Very few people get to go scuba diving in Antarctica. The extreme cold water conditions mean that it’s a location reserved for experienced divers, but for those who are able to meet the challenge, it can be like no diving location on earth.
For some divers however, the idea of diving in Antarctica isn’t enough. Barrington ‘BJ’ Scott is one of those, who saw Antarctica as the culmination of an even bigger diving odyssey: the quest to become the fastest person to scuba dive on all seven continents. We caught up with him after his record-breaking attempt.
Life aquatic
Barrington has never been afraid of a challenge. A former US marine who had served in Afghanistan then reinvented himself as a travelling chef, he fell in love with scuba diving on a trip to the Cayman Islands in 2014.
‘That first dive was quite overwhelming for me,’ he told me. ‘Just being immersed on a reef with tons of marine life – I was enthralled.’ The transformative effect of being underwater led to becoming a trained scuba instructor, and then to work inspiring others to take the plunge. While living and working in Thailand, he wrote the children’s book Trent’s Adventures: Deep Sea Discovery to help spark curiosity about the ocean in young minds, especially among black children.
‘The landscape has changed a lot, but often when I dive I’m the only black guy,’ he said, talking about how scuba diving is often seen as a mainly white pastime. ‘[The book] is such a beautiful tool to reach out to the community, and express how amazing the ocean is. I’m hopefully inspiring the younger generation to want to get into the water when they grow older.’
Going for the record
Barrington didn’t set out to become a scuba diving record breaker, but a chance viewing of the movie Nyad, about the long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad’s multiple attempts to swim from Florida to Cuba, changed all that.
‘I was sitting on my couch feeling lazy, watching this film about this incredible woman,’ he laughed. ‘One of my friends said “Why don’t you do a Guinness World Record?” and it planted the seed!’
After some internet searching revealed that the record for the fastest time to scuba dive all seven continents was up for grabs, the decision was made. ‘Two weeks later, they approved [my record application] and I was like, well – I guess we’re doing this!’
Thanks to the logistics of getting to Antarctica, diving in the White Continent was always going to be the final piece of the jigsaw. But the planning involved just more than just balancing some tricky flight connections. To get ready, Barrington spent a month in Australia getting his certification ready, by clocking up the required number of dry suit dives needed to get safely below the waves in Antarctica. Only then could he fire the starting pistol on the record attempt.
The race begins
The itinerary Barrington had mapped out was by anyone’s standards a pretty hectic. After drying off from a dive in Australia, he flew back to his home in Thailand to tick off Asia, then jumped on a plane to take him to Egypt for a dive in Alexandria
‘I think I underestimated how exhausting it would be to dive in each continent,’ he reflected. ‘I was prepping gear, diving and then flying out the next day, so I was in each country for about 4 days.’ By the time he hit Malta for his Mediterranean dive, he was exhausted. ‘I took a nap at four in the afternoon and didn’t wake up until six in the morning the next day!’
After completing a dive in Miami for his fifth continent, he headed south to Ushuaia on the tip of Argentina, the traditional embarkation point for Antarctic cruises. Ushuaia doesn’t come across the radar for many divers, but it was the perfect opportunity to fine tune his cold water diving gear in preparation for Antarctica – as well as experience the underwater kelp forests that thrive in the chilly waters of the Beagle Channel. With his penultimate dive ticked off, he was ready for the final challenge.
Antarctica at last
Only a small number of expedition cruise ships offer scuba diving in Antarctica, but with Swoop’s guidance, Barrington picked the Ortelius as having the best chance of helping him break the record. Although the clock was ticking with the record attempt, the two day crossing of the Drake Passage offered some much needed breathing space, as well as some mental preparation time for Antarctica.
After a blurry two week rush around the globe, it quickly became clear that Antarctica would be the perfect climax to the trip. ‘I’ve been traveling so much it takes a lot to impress me these days, but the minute we started sailing around the Peninsula I was amazed by the pristine landscapes and icebergs. It was like something I have never experienced.’
On board, Barrington joined a group of half a dozen divers. After a short check dive to ensure everyone’s familiarity with the gear and the diving conditions, it was time to dive properly – and add the Seventh Continent to Barrington’s cap.
The location for the record-breaking dive was the wreck of the Governoren, an old whaling ship in Foyn Harbour.
‘It was a whole new experience as far as diving, being in the zodiac and doing a back roll to get into the water. The minute my face hit the water, it’s a bit of a shock. But it was cold! My body was fine but my fingers were hurting before too long.’ Barrington said, showing how it was even tricky to make the ‘thumbs up’ sign when it came to dive. An unexpected plankton bloom meant that visibility was very low, so it was decided to cut the dive short at 15 minutes: a short dive, but hopefully one that was long enough to claim the record.
Most scuba diving trips in Antarctica aim to offer a dive at least once a day if conditions allow, but the cold in Barrington’s hands initially made him hesitate about a second dive. ‘It was freezing! I was going to have that as my first and final dive in Antarctica!’ he laughed. But the group’s scuba guide Tanya knew that the best way of getting him back in the water was to offer something so perfectly Antarctic that it would be impossible to turn down: a dive in an iceberg graveyard.
Free floating icebergs aren’t safe to approach too closely but when they’re marooned in a bay with their bases jammed into the seabed, they’re the perfect frozen sculptures to explore up close. Seen from a zodiac they’re spectacular enough, but that’s literally just the tip of the iceberg. With scuba gear, they offer an entirely different experience.
‘It was amazing,’ Barrington mused. ‘My expectation from the surface was that it just couldn’t be that deep.’ Confronted with a sheer wall of ice and perfectly clear diving conditions, he was quickly forced to revise his expectations, as the iceberg stretched far past the 20 metres (65 feet) that’s the safety limit for safe diving in Antarctica. The ice was so massive that it even had a distorting effect on the divers, as the zone where the fresh meltwater from the ice wall mixed with the sea had strange effects on their buoyancy devices, which had to be constantly adjusted to stop them rising or sinking.
A polar record
As the last stage of an extraordinary trip, it was hard to beat. After travelling 27,000 miles (43,500 km) in 19 days, 19 hours and 40 minutes, Barrington could proudly claim the world record of being the fastest person to scuba dive on all seven continents.
And with all his dives complete, Antarctica offered the perfect stage to soak in the achievement, with nearly a week to enjoy numerous landings at penguin colonies, kayaking among the ice and getting to step foot on the Seventh Continent.
‘Throughout the whole trip, I pretty much had my head down, just diving, packing and flying, so I didn’t really get to process exactly what I was doing because of the race. It wasn’t until I got to Antarctica and did my first dive that I could relax and soak it all in and really process what I accomplished.’
For his next plan, Barrington is planning to get into conservation work with sharks, and diving again in warmer waters. But Antarctica has definitely left a lasting impression.
‘I didn’t see any swimming penguins, but the experience of diving the ice wall was amazing enough in itself,’ he concluded. And a monumental finish to an extraordinary world record.
*
Trent’s Adventures: Deep Sea Discovery is available now. Follow Barrington’s scuba adventures on Instagram.
*
