apparatus.

Description

Competitive free diving, often referred to as "Apnea", is generally broken down into three categories; static, dynamic and depth with male and female records recognized in each category:
- Static Apnea is timed breath holding and is usually attempted in a pool.
- Dynamic Apnea is underwater swimming for distance and has sub-categories for swimming with and without fins. This competition is usually held in a pool. The depth category has four sub-sections:
- Constant Weight competition is for self-propelled maximum depth, no weights or lines are allowed. This category is also divided into sections for fins or without fins.
- Free Immersion competition is for self-propelled ascent and descent along a line and is for maximum depth.
- Variable Weight competition uses a weighted sled for descent and the diver ascends by pulling themselves up along a line.
- No Limits competition allows the diver to descend with a weighted sled and ascend with a buoyancy control device, usually an air filled bag with a tether. The world record for the "No Limits" category of competitive free diving is held by Belgian diver Patrick Musimu. On 30 June 2005 he dove to a depth of 209 m (685.69 feet), in Egypt, in Red Sea; surpassing the previous record set by Loic Leferme by 38 meters and breaking the psychological barrier of -200 m. The current women's record is held by Tanya Streeter, who dove to 160 m (524.9 feet) on 17 August 2002. The unofficial record is held by the late Audrey Mestre (166 m) wife of legend Francisco “Pipin” Ferrera; she drowned whilst trying to set a world record of 171 m (561 feet). Competitive free-diving featured heavily in the 1988 Luc Besson film Le Grand bleu (The Big Blue).

Physiology of Free-diving

The human body has several adaptations under diving conditions, which stem from mammalian diving reflex. These adaptations enable the human body to endure depth and lack of oxygen far beyond what one would expect. The romantic explanation is given by the anthropologists' aquatic ape theory. The adaptations made by the human body while underwater and at high pressure include:
- Bradycardia: Drop in heart pulse rate.
- Vasoconstriction: Blood vessels shrink. Blood stream directed away from limbs for the benefit of heart, lungs and brain.
- Splenic contraction: Releasing red blood cells carrying oxygen.
- Blood shift: Blood fills up blood vessels in the lung and reduces residual volume. Without this adaptation, the human lung would shrink and wrap into its walls, causing permanent damage, at depths below 30 meters.

Training

Training for free diving can take many forms, many of them out of water. One example is the apnea walk. This consists of a preparation "breathe-up", followed by a short (typically 1 minute) breath hold taken at rest. Without breaking the hold, the participant then initiates a walk for as far as they can, until it becomes necessary to breathe again. This form of training is good for accustoming muscles to work under anaerobic conditions, and for tolerance to CO2 build-up in the circulation. It is also easy to gauge progress, as increasing distance can be measured.

Some famous Competitive Apnea Divers

- Patrick Musimu
- Deborah Andollo
- Mandy-Rae Cruickshank
- Francisco "Pipin" Ferrera
- Mehgan Heaney-Grier
- Loic Leferme
- Enzo Maiorca
- Jacques Mayol
- Audrey Mestre
- Herbert Nitsch
- Umberto Pelizzari
- Tom Sietas
- Martin Stepanek
- Tanya Streeter
- Yasemin Dalkilic
- Gianluca Genoni
- Erez Beatus

External links

- [http://www.deeperblue.net/ DeeperBlue.net]
- [http://www.extremesportscafe.com/free_diving.html Freediving Advice Globally - Free Service]
- [http://www.aida-international.org/ Association Internationale Pour Le Developpment De L'Apnee (AIDA)]
- [http://www.divingfree.com/ F.R.E.E. organization]
- [http://freediving.co.il/index1.htm F.D.I ]
- Category:Extreme sports Category:Individual sports ja:フリー・ダイビング

Extreme sport

Extreme sport (practically synonymous with the term action sport) is a general term for sports featuring speed, height, danger or spectacular stunts. A feature of such activities in the view of some is their alleged capacity to induce a so-called ‘‘adrenaline rush’’ in participants (a misnomer, since often the rush or high obtained is a product of increased levels of dopamine endorphins and serotonin). Extreme sports are often associated with young adults wishing to push themselves to the limits of their physical ability and fear, in turn pushing the boundaries of a particular sport. This youthful demographic accounts too for extreme sports’ frequent association with youth culture, not restricted to clothing fashions and music. Some contend that the distinction between an extreme sport and a conventional one is as much to do with marketing as it is to do with perceptions about levels of danger involved or the amount of adrenaline generated. Snowboarding thus has a more extreme ‘‘image’’ than skiing due to differing marketing strategies and the fact of being a newer sport, even though skiing is a faster and at least equally dangerous activity. Furthermore a sport like Rugby Union, though dangerous and adrenaline-inducing, would not fall into the category of extreme sports due to its traditional image. The term gained popularity with the advent of the X Games, a made-for-television collection of events. Advertisers were quick to recognise the appeal of the event to the public, as a consequence competitors and organisers are not wanting for sponsorship these days. The high profile of extreme sports and the culture surrounding them has also led people to invent jokey parodies, such as Extreme ironing, urban housework, extreme croquet, extreme unicycling, 'house gymnastics', and extreme wheelbarrow. Some purists repudiate the stereoypical "adrenaline junkie" tag. The practitioners would claim they enjoy developing their physical and/or mental skills, seek mastery of inhospitable environments, look to escape from the mundane rigours of day-to-day existence, or simply love the wilderness environment in which many of these sports take place. 'Bob Drury', a paraglider pilot says "We do these things not to escape life, but to prevent life escaping us". Some of the sports have existed for decades and their proponents span generations, some going on to become well known personalities. Rock climbing and ice climbing have spawned publicly recognisable names such as Edmund Hillary, Chris Bonington and more recently Joe Simpson. Another example is surfing, which was originally invented centuries ago by the native inhabitants of Hawaii. Several so-called extreme sports, including snowboarding, were included in the 2002 Winter Olympic Games.

List of some extreme sports

The following are sometimes classed as extreme sports:
- BASE jumping
- BMX freestyle
- Bouldering
- Buildering
- Bungee jumping
- Elevator surfing
- Extreme skiing
- Free-diving
- Caving
- Free running / Parkour
- Cave diving
- Climbing
- Whitewater kayaking
- Kitesurfing
- Kneeboarding
- Mountain biking
- Mountain boarding
- Paintballing
- Parachuting
- Paragliding
- Paramotoring
- Poweriser
- Whitewater rafting
- Skydiving
- Skysurfing
- Slicky Boarding
- Slamball
- Skiboarding
- Skiing
- Skiriding
- Snowboarding
- Street luge
- Surfing
- Thong Grabbin'
- Unicycling
- Urban Golf
- Wakeboarding
- Water skiing
- Windsports
- Windsurfing
- Drag Racing

External links

- [http://www.spiked-online.com/Articles/0000000CAD26.htm What's so extreme about extreme sports?] Extreme sports as part marketing hype and part individualism.
- [http://www.actionadventure.com.au Extreme sports] in Australia and New Zealand.
- Category:1990s fads

Diving

Diving has several meanings:- #Jumping or falling deliberately, often acrobatically, into water. This, and also completely unequipped swimming underwater, is described on this page. See also Underwater swimming. #Going underwater with or without breathing apparatus. When done for sport, this is sometimes called subaquatics. See:- #
- Snorkelling and free diving: swimming underwater without breathing apparatus. #
- Scuba diving and surface supplied diving: swimming or walking underwater with breathing apparatus. Humans are not the only ones to dive (in sense 1). Some species of amphibious animals such as marine mammals and some seabirds dive to catch their prey underwater. When dealing with equipment such as submarines and underwater remotely operated vehicles, the act of descending into the water is called diving and the command for the descent, especially in battle, is "dive." Scuba divers sometimes jump into water feet first from some height above the water (e.g. from a large boat or from a pier. Do not jump in head first if you are wearing any sort of scuba equipment or snorkelling equipment. In particular, an open-circuit scuba banging about on the back is big and hard and heavy and during a headfirst dive (in sense 1) may sprain or break the back or neck. Use one hand to hold your mask on. ---- Sometimes the term jumping is used to disambiguate, e.g. simply for the thrill of entering the water from a high cement tower, we might say that the children jump off the tower, to describe the airborne experience, as well as the impact with the water, but not emphasizing the dive down below the surface of the water, since the intent of jumping off the cement tower is not really to dive down under the water, and in fact the depth of diving into the water is an undesirable effect that can cause barotrauma. Ideally for recreational fun, one would like to jump from a high tower, but not dive too deep after impact.

