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Kuwaiti divers Reem Aleidan and Mubarak Abuhaimad will attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the longest underwater dive by a woman and the longest underwater dive by a man March 2 at Stuart Cove's Dive Bahamas in Nassau.

UPDATE: The team started the attempt Tuesday at approximately 5 p.m. and ran into some equipment related issues, causing the attempt to be delayed until March 2. "We built into their schedule some extra days for this type of delay," says Stuart Cove. "What they are trying to do is dangerous, unique and well outside the normal realm of scuba diving. Delays and equipment issues are to be expected when pushing the frontier of human endurance.”

Stuart Cove's Dive Bahamas is running a live stream of the 60-plus hour dive on its YouTube page. The men's record, set by Cem Karabay in 2015, is 72 hours, while the women's record, set by Cristi Quill in 2015, is 51 hours and 25 minutes.

Besides the challenge of breaking a world record, Aleidan has other reasons for pursuing this goal: “As one of the few Arab women scuba instructors in the world, plus being a single mother of two children, I was looking for a way to raise awareness for women’s rights and the plight of Arab women in the Middle East. Being a woman in a male-dominated industry is a challenge, being a woman in the Middle East and wanting to teach diving is even more challenging. I am hoping by holding this even in the Western World we can bring media attention to the plight of women like me in the Middle East and any other countries around the world where women are repressed and not allowed to express themselves like men can in many activities, like scuba diving.”

Stuart Cove has created an underwater platform where the divers will be able to relax during the lengthy dive. The team comprised of senior staff and safety divers met this morning to discuss precautionary measures. The main concern for the two divers will be hypothermia. To combat that, the divers will perform nearly all activity themselves, including change tanks and masks. The safety divers will hold up their fingers every hour and have the divers squeeze their hand that many times as a neurological test. For the complete safety briefing, see out the video.

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