"Scuba diver, Karin Sinniger, holds the world record for diving in the most countries – now standing at 118 UN recognised nations in total. She has recently broken her own world record by adding Afghanistan, Libya, Tajikistan and Somalia to her achievements, with help from adventure travel company, Untamed Borders," the Untamed Borders says.

"The company guided her in all four countries, to ensure she could travel and dive safely, from the pre-planning stage, all the way through to on the ground logistics. Karin Sinniger officially broke the scuba diving record in 2013, after diving with an elephant in the Andaman Islands, which are Union Territory of India.

"Scuba diving in the likes of Afghanistan, Libya, Tajikistan and Somalia poses a number of challenges, with many hard-to-reach countries not having commercial diving centres or dive tourism facilities. She is planning to dive in Eritrea next with Untamed Borders and has more nations on the horizon. And she says having Untamed Borders alongside her in some of the nations, really adds to the experience…

"Along with the dives in the 118 UN recognized countries, Karin has also dived in many disputed and other non-UN recognised territories – totaling 192 of the 330 recognized by the Travelers’ Century Club."

"Karin Sinniger is one of them. An extremely fortunate one in fact, with a world record for scuba diving in most countries. In 2013, the World Record Academy recognised Karin Sinniger's achievement after she scuba dived in the Andaman Islands, India, the 115th country for Karin to dive in. To date, she has dived in 180 countries, Bangladesh included," The Business Standard says.

"Karin believes everyone who enjoys outdoor activities is a conservationist at heart. Although she is not a marine biologist, she has been involved for a number of years with an award-winning UK based coral reef conservation organisation.

"Chagos Island had very, very good spots for diving as well because nobody is allowed there. And Mexico has fantastic opportunities for cave and cavern diving. Switzerland has some nice altitude diving opportunities. Probably the most unusual is Bolivia.

"Asked if scuba diving can be a vehicle to motivate people in marine conservation, the world-record-holding scuba diver replied that she did not think scuba diving would ever be a mainstream sport because of a host of factors, but admitted that whoever becomes a serious scuba diver is usually motivated to preserve the environment in which they're diving. She also thinks divers can help conserve by taking photos and videos to show people the underwater world. Asked what kind of impact all these remarkable experiences and all the time under the oceans have brought to her, Karin said she couldn't imagine her life without diving."

"Sinninger, a Swiss, US and British (Hong Kong) citizen, has been diving since 1992 and has logged over a 1,000 dives. She lives in Angola where she decompresses by practicing law when she is not diving. A long-time patron of the award winning charity Blue Ventures, Ms. Sinniger hopes to raise awareness for the deteriorating condition of aquatic life globally. She began her world record quest in 2005," the worldrecordacademy.com says.

""I've been shot at by African border guards; dogged crocodiles, hippos and great white sharks; dived under the ice with Santa Claus, in volcano craters, in caves, trains and submarines" said Sinniger. "But diving with a retired logging elephant was a unique experience."

"Karin Sinniger, a Swiss, US and British (Hong Kong) citizen who lives in Angola and who has logged over a 1,000 dives, successfully scuba dived with an elephant near the Havelock Island, Andaman Islands, India (the 115th country she dived in), to set a world record for scuba diving in the most countries, according to the World Record Academy."

"Sinniger has logged 1,021 dives to date and has no plans of stopping anytime soon. Of all the places she has dove, her favorite is the Solomon Islands. “They have it all: wrecks, pelagics, small critters, lovely scenery and interesting villages you can visit during your deco stops,” she says. “Combine that with one of the top liveaboard operators – they don’t cancel a trip even if only one diver is booked on it – and you have heaven.” - the PADI Blog says.

"“There are so many neat places to explore and dive in. Most dive magazines feature the established dive destinations that pay advertising dollars. But there is so much more to explore. I really like the hard-to-get-to places where it is logistically challenging to arrange dives,” she explains. “You never know when you might find that awesome dive that will live in your memory forever.”

"PADI Pro Karin Sinniger dove her way right into the record books in February 2013 in India. “It was great that I could achieve this record while doing something as unique as diving with an elephant in the Andaman Islands, India. It was the 115th country I had dived in,” Sinniger says."

"In 2013, the World Record Academy recognized Karin Sinniger’s attempt to set a new record for scuba diving in the most countries," the Scuba Diver Life says.

"Ms. Sinniger, who began her record-breaking attempt in 2005, traveled to an incredible 115 countries to achieve her goal, which was clinched with a dive in the Andaman Islands, India, in February 2013.

"On her record 115th dive, Ms. Sinniger dived with Rajan, an ocean-swimming elephant left over from the days when these animals were used to move timber from one place to another for the Indian logging industry."

"To set an innovative world record for diving in the greatest number of countries, Karin Sinniger travelled to a whopping 115 countries between 2005 and 2013," the DiveGlobal.com says.



"With one dive in each country, Sinniger ended her world-record attempt in India’s Andaman Islands where she was able to dive with a swimming elephant named Rajan.

"Rajan, like many other elephants in India, were once used by the logging industry to move heavy pieces of timber around."

"Born in Hong Kong and growing up by Malaysia, Japan and the Philippines, alumna Karin Sinniger spent much of her time by the ocean," the Mayer Brown Alumni Network says.

“My parents had a little beach house in the Philippines which we visited every few weeks. I loved being in the sea with a mask and snorkel—my parents would have to drag me out of the water,” Karin explains.

"We recently spoke with Karin who, in February 2013 set a world record for the most countries dived in, to find out more about life beneath the surface."

"If you had to propose three great dive sites for the advanced diver, which ones would make the cut?

Bahamas: Andros Island blue hole caves. Incredible light and beauty but deep and complex. Can only be dived twice a day at about 2 PM and 2 AM due to currents. You need advanced cave dive training and mixed gas training.

Solomon Islands: They have it all: a great liveaboard dive operator (Bilikiki Cruises); interesting top side scenery and culture to visit during the day in between dives; macro diving where you can photograph small critters like the colorful mandarin fish; superb pelagic dives with schools of barracuda and jacks.; colorful reefs in good health. They used to have good shipwreck diving too before volcanic eruptions.

SS Coolidge, Santo, Vanuatu: Scale, depth and artifacts, the Coolidge has it all. And it’s easily accessible both in terms of location (just a short swim from a beach) and for all experience levels. Pick a dive from 20-70 meters on the mammoth 654 foot ship. You can dive tech if you want to, but most divers stick to large tanks and an extra pony bottle for deep dives. Personalized dive-guiding means that you keep the same dive guide for the length of your stay and will rarely dive with more than one other diver. Just tell your dive guide what floats your boat and then dive it. The dusk dive at 40 meters with the flashlight fish is an other-worldy experience—like floating in space with thousands of stars around you. I didn’t shower for a day after that dive just to keep the smell of the salt on my body to remember it, it was that good." (NomadMania.com)

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