Competitive diving

barotrauma When people dive in sense 1, they deliberately enter a body of water by jumping in, usually in a streamlined posture on entry with arms stretched forwards parallel to straightened legs and torso, typically palms-first, to create a "shadow" for the head. Competitive divers enter the water by diving from a set height above a pool. Dives are performed either from springboards, which are long flexible planks (once made of wood, now made of aluminum alloy) that bend as the divers jump on the end of the board to gain height and rotation before diving by converting potential into kinetic energy; or from rigid platforms of greater height, normally composed of concrete. In elite competition, there are two springboard height competitions, at 1 meter and 3 meters; and a platform competition at 10 meters, but in olympic competition there is only the 3 meter springboard and the 10 meter platform. Such divers may perform a variety of dives, making somersaults and twists in various orientations and from different starting positions (see Components of a Dive below). Divers are judged on whether they completed all aspects of the dive, the conformance of their body to the requirements of the nominated dive, and the amount of splash created by their entry to the water (less being better). The raw score is then multiplied by a difficulty factor, derived from the number of movements attempted. The diver with the highest total score after a sequence of dives (which depend on age group and specialty in elite competition) is declared the winner. While not a particularly popular participant sport, diving is one of the more popular Olympic sports with spectators. Much current U.S. popularity is likely due in part to the success and prominence of Greg Louganis. Successful competitors possess many of the same characteristics as gymnasts, including strength, flexibility, and kinaesthetic judgment. Synchronized diving was adopted as an Olympic sport in 2000. In this event, two divers form a team and attempt to perform identical dives simultaneously. This is an impressive spectacle, and requires great coordination between the team-mates.

Components of a Dive

A dive must be composed of one of four defined positions. They are: (1) tuck position, (2) pike position, (3) layout/straight position, and (4) free position, the latter consisting of either tuck or pike position as well as straight position in succession. The free position is generally employed in combination with twisting. There may be any multiple of half-twist rotations and half somersault revolutions combined with these positions. On the springboards, dives are performed by initially rotating from one of four starting positions: (1) forward rotation, (2)backward rotation , (3)reverse/gainer rotation , or (4)inward rotation . A forward or reverse rotating dive begins with an approach and hurdle moving along the diving board. A back or inward rotating dive begins with either a standing or rocking motion by the diver standing at the tip of the board and facing backwards. On the platforms, dives may occur in the four previously mentioned directions starting from either an upright (on foot) position or from an armstand.

Dive Scoring

Ultimately, the judges' scores given on each dive are subjective. However, there are specific rules governing how a dive is supposed to be scored. The primary factors affecting the scoring are: (1) the height of the diver at the apex of the dive, with extra height resulting in a higher score, (2) the distance of the diver from the diving apparatus throughout the dive (a diver must not be dangerously close to the board/platform, but should ideally be within 2-3 feet of it), (3) the properly defined body position of the diver according to the dive being performed, including pointed toes and knees together at all times, (4) the proper amounts of rotation and revolution upon completion of the dive and entry into the water, and (5) the amount of splash created by the diver on entry, with less splash resulting in a higher score. Each dive performed has an inherent "Degree of Difficulty." This is a numerical value in the range of about 1.0 to about 4.0 that is calculated based on an agreed-upon formula. The total score for an individual dive is determined by adding three judges' scores (e.g. the median three scores) and multiplying this sum by the degree of difficulty. The score for each dive is added to give a final score, and the diver with the highest final total is the winner of the event.

Swimming underwater and diving

The ability to dive and swim underwater can be a useful emergency skill, and is an important part of watersport and navy safety training. More generally, entering water from a height is an enjoyable leisure activity, as is underwater swimming with or without breathing apparatus.

Learning to swim underwater

Assuming that you can swim on the surface, the main obstacle to diving is likely to be the psychological barrier of immersing your head. To overcome this, try hard to keep your eyes open while under the water. Don't be afraid of water getting into your eyes; although chlorinated water can sting, it is not harmful. (Salt water is less irritating.) Your eyes, nose and ears will become accustomed to immersion; plugs and goggles are advisable when there is a risk of infection, for long periods of training, or for competitive swimming.It is important to be aware of the effect of pressure on the bodies natural air spaces. In breath-hold diving even at shallow depths it crucial to equalize your ears by blowing gently against the roof of your mouth with your mouth and nose closed allowing air to move up in to your middle ear and equalize the pressure created by immersion. The crucial step in gaining underwater mobility is adopting a suitable posture. To do this, first try to reach an object on the floor of the pool (or other body of water) that is within your depth. It will be difficult to reach from an upright posture. To get your hands to the object, jump up, bend your body well forward, throw your feet in the air, and try to reach the object, head foremost. The next exercise might be to swim a few metres towards the object on the surface, and then dive for it. It is difficult at first to get the chest below the surface; but if your legs are thrown well up in the air, their weight will force your body downwards. This is surface diving (also known as a jackknife); some snorkellers and scuba divers call it duck diving. Swimming underwater should follow quite naturally given some practice. It is largely a matter of maintaining a slightly inverted posture so as to counteract the natural buoyancy of the lungs. Strokes used in surface swimming must be adapted somewhat, and some arm movements (such as the crawl) cannot be used.

