118 Countries and More to Come

Karin Sinniger holds the world record for diving in the most countries - now at 118 UN-recognized nations. She recently broke her world record by adding Afghanistan, Libya, Tajikistan, and Somalia to her achievements, with help from adventure travel company Untamed Borders in London. Eritrea is next on her list. She has also dived in many disputed and non-UN recognized territories - totaling 192 of the 330 recognized by the Travelers' Century Club.

Sinniger, a Swiss, U.S., and British (Hong Kong) citizen, has been diving since 1992 and has logged over 1,000 dives. She lives in Angola, where she decompresses by practicing law when not diving. "I've been shot at by African border guards; dodged crocodiles, hippos, and great white sharks; dived under the ice with Santa Claus, and in volcano craters, caves, trains, and submarines," said Sinniger. "But diving with a retired logging elephant in India's Andaman Island was a unique experience."

"Chagos Islands (300 miles south of the Maldives) also had very good diving because nobody is allowed there. And Mexico has fantastic opportunities for cave and cavern diving. Switzerland has some nice altitude diving. Probably the most unusual is Bolivia." Her favorite is the Solomon Islands, where she dived from the Bilikiki. "They have it all: wrecks, pelagics, small critters, lovely scenery, and interesting villages you can visit during your deco stops," she says.

"Most dive magazines feature established dive destinations that pay advertising dollars. But there is so much more to explore."

One of her top three dives is the SS Coolidge in Santo, Vanuatu: "Scale, depth, and artifacts, the Coolidge has it all. It's easily accessible (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. 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. The dusk dive at 40 meters with the flashlight fish is an other-worldly 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."

- From an article by the World Record Academy