Gabr, a former officer in the Egyptian army, holds the record for both the Deepest Scuba Dive and the Deepest Sea Dive after descending to 332 metres in 2014. The 42-year-old remains one of only three people in the world to have dived deeper than 300m, meaning \u2013 as he candidly put it \u2013 \u201cmore people have been to the moon than to where I went\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo speak here at the Dubai International Boat Show is beautiful,\u201d said Gabr, who also held the record until recently for the Largest Underwater Cleanup. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of people here from all over the world and to get the chance to speak with them and spread the message is great. I hope to come again next year and start talking about my new focus: restoring corals.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gabr said he will soon be looking for volunteers for a new coral restoration project, which he says could even take place in the UAE because of the country\u2019s growing eco-tourism. \u201cDoing it here is something we need to look at because corals are an important part of the economy of any country: fishing, tourism, preventing tides and water disasters, producing oxygen\u2026 they really are of vital importance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hashim, a paraplegic since losing the use of his legs following a car accident aged 20 and Saturday\u2019s other headline speaker, holds the world record for Fastest 10km Scuba Diving after completing the distance in\u00a0five hours and 24 minutes in 2018. The Kuwaiti\u2019s time was almost an hour quicker than the previous record holder. His message to the crowd at Dive Talks was simple: \u201cWe must improve the way we treat people with disabilities in society.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hashim is also the organiser of the \u201cMove To Improve\u201d youth forum, which he says is the Middle East\u2019s biggest show for People of Determination to demonstrate their talents. Held annually in Kuwait, Hashim \u2013 who enjoyed a strong turnout for his 45-minute presentation \u2013 revealed he hopes to bring next year\u2019s show to Dubai or Sharjah.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to show the world that people with a disability can do anything they wish,\u201d he added. \u201cBefore my accident I had a phobia of water; now I am a rescue diver. After my accident, I was once called \u2018the slowest man in the world\u2019. Now I am the fastest man in the world underwater.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sunday\u2019s Dive Talks agenda features Mariam Fardous, the Saudi who became the first Arab female to dive at the geographical North Pole, as well as Yuriy Rakhmatullin, a Ukraine-born World Freediving Championships judge who has lived in the UAE since childhood.<\/p>\n
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