Learning to dive into water

Diving in this sense is not as difficult as it looks; again the main barrier is psychological, as diving head-first into the surface seems likely to hurt. To avoid the hurt (and possibly being knocked unconscious) the hands are usually held out (preferably palms-first) to protect the head, since fingertips-first entries often do not cast a large enough "shadow" to protect the head from a high height. Jumping in and landing hands-first tends to avoid water up the nose, but feet first often involves holding the nose. However, if going feet first, the impact often loosens the grip causing water to go up the nose, as well as resulting in one punching one's self in the mouth or otherwise the hands hitting the face on impact in addition to being dislodged from their grip. One problem in learning, is that at first there is impact that causes bruises or pain, but once learning to be streamlined, another problem arises: pain in ears. The ear pain is often absent during initial learning because lack in coordination, etc., causes the body to land in a less streamlined way, so it does not go as deep. Once streamlined, the body goes deep, resulting in immediate and tremendous pain in the ears, from the impact and sudden increase in pressure. Ear plugs seem to mitigate such pain. For safety reasons, diving should always be done into deep water and without goggles, which can damage the eyes by way of sudden increase in pressure. Most eyewear makers, such as Speedo, include instructions that advise against jumping into water with the eyewear on. However, in competitive swimming, the swimmers seem to jump off the starting blocks while wearing eyewear, which seems to run contrary to the advice of the eyewear manufacturers. Competitive swimmers wear specially designed, streamlined racing goggles which are meant to be used while diving. Competitive swimmers usually wear their goggles tighter than recreational swimmers do. This is to keep them from becoming dislodged mid-race. Competitive swimmers use a shallow racing dive which doesn't usually penetrate more than a meter into the water. There is less risk to competitive swimmers of eye injuries for these reasons. It is best to start by entering some water where the surface is close to or level with the edge. Stoop down until you are nearly double, put your hands together over your head, lean over until they nearly touch the surface, and try to glide, rather than fall, into the water. With practise the height of entry can be increased. Next, you can try taking short run, and leaping head first into the water. Some pools have increasing heights, 0 m, 1 m, 3 m, 5 m,7.5 and 10 m, but others have only limited choices. For example, the Donald Summerville pool in Toronto has only 0 m, 5 m, and 10 m heights available. This means that children learning must move from 0 m to 5 m, which is a large jump in height. At 5 m, adults who are learning often climb back down after seeing the pool from the increased height, since it looks higher from above than down below. Children, however, seem to be less afraid. Children don't seem to need to wear ear plugs, or have as much problems with pain. This may be due to the volume to surface area ratio, e.g. an adult who is twice the height of a child will be eight times as heavy, but present only four times the surface area (volume varies as cube of height; surface area as square of height), resulting in deeper penetration of the water. Perhaps there is also the effect of muscles and bones having a strength that varies as the square of the length, and volume as the cube; this is why ants can fall from great heights with less damage. Therefore, it is much more difficult to learn in adulthood, if one does not learn as a child. To make a clean entry, you should keep your body, arms, and legs quite stiff, and in a straight line. Tuck your head in so that your hands break the surface in front of it.

Feet first or hands first

Hands first results in more streamlined entry, and less pain, if things work out correctly, but since the body needs to change orientation 180 degrees, things can go wrong, such as having legs bent, resulting in bruised thighs. The bruises that swell up usually go away after about 14 days or so. Once getting streamlined, then ears will hurt. Feet first is less streamlined, and also the nose is facing the "wrong" way, and water is blasted up the nose. To avoid this, one hand may be used to hold the nose. Usually the hand will be pulled off, unless it is tucked in tight. Using the other arm to hold the first arm in tight helps in this regard, since the outer arm gets yanked away at time of impact, but the inner arm sometimes remains holding the nose. Crossing the legs when going feet first tends to reduce the effective impact on the genitalia, which might otherwise be felt as referred pain in the abdomen. When going feet first there is a choice in pointing the toes, more or less. More pointed (streamlined) impacts further up (genitalia, nose, etc.), and not pointed helps to bear the brunt of the water on the feet, which are often hard and calloused from walking barefoot on gravel roads. Sometimes people wear shoes if doing feet-first entries from large heights. If going hands first, it is important to keep arms out to protect the head. Looking down at the water will likely result in a badly bruised face, but some people take that risk and quickly pull the head in just before impact. When doing so, a common mistake is to overshoot, and to pull the head in too far, bruising the top of the head. Thus it seems easiest to keep the head steady, and also this allows the shoulders to be brought in to help protect the ears when the arms are extended. Fingers should not be interlocked, or they may be broken or damaged. The most recommended way is to grab one wrist with the other hand and quickly separate the arms under water. There are several benefits to this method, such a reduction of impact speed felt by the rest of the body (less injuries), dispersion of local surface tension (less injuries, pain, splash), reduced splash and most importantly protection for the head. A good streamlined entry results in less sudden energy transfer/dissipation, and therefore less pain and bruising, except on the palms which are usually tough enough to withstand the approximately 300 pounds (136 kg) or so of impact force from a height of 10 meters (approximately 14 pounds per square inch of water column). One non-standard diving (class 1) method sometimes seen is entering the water in the fetal position bottom first, making a big splash. This is sometimes called bombing. If done from excessive height, there is a risk of the impact pressure pumping water into the anus. It also may wet people standing beside the pool. Blunt entries of this sort will also result in bruising, if done from any but the lowest towers. Another undesired entry attitude is the bellyflop. In it, the body enters the water horizontally or nearly so, belly down.

The effect of height on the dive

The following table summarizes velocity of impact, and time-in-the-air, from the various standard heights of 1 m, 3 m, 5 m, and 10 m, that are found in municipal swimming baths, as well as from greater heights. The impact velocity and time of impact vary as the square root of the height. Heights beyond 10 m are not commonly found at municipal swimming baths, but exist at "use at your own risk" places such as bridges and cliffs. Cliff jumping, a common pastime for daredevil children, often takes place at heights of 20 m to 30 m. There is a limit to how high one can jump from and survive, regardless of water depth. For example, the Golden Gate Bridge is 220 feet (66 m) high and overlooks water deep enough to not hit the bottom, but the result is (almost) certain death. Thus the 66 m jump listed below is only used for suicide, but the other heights are typical of recreational bathing. Although 66 m is a "lethal dose", children often jump from 30 m (approximately 50% lethal dose) for recreation. This can be quite dangerous (e.g. if landing badly, or hitting a branch or dead fish or other object floating on the surface). The impact can also knock him unconscious, and, in absence of lifeguards (i.e. bridge jumping or cliff jumping), can cause drowning, even if from less than the lethal height. There have been documented accounts of people walking away from dives as high as 54 m, as well as the occasional Golden Gate Bridge survivor. A risk associated with very high dives is compression of the spine, often resulting in paralysis, which happens when the feet decelerate sooner than the upper body. One should note that in heights above 30 m, there is little additional time in the air, yet the velocity upon impact increases considerably. Thus, diving from heights above 30 m offers no advantage for acrobatics or thrill-seeking, but instead greatly increases the risk of injury. Category:Diving Category:Olympic sports Category:Individual sports ja:ダイビング

SCUBA

:This article is about underwater diving equipment. For an article on the activity of diving underwater, see Scuba diving. SCUBA is an acronym for Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus. These initials originated in 1939 in the US Navy to refer to US military diver's rebreather sets. As with radar, the acronym has become so familiar that it is often not capitalised and is treated as an ordinary word: for example, it has been taken into the Welsh language as "sgwba". A scuba set provides a scuba diver with the breathing gas necessary to breathe underwater. breathing gas

Types of scuba set

Modern scuba sets are of two types:
- open-circuit (or Aqua-Lung™, very often written "aqualung"). Here the diver breathes in from the set and out to waste. This type of equipment is relatively simple, making it cheap and reliable. The duration of open-circuit dives is shorter than a dive with a rebreather, in proportion to the weight and bulk of the set. It can be uneconomic when used with expensive gas mixes such as heliox and trimix. Most divers use standard air (i.e. 21% Oxygen / 79% Nitrogen) The cylinder is nearly always worn on the back. "Twin sets" with two backpack cylinders were much more common in the 1960s than now. Submarine Products sold a sport air scuba with 3 backpack cylinders. Sometimes cave divers have cylinders slung at their sides instead.
- closed-circuit (or rebreather). Here the diver breathes in from the set, and out back into the set where the exhaled gas is reprocessed to make it fit to breathe again. Rebreathers use gas very economically, making long dives easy and special mixes cheaper to use at the expense of more complicated technology and extensive experience and training requirements. There are three variants of rebreather: oxygen, semi-closed circuit and fully-closed circuit rebeathers. Both types of scuba provide a means of supplying air or other breathing gas, nearly always from a high pressure diving cylinder, and a harness to strap it to the diver's body. Most open-circuit scuba and some rebreathers have a demand regulator to control the supply of breathing gas. Some rebreathers only have a constant-flow regulator like in blowtorches. Some divers use the word "scuba" to mean open-circuit sets only.

