South Africa (Commonwealth Union)_ To celebrate Valentine’s Day in a really special way, a couple set the world record for the longest underwater kiss. The record underwater kiss lasted for 4 minutes and 6 seconds inside an infinity pool. The popular couple Beth Neale from South Africa and Miles Cloutier from Canada are both divers and reside with their daughter in South Africa. The duo broke the Guinness World Record on Valentine’s Day in a Maldives hotel.
According to a media statement from Guinness World Records, the duo smashed the previous record of 3 minutes and 24 seconds, set 13 years ago on the Italian television show Lo Show dei Records by Guinness World Records. The official Twitter account of Guinness World Records posted the video of the record kiss on their page. The video was captioned as, “These lovebirds set a new underwater kiss record since their joint love was the ocean.”
Before deciding to set a new record, the couple started to practice at 7.30 am with some breath-holding warm-ups and two underwater kiss rehearsals lasting two and three minutes. Beth and Miles, underwater filmmakers, acknowledge that despite their three years of preparation and experience since conceiving the idea, the entire undertaking was far more difficult than they had imagined. Beth is a four-time freediving champion in South Africa. She said, “Three days before the record, I could just not hold my breath.” Miles said, “We couldn’t even reach the existing record – we weren’t even close.” Though the duo are professional divers, they acknowledged that the stunt was tough for them to do.
According to reports, as carbon dioxide accumulated in Beth and Miles’ bodies, they were compelled to swim to the surface and take a big breath. However, they fought against their natural tendencies by relying on one another during their endeavor to break the record. Miles referred to their record-breaking performance as the hero’s journey of a breath hold and said that he found it challenging from the beginning. In the end, love triumphed, and the couple broke the record with flying colors.