Open circuit scuba sets

Newspapers and television news often describe open circuit scuba wrongly as "oxygen" equipment, probably by false analogy from aeroplane pilots' oxygen cylinders. At partial pressures over about 1.2 to 1.6 atmospheres, oxygen becomes toxic. Open circuit scuba may supply various breathing gases; but rarely pure oxygen, except during decompression stops in technical diving.

With a demand regulator

This type of set consists of one or more diving cylinders containing breathing gas at high pressure (typically 200-300 Bar) connected to a diving regulator. The regulator supplies the diver with as much of the gas as needed, at a pressure suitable for breathing at the depth of the diver.
See diving cylinder for more information about the cylinders and how they are arranged.
See Diving regulator for more information about diving regulators. Colloquially this type of breathing set is often called an aqualung, however, the word Aqua-Lung is correctly a tradename protected by the Cousteau-Gagnan patent. patent

"Single-hose" open-circuit scuba

Most modern open-circuit scuba sets have a diving regulator consisting of a first stage pressure reducing valve that is sealed over the diving cylinder's output valve, and the second stage "demand valve"; at the mouthpiece, with a thin pressure hose linking the two stages. This type is called "single hose". Many modern scuba sets have a spare second stage demand valve on its own hose, which is called an "octopus" or "alternate air source", which is typically yellow in colour. [http://www.divingheritage.com/normalair.htm Normalair] is a firm that formerly were based at Yeovil (UK). They made an early make of single-hose aqualung that had a fullface mask as standard. Captain Trevor Hampton in the 1950's or 1960's designed an early single-hose aqualung with a fullface mask with a circular window which was a very big and thus very sensitive demand regulator diaphragm. But when he patented it, the Navy requisitioned the patent, and by the time the Navy found no use in the patent and released it, the market had moved on and he got no use from the patent. Captain Trevor Hampton

"Twin-hose" open-circuit scuba

In this type of set the two (or occasionally the one or the three) stages of the regulator are in a large circular valve assembly mounted on top of the cylinder pack. It consists of two wide breathing tubes similar to those on many modern rebreathers. The return tube was not for rebreathing but because the air exhaust needed to be at the same depth as the regulator's second stage diaphragm to avoid pressure differences, which would cause a free-flow or resistance to breathing according to the diver's attitude in the water. These sets came with a mouthpiece as standard, but a fullface mask was an option. Another optional extra was a mouthpiece that also had a snorkel attached, and a valve to switch between aqualung and snorkel. Note its layout in the image. In comics there have been thousands of drawings of two-cylinder twin-hose aqualungs shown wrongly with one wide breathing tube coming straight out of each cylinder top with no regulator, far more than of twin-hose aqualungs drawn correctly with a regulator. Someone made as an experiment a twin-hose type regulator where the energy released as the air expands from cylinder pressure to the surrounding pressure as the diver breathes in, was not thrown away but was used to power a propeller.

Cryogenic open-circuit scuba

There have been designs for a cryogenic open-circuit scuba which has liquid-air tanks instead of cylinders.
- Jordan Klein designed a cryogenic open-circuit scuba called "Mako" and made at least a prototype.
- The Russian Kriolang (from Greek cryo- (= "frost") + English "lung") was copied from Jordan Klein's "Mako" cryogenic open-circuit scuba. [http://www.therebreathersite.nl/cryo_pjotrr.htm Janwillem Bech's rebreather site] shows pictures of a Kriolang that was made in 1974. Its diving duration is likely several hours. It would have to be filled immediately before use.
- [http://www.nasa.gov/missions/science/scamp.html SCAMP (Supercritical Air Mobility Pack®)] is an out-of-water liquid-air open-circuit breathing set designed by NASA by adapting space suit technology. space suit

Constant flow

Constant flow scuba sets do not have a demand regulator; the breathing gas flows at a constant rate unless the diver switches it on and off by hand. They run out of air quicker than aqualungs. There were attempts at designing and using these before 1939, for diving and for industrial use. Examples were "Ohgushi's Peerless Respirator", and Commandant le Prieur's breathing sets: see Timeline of underwater technology.

Rebreathers

With rebreathers, the gas the diver exhales is stored between breaths in a "counterlung". In some rebreathers, one-way valves direct the gas through a "loop". In other rebreathers, the inhaled and exhaled gas goes back and forth along a single tube: this is called the pendulum system. The oxygen consumed by the diver is replaced, nearly always from a cylinder, The exhaled carbon dioxide generated by the diver is removed by passing the gas through a "scrubber": a canister full of soda lime. Then the gas is fit to be re-inhaled. This type of scuba equipment is known as 'closed circuit'. The rebreather's economic use of gas, typically 1.6 litres of oxygen per minute, allows dives of much longer duration than is possible with open circuit equipment where gas consumption is typically 10 times higher. Although oxygen rebreathers have a maximum operating depth of around 6 metres / 18 feet, several types of fully-closed circuit rebreathers, when using a helium based diluent, are capable of 100 metre / 330 feet dives. The main limiting factors on rebreathers are the duration of the carbon dioxide scrubber, which is generally at least 3 hours, and the efficiency of the scrubber at depth. Main article :rebreather.

Duration of a dive

The duration of an open-circuit dive depends on factors such as the capacity (volume of gas) in the diving cylinder, the depth of the dive and the breathing rate of the diver. An open circuit diver whose breathing rate at the surface (atmospheric pressure) is 25 litres per minute will consume 100 litres of gas per minute at 30 metres. ( (30 m / 10 m per bar) + 1 bar atmospheric pressure ) × 25 litre/min = 100 litre/min ). If a 15 litre cylinder filled to 200 bar is used until there is a reserve of 25% there is (150 × 15) = 2250 litres. At 100 litre/min the dive will be a maximum of 22.5 minutes (2250/100). A semi-closed circuit rebreather dive is about three times the length of the equivalent open circuit dive; gas is recycled but fresh gas must be constantly injected and used gas vented. Although it uses gas more economically, the weight of the rebreathing equipment means the diver carries smaller cylinders. So, if the diver uses a 5 litre cylinder filled to 200 bar who leaves 25% in reserve will be able to do a 22.5 minute dive (10l × 200 bar × 0.75 / 33.33). An oxygen rebreather diver consumes about 1 litre of oxygen per minute as does a fully-closed circuit rebreather diver. Except during the ascent, the fully-closed circuit rebreather that is operating correctly uses virtually no diluent. So, if the diver has a 3 litre oxygen cylinder filled to 200 bar who leaves 25% in reserve will be able to do a 450 minute dive (3l × 200 bar × 0.75 / 1). The life of the soda lime scrubber is likely to be less than this and so will be the limiting factor of the dive. In practice, dive times are more often influenced by other factors such as water temperature and the requirement for safe ascent (see decompression sickness).

Underwater alternatives to scuba

There are alternative methods that a person can use to survive and function while underwater, including:
- free-diving - swimming underwater on a single breath of air.
- snorkelling - a form of free-diving where the diver's mouth and nose can remain underwater when breathing, because the diver is able to breathe at the surface through a short tube known as a snorkel.
- surface supplied diving - originally used in professional diving for long or deep dives where an umbilical line connects the diver with the surface providing breathing gas, and sometimes warm water to heat the diving suit, and usually nowadays voice communications. Some tourist resorts now offer a surface supplied diving arrangement, trademarked as Snuba, as an introduction to diving for the inexperienced.
- Atmospheric diving suit - an armored suit which protects the diver from the surrounding water pressure.
- Liquid breathing - so far, in the real world, liquid breathing for humans is only laboratory experiments, and (one lung at a time) medical treatment. It has possibilities of being used for very deep diving. It is memorably portrayed in the film "The Abyss".
- Artificial gills (human) - these are science fiction only. In the real world they would have to process an unrealistically massive amount of water to extract enough oxygen to supply an active diver. But see Like-A-Fish for an attempt to develop real artificial gills for divers.

Breathing sets used out of water

Breathing sets operating on the above principles are not only used underwater but in other situations where the atmosphere is dangerous (little oxygen, poisonous etc).
- firefighting
- mining, especially mine rescue
- operations in enclosed or poorly ventilated areas eg large fluid or gas containers, These breathing sets are nowadays called SCBA (Self Contained Breathing Apparatus) (The initials SCBA have had other meanings). The first open-circuit industrial breathing sets were designed by modifying the design of the Cousteau aqualung. Industrial rebreathers have been used since soon after 1900. Rebreather technology is also used in space suits.

History

A predecessor to scuba gear, the Momson lung, was used as emergency escape gear by WWII submariners. Jacques-Yves Cousteau and Emile Gagnan invented the first type of SCUBA diving equipment, the Aqua-Lung in 1943. Among the things that prompted Cousteau to develop efficient air-breathing diving free-swimming diving gear, were two oxygen toxicity accidents that he had earlier with rebreathers. Before 1971 all breathing sets including scuba came with a plain harness of straps with buckles like on a rucksack or spray-tank-pack. The buckles were usually quick-release. Many did not have a backpack plate, but the cylinders were held directly against the diver's back. Sport scuba usually had quick-release fastenings instead of ordinary buckles. The harnesses of many diving rebreathers made by Siebe Gorman included a large back-sheet of strong reinforced rubber. In the beginning scuba divers dived without any buoyancy aid. In emergency they had to jettison their weights. In the 1960's adjustable buoyancy life jackets for aqualung-type scuba became available. The ABLJ is used for two purposes, one to adjust the buoyancy of the diver to compensate for loss of buoyancy (chiefly due to compression of neoprene wet suit) and more importantly as a lifejacket that can be rapidly inflated even at depth. It was put on before putting on the cylinder harness. The first were inflated with a small carbon dioxide cylinder, later with a small air cylinder. The use of an extra feed from the first stage regulator permits control of the life jacket as a buoyancy aid.

Accessories

In modern scuba sets, a buoyancy compensator, such as a back-mounted wing or stabiliser jacket (otherwise known as a 'stab jacket'), is built into the scuba set harness. Although strictly speaking this is not a part of the breathing apparatus, it is usually connected to the divers air supply, in order to provide easy inflation of the device, this can usually also be done manually via a mouthpiece. The bladders inside the BCD inflate with air from the ‘direct feed’ to decrease the total density of the SCUBA equipment and cause the diver to float. Another button deflates the BCD and increases the density of the equipment and causes the diver to sink. Certain BCD's allow for integrated weight, meaning that the BCD has special pockets for the weights that can be dumped easily in case of an emergency. Diving weighting systems, ranging from 2 to 15 kilograms, increase density of the scuba diver, allowing the diver to fully submerge underwater with ease. Many modern rebreathers use advanced electronics to monitor and regulate the composition of the breathing gas. Some scuba sets incorporate attached extra stage cylinders, as bailout in case the main breathing gas supply is used up or malfunctions, or containing another gas mixture. If these extra cylinders are small, they are sometimes called "pony cylinders". They often have their own demand regulators and mouthpieces, and if so, they are technically distinct extra scuba sets. The diver may carry two or more sets of breathing equipment to provide redundant alternative gas systems in the event that the other fails or is exhausted. For open-circuit divers, the two most common types of redundant configurations are the "twinset", consisting of two similar systems, and the "main plus pony", consisting of a large main gas source and a small "pony" set. Rebreather divers often carry a side-slung open-circuit "bail out" to be used in the event the rebreather fails. In technical diving, the diver may carry different equipment for different phases of the dive; some breathing gas mixes may only be used at depth, such as trimix and others, such as pure oxygen, which only may be used during decompression stops in shallow water. The heaviest cylinders are generally carried on the back supported from a backplate while others are side slung from strong points on the backplate. When the diver carries many diving cylinders, especially those made of steel, lack of buoyancy becomes a problem. High capacity buoyancy compensators are used to allow the diver to control his or her depth. An excess of tubes and connections passing through the water tend to decrease diving performance by causing hydrodynamic drag in swimming. Some diver training organizations and groups of divers teach techniques, such as DIR diving for configuring diving equipment.

External links

- [http://www.naui.org National Association of Underwater Instructors]
- [http://www.bsac.com/ British Sub Aqua Club]
- [http://www.padi.com/ Professional Association of Diving Instructors]
- [http://www.topscubasites.com/ Top Scuba Sites]
- [http://www.spearfishingworld.net/ Scuba Spearfishing Portal]
- [http://www.gue.com Global Underwater Explorers]
- [http://www.wannadive.net Wannadive.net (World dive site atlas)]
- [http://www.onlinescuba.com Online Scuba Diving Equipment Portal] Category:Diving equipment

World record

A world record is the best performance in a certain discipline, usually a sports event. In the United States the form world's record was formerly more common. In a number of sports, such as athletics or swimming world records are set in a number of events that is regularly competed in over the world. The governing body of the sport is charged with recognising the world records. In order for a record to be recognised, the event has to be held according to specific rules, and the athlete(s) in question usually have to be subject to a doping test. The breaking of an existing world record is often a big achievement in an athlete's career, and many athletes are still known because they set a new world record, even if it was their only major achievement. Not all events have world records, as the achievements in some events are too dependent on the layout of the course or venue, which are not bounded by rules. Other events still keep records, but they are not regarded as significantly - for instance, marathon world records are regarded as far less important than on-track athletic events. Outside sports, world records can also be set in virtually anything that is measurable, but verifying these records is often difficult. The Guinness Book of Records collects and tries to verify all kind of world records, from the fastest animal to the largest cheese ever produced.

External links

- [http://www.fina.org/wldreclcm.html Swimming world records]
- World record

Patrick Musimu

Patrick Musimu is a free-diver, physiotherapist, and kickboxer who was born in Kinshasa, Zaire on 12 October, 1970. On June 30, 2005, he broke the previous "No Limits" world record in freediving, by diving to 209 meters of depth without the use of a breathing apparatus. Musimu began diving in 1999 at the age of 28, intrigued by what he called "dolphin-men". He says secret of his prestation lies of course in years and years of training and preparation, but special attention should be given to his equalizing technique: instead of equalizing his ears by the regular maneuvers, he floods his air spaces with seawater before reaching the depth where ordinary equalization would become hard.

External links

- [http://www.patrickmusimu.com/ Patrick Musimu official website] Musimu, Patrick

2005

2005 (MMV) is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. 2005 is the World Year of Physics, the Year of the Rooster in the Chinese calendar, and the International Year of the Eucharist in Catholicism. See also Wikipedia's almanac of events for this year.

Events

January

- January 4 - Death of the Governor of Baghdad, Ali Al-Haidri, assassinated by gunmen.
- January 9 - The same storm which pounded the US earlier in the month hits England and Scandinavia, leaving 13 dead with widespread flooding and power cuts.
- January 9 - Mahmoud Abbas is elected to succeed Yasser Arafat as Palestinian Authority president in the Palestinian election.
- January 12 - Deep Impact is launched from Kennedy Space Center by a Delta 2 rocket.
- January 13 - Terrorists enter into Israel from Gaza and open fire on civilians near border, killing 6 and wounding 5 others. Hamas and Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades claim joint responsibility for attack.
- January 14 - The Huygens probe lands on Titan, largest moon of Saturn.
- January 16 - Adriana Iliescu gives birth at 66, the oldest woman in the world to do so. Adriana Iliescu.]]
- January 18 - Terrorists murder 1 person and wound 8 people in Gush Katif, Israel. Hamas claims responsibility.
- January 20 - George W. Bush is inaugurated in Washington, D.C. for his second term as 43rd President of the United States.
- January 20 - Ireland completes metrication.
- January 21 - In Belize's capital city Belmopan, the unrest over the government's new taxes erupts into riots.
- January 23 - Viktor Yushchenko is sworn in as the third President of Ukraine in Kiev, Ukraine.
- January 25 - A stampede at Mandher Devi temple in Mandhradevi during a religious pilgrimage in India kills at least 215, mostly women and small children.
- January 30 - The first free Parliamentary elections in Iraq since 1958 take place.
- January 30 - A Royal Air Force C-130 Hercules transport plane crashes in Iraq, killing 10 British servicemen. Iraqi insurgents release a video claiming to have shot the aircraft down using a missile.

February

- February 6 - The New England Patriots defeat the Philadelphia Eagles 24-21 to win their third Super Bowl in four years.
- February 8 - Danish parliamentary elections continue the center-right coalition led by Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen and his Liberal Party.
- February 9 - An ETA car bomb injures 31 people at a conference centre in Madrid.
- February 10 - North Korea announces that it possesses nuclear weapons as a protection against the hostility it feels from the United States.
- February 10 - Saudi Arabia holds its first ever elections for municipal authorities, in which only men are allowed to vote.
- February 12 - Fire devastates the Windsor Building, a 32 story office block, in Madrid.
- February 14 - A massive suicide bomb blast in central Beirut kills Lebanon's former prime minister Rafik Hariri and at least 15 other people. At least 135 other people were also hurt.
- February 14 - Around 59 people are killed and 200 injured in a fire at a mosque in Tehran, Iran. Iran emissions of greenhouse gases.]]
- February 16 - The Kyoto Protocol comes into effect, without the support of the United States and Australia.
- February 16 - The National Hockey League cancels its 2004-2005 season becoming the first North American professional league to cancel a season due to a labour dispute.
- February 19 - Suicide bombers kill more than 30 people in Iraq as Shia Muslims mark Ashura, their holiest day.
- February 20 - Spanish referendum on the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe, passing it by a substantial margin, but on a low turnout.
- February 20 - Early Legislative elections in Portugal result in a landslide victory for José Sócrates and the Socialist Party.
- February 22 - More than 500 people are killed and over 1,000 injured after entire villages are flattened in an earthquake measuring 6.4 on the Richter scale in Zarand region of Kerman province in southern Iran.
- February 25 - The Serial Killer Dennis Rader is apprehended by Wichita Police and the FBI.
- February 25 - Terrorists murder 5 people and wound 50 people in Tel Aviv, Israel. Islamic Jihad claims responsibility for attack.
- February 26 - Hosni Mubarak the president of Egypt asks parliament to amend the constitution to allow multi-candidate presidential elections before September 2005.

March

- March 1 - The U.S. Supreme Court rules the death penalty unconstitutional for juveniles who committed their crimes under age 18.
- March 3 - At 19:17 the 3500-ton freighter, M/V Karen Danielsen, crashes into the Western bridge of the Great Belt Bridge of Denmark, 800m from Funen. All traffic across the bridge is closed, effectively separating Denmark in two.
- March 3 - Millionaire Steve Fossett breaks a world record by completing the first non-stop, non-refueled, solo flight around the world in the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer.
- March 10 - Tung Chee Hwa's resignation: Tung Chee Hwa, the Chief Executive of Hong Kong, resigns.
- March 11 - In the UK, the controversial Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005 was finally given Royal Assent after one of the longest ever sittings by the House of Lords.
- March 13 - First round of Central African Republic elections.
- March 14 - The People's Republic of China ratifies an anti-secession law aimed at preventing Taiwan from declaring independence.
- March 14 - Nearly one million people gathered for an opposition rally in Beirut, a month after the death of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri — the largest rally in Lebanon history. Lebanon, 2005.]]
- March 16 - Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri, accused of the bombing of the Air India Flight 182 in 1985, are found not guilty on all counts.
- March 19 - A suspected suicide bomber in Doha, Qatar, kills one person and injures about 12 others.
- March 19 - A time bomb explodes in a Muslim shrine in Quetta, southwestern Pakistan, killing at least 29 people and wounding 40.
- March 19 - A mine blast occurs at the Xishui coal mine in Shuozhou and rocks nearby Kangjiayao coal mine, killing up to 59.
- March 20 - At least 250 people in Japan are injured and at least one killed by when a magnitude 7 earthquake struck west of Kyushu Island, just 9km (5.5 miles) below the ocean floor.
- March 21 - 10 killed in the Red Lake High School massacre in Minnesota, the worst school shooting since the Columbine High School massacre.
- March 23 - The United States' 11th Circuit Court of Appeals' 2-1 decision refuses to order the reinsertion of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube.
- March 24 - The Tulip Revolution in Kyrgyzstan reaches its climax with the overthrow of president Askar Akayev.
- March 26 - The Taiwanese government called on 1 million Taiwanese to demonstrate in Taipei in opposition to the Anti-Secession Law of Mainland China. Around 200 000 to 300 000 attended the walk.
- March 28 - The 2005 Sumatran earthquake struck off Sumatra, 3 months after the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. At a magnitude of 8.7 it is the second largest earthquake since 1965.

April

- Anti-Japanese demonstrations in China
- April 1 - Newsanchor Peter Jennings hosts what will turn out to be his final World News Tonight telecast.
- April 2 - Pope John Paul II dies, causing widespread grief in the world.
- April 7 - MG Rover, the UK's sole remaining volume producer goes into receivership after a planned alliance with Chinese manufacturer, Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation collapses.
- April 7 - A suicide bomber blows himself up in Cairo's Khan al Khalili market, killing two foreign tourists and wounding seventeen others. A group called "Islamic Pride Brigades" claims responsibility.
- April 8 - Referendum in Curaçao on independence vs. integration with the Netherlands.
- April 9 - Tens of thousands of demonstrators, many of them supporters of Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr, marched through Baghdad denouncing the U.S. occupation of Iraq, two years after the fall of Saddam Hussein, and rallied in the square where his statue was toppled in 2003.
- April 9 - The marriage of The Prince of Wales and Camilla Parker Bowles takes place. Camilla assumes the titles Her Royal Highness and The Duchess of Cornwall.
- April 12 - Fans hurl lit flares onto the field at San Siro Stadium in Milan during a Champions League quarter-final soccer match.
- April 15 - At least twenty one people died and around fifty people were injured in a devastating fire at a hotel in central Paris.
- April 16 - President Lucio Gutierrez of Ecuador declared a state of emergency in the capital city and dissolved the Supreme Court.
- April 17 - Twelve holidaymakers were killed in southern Switzerland when a bus carrying twenty seven people plunged 200 metres into a ravine.
- April 18 - Five people died in ethnic clashes in Iran's south-west Khuzestan province.
- April 19 - Joseph Ratzinger elected Pope Benedict XVI on the second day of the Papal conclave.
- April 20 - fifty six hurt as earthquake hits Fukuoka and Kasuga, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. The earthquake measured a magnitude of 5.8 on the Richter scale.
- April 20 - President Lucio Gutiérrez of Ecuador is said to have fled after Congress voted to sack him amid growing protests.
- April 21 - A bus crash in Vietnam's Central Highlands has left thirty Vietnamese war veterans dead and four other people hurt.
- April 21 - A gunfight on the edge of the Saudi city of Mecca has left two militants and two members of the security forces dead.
- April 23 - Silvio Berlusconi, prime minister of Italy, re-forms government after its dissolution three days earlier.
- April 25 - A passenger train derails in Amagasaki Hyogo Prefecture Japan killing 107 people and injuring another 456. (see Amagasaki rail crash)
- April 26 - Facing international pressure, Syria withdrew the last of its 14,000 troop military garrison in Lebanon ending its twenty nine year military domination of that country.
- April 27 - The Superjumbo jet aircraft Airbus A380 made its first flight from Toulouse.
- April 30 - Attacks on tourists in the Egyptian capital Cairo leave three militants dead and at least ten people injured.

May

- May 1 - A suicide attack targets a Kurdish funeral in the northern Iraqi town of Talafar, near Mosul, and leaves at least 25 people dead and more than 30 others injured. Earlier, at least five policemen and four civilians were killed in two separate attacks in Baghdad.
- May 2 - 4th president of Singapore, Wee Kim Wee dies from prostate cancer.
- May 2 - A blast at an illegal munitions store in northern Afghanistan kills 28 people and injures at least 13 others.
- May 3 - At least 32 people are killed and nine others injured when three two-storey buildings in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore collapsed after gas cylinders stored in one of them exploded.
- May 4 - In one of the largest insurgent attacks in Iraq to date, at least 60 people have been killed and dozens wounded in a suicide bombing at a Kurdish police recruitment center in Irbil, northern Iraq.
- May 5 - The United Kingdom votes in the 2005 general election. The Labour Party is re-elected with a substantially reduced majority.
- May 5 - Two homemade bombs explode outside the British consulate in New York, USA.
- May 10 - A live hand grenade lands about 100 feet (30 m) from United States President George W. Bush while he is giving a speech to a crowd in Tbilisi, Georgia, but malfunctions and does not detonate.
- May 11 - Serial killer Michael Ross became first person executed in New England in 45 years.
- May 12 - An election was held in the Cayman Islands 7 months later than originally scheduled due to Hurricane Ivan. It resulted in a change of government, with the United Democratic Party giving four seats to the then-opposition People's Progressive Movement in the 15 member Legislative Assembly.
- May 13 - Uzbek troops kill up to 700 during protests in eastern Uzbekistan over the trials of 23 accused Islamic extremists. President Islam Karimov defends the act.
- May 13 - The United States Department of Defense issues a list of bases to be closed as part of the Base Realignment and Closure process (BRAC 2005).
- May 13 - The final episode of the TV series Star Trek: Enterprise is broadcast in the United States. This episode may mark the end of the Star Trek franchise itself, which dates back to 1966.
- May 15 - A passenger ferry capsizes and sinks in strong winds in the Bura Gauranga River in Bangladesh, leaving over 100 people missing.
- May 16 - George Galloway appears before a U.S. Senate committee, to answer allegations of making money from the Iraqi Oil-for-Food Programme.
- May 17 - Kuwaiti women granted right to vote.
- May 19 - Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith released, effectively completing the Star Wars movie saga begun by George Lucas in 1977 and shattering the opening day box-office record with $50,013,859.
- May 19 - The Canadian House of Commons members narrowly pass two budget bills at second reading allowing the minority Liberal government of Prime Minister Paul Martin to stay in power.
- May 21 - Greece wins the Eurovision Song Contest in Kiev.
- May 25 - Liverpool F.C. win the UEFA Champions League by defeating AC Milan 3-2 in a penalty shootout in Istanbul.
- May 25 - The Acting Chief Executive of Hong Kong, Donald Tsang, resigned for participating in the Chief Executive Election in July. As a result, Henry Tang and Michael Suen had become the Acting Chief Executive and Acting Chief Secretary for Administration respectively.
- May 29 - French referendum on the European Constitution votes resoundingly to reject.
- May 31 - W. Mark Felt is confirmed to be Deep Throat.

June

- June 1 - Dutch referendum on the European Constitution votes to reject, the second country to do so.
- June 5 - Switzerland votes to join the Schengen area and to allow same-sex partnerships.
- June 6 - Syrian Vice President Abdul Halim Khaddam resigns.
- June 9 - Glynn Birch announced as new president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
- June 13 - Singer Michael Jackson acquitted of all charges of harming children (see 2005 trial of Michael Jackson).
- June 17 - A 6.7 aftershock,which followed a 5.3 earthquake the previous day, hits California making it the fourth earthquake since June 12 in California. (California earthquakes of June 2005)
- June 17 - Because of "quadruple-witching" options and futures expiration, the New York Stock Exchange sees the heaviest first-hour trading on record. 704 million shares were traded between 9:30-10:30 A.M. 1.92 billion shares were traded for the day.
- June 19 - Election in the Autonomous Community of Galicia, Spain — preliminary results show that Manuel Fraga and the Partido Popular lose control of the autonomous parliament.
- June 21 - Volna booster rocket carrying the first light sail spacecraft (a joint Russian-United States project) failed 83 seconds after its launch, destroying the spacecraft.
- June 23 - The San Antonio Spurs win the NBA World Championship title.
- June 28 - Queen Elizabeth II conducts the International Fleet Review of 167 international warships in the Solent, as part of the Trafalgar 200 celebrations.
- June 30 - Spain joins Belgium and the Netherlands in permitting same-sex marriage.

July

- July 2 - Live 8, a series of 10 simultaneous concerts take place throughout the world, raising interest in the Make Poverty History campaign.
- July 4 - NASA's "Copper bullet" from Deep Impact spacecraft hits Comet Tempel 1, creating a crater for scientific studies.
- July 4 - Violent G8 demonstrations in Gleneagles
- July 6 - The European Parliament rejects the Directive on the patentability of computer-implemented inventions in its second reading in the codecision procedure.
- July 6 - The International Olympic Committee awards the 2012 Summer Olympics to London. London.]]
- July 7 - Four explosions rock the transport network in London, three on the London Underground and one on a bus. Over 50 deaths were reported, and over 200 injured. See 7 July 2005 London bombings.
- July 7 - Al-Qaeda admits to the killing of Egypt's Ambassador, Ihab al-Sherif.
- July 10 - Luxembourgish referendum on the European Constitution votes to accept.
- July 10 - Hurricane Dennis strikes near Navarre Beach, Florida as a Category 3 storm killing 10 people, after killing over 50 people in the Caribbean.
- July 12 - Terrorists kill 5 people and wound 90 people in a crowded mall in Netanya, Israel. Islamic Jihad claims responsibility for attack.
- July 13 - Three trains collide in the Ghotki rail crash in Ghotki, Pakistan, killing over 150 people.
- July 14 - A compromise budget is reached in Minnesota, ending the fourteen-day government shutdown.
- July 16 - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the sixth book of the Harry Potter saga by the British writer J. K. Rowling, is released.
- July 19 - President Bush nominates Appeals Court Judge John G. Roberts, Jr. to the United States Supreme Court, following the retirement of Sandra Day O'Connor.
- July 20 - Canada's Civil Marriage Act, legalizing same-sex marriage, receives Royal Assent.
- July 21 - A terrorist attack on London, similar to the July 7 attacks, includes 4 attempted bomb attacks on 3 Underground trains and a London bus. The bombs failed to explode properly, and only one injury was reported.
- July 22 - A Brazilian electrician, Jean Charles de Menezes, is shot dead at a London underground station by police who mistake him for a suicide bomber.
- July 23 - A series of blasts in a resort town in Egypt. See July 23, 2005 Sharm el-Sheikh attacks.
- July 24 - Lance Armstrong wins a record seventh straight Tours de France before his scheduled retirement.
- July 26 - Launch for Space Shuttle Discovery return to flight mission STS-114. This is the first Space Shuttle flight in nearly two and a half years since the breakup of Columbia on its return from mission STS-107.
- July 28 - The Provisional IRA issues a statement formally ordering an end to the armed campaign it has pursued since 1969 and ordering all its units to dump their arms.

August

August
- August 2 - Air France Flight 358 bursts into flames after overshooting the runway at Toronto Pearson International Airport; all aboard survive.
- August 6 - An ATR-72 heading from Italy to Tunisia crashes into the Mediterranean Sea, killing 16 of 39 on board.
- August 9 - Space Shuttle Discovery returns to Edwards Air Force Base at 0814 EDT, completing STS-114, "Return to Flight."
- August 12 - Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter launched.
- August 14 - Helios Airways Flight 552 crashes into a mountain in Greece, killing 121.
- August 16 - West Caribbean Airways Flight 708 crashes into a mountain in Venezuela, killing 152 passengers.
- August 17 - The first forced evacuation of settlers, as part of the Israel unilateral disengagement plan, starts.
- August 17 - Bangladesh is hit by bomb explosions. [http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Bangladesh_hit_by_several_bomb_explosions]
- August 18 - BTK killer Dennis Rader is sentenced to 10 consecutive life sentences.
- August 18 - Peace Mission 2005, the first joint China-Russia military exercise, begins its 8-day training on the Shandong peninsula.
- August 22 - A 4.1 kg meteorite crashes into the Dotito area of Zambezi Escarpment in Zimbabwe, leaving a 15 cm crater.
- August 23 - Israel's unilateral disengagement from 25 Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and West Bank ends.
- August 24 - Hong Kong High Court Judge Michael Hartmann rules that sodomy laws were unconstitutional. Michael Hartmann.]]
- August 28 - Terrorist wounds 52 at bus station in Beersheba, Israel. Islamic Jihad claims responsibility for attack.
- August 29 - At least 1,300 are killed, and severe damage is caused along the U.S. Gulf Coast, as Hurricane Katrina strikes the Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama coastal areas. Within hours, levees give way and New Orleans is flooded.
- August 31 - A crowd crush on the Al-Aaimmah bridge in Baghdad kills several hundred civilians (see Baghdad bridge stampede).

September

- September 1 - Oil prices rise sharply following economic effects of Hurricane Katrina.
- September 5 - Mandala Airlines Flight 091 737 crashes in Indonesia killing at least 117. (See airplane accidents in 2005).
- September 7 - Incumbent Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak wins its first multi-party presidential election.
- September 11 - Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and the LDP are returned to power following the Japanese general elections.
- September 12 - Norwegian parliamentary election
- September 12 - English cricket team draw the final match to win The 2005 Ashes.
- September 14 - September 16 - Largest UN World Summit in history, held in New York City.
- September 17 - Helen Clark leader of the Labour Party is re-elected for a third term in the New Zealand general election
- September 18 - Angela Merkel of the CDU and Gerhard Schröder of the SDP both claim victory in German federal election
- September 18 - Afghan parliamentary election
- September 19 - North Korea agrees to stop building nuclear weapons in exchange for aid and cooperation.
- September 24 - Hurricane Rita hits the US Gulf Coast. The 9th Ward section of New Orleans floods for the 2nd time in a month and a half. Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, and Alabama are also affected.
- September 25 - Polish parliamentary election.
- September 26 - U.S. army reservist Lynndie England is convicted by a military jury on six of seven counts in connection with the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal.
- September 27 - Michaëlle Jean, born in Haiti, becomes the 27th Governor General of Canada, and the first black person to hold that position.
- September 28 - American politician Tom DeLay is indicted on charges of criminal conspiracy by a Texas grand jury.
- September 29 - John G. Roberts, Jr. is confirmed and sworn in as Chief Justice of the United States.
- September 30 - The Parliament of Catalonia passes with 120 plus votes and 15 against, the Project of New Catalan Statute of Autonomy, proclaiming in its article 1, "Catalonia is a nation".

October

- October 1 - 26 people are killed and more than 100 are injured in the 2005 Bali bombings.
- October 1 - The world's largest bank, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, is formed by the merger of two Japanese banking conglomerates.
- October 1 - An Australian photojournalist in Afghanistan, Stephen Dupont, films US soldiers two dead Taliban militias' bodies.
- October 2 - 20 people are killed in a shipwreck in Lake George, NY.
- October 4 - Hurricane Stan hits Mexico and Central America killing over 1,153 people.
- October 5 - Flight Lieutenant Malcolm Kendall-Smith charged with refusing to serve in the Iraq war.
- October 7 - UN nuclear agency director Mohamed ElBaradei is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
- October 8 - An earthquake in Kashmir kills about 80,000 people.
- October 9 - Polish presidential election.
- October 12 - The second Chinese human spaceflight Shenzhou 6 launched, carrying Fei Junlong and Nie Haisheng for five days in orbit.
- October 13 - Veselin Topalov wins the FIDE World Chess Championship 2005
- October 15 - The referendum on the new Proposed Iraqi constitution is held.
- October 15 - Riot in Toledo, Ohio during a Neo-Nazi rally surrounding racial issues; 114 arrested
- October 15 - Qinghai-Tibet Railway completed.
- October 16 - US Helicopters and warplanes bomb two villages near Ramadi in western Iraq, killing about 70 people.
- October 18 - The UN tightens the rules for its staff, following several claims of financial impropriety and sexual abuse.
- October 19 - The Trials of Saddam Hussein begin.
- October 19 - Hurricane Wilma swells into a Category 5 storm.
- October 21 - 200th Anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar, celebrations held around the United Kingdom.
- October 22 - Tropical Storm Alpha forms making the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season the most active on record.
- October 23 - Polish presidential election.
- October 23 - Referendum on the merger of the Kamchatka Oblast and the Autonomous District of Koryakia.
- October 23 - [http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Referendo_Sobre_a_Proibi%C3%A7%C3%A3o_do_Com%C3%A9rcio_de_Armas_e_Muni%C3%A7%C3%A3o_no_Brasil Guns and Amno Ban Referendum] in Brazil
- October 23 - Bellview Airlines Flight 210 crashes in