“Diving Deep: Daredevil Sets World Record for Surviving Months Underwater—Is Ocean Living the Future?”
Speaking to Bored Panda from beneath the waves, the Hemingway-esque industrialist and adventurer, familiarly known as Rudy, joined his co-founder and CEO Grant Romundt to reveal the challenges of spending more than three months underwater—and how doing so will help with an unexpected goal: space travel.
Ocean Builders co-founder and chief engineer Rüdiger Koch has spent over 100 days in an underwater room to prove the feasibility of his company’s Deepwater SeaPods, which will form floating cities
Image credits: Grant Romundt from Ocean Builders
Image credits: Grant Romundt from Ocean Builders
Of course, the immediate purpose of the record attempt was to prove the feasibility of the SeaPod Deepwater Model. Unlike the standard SeaPods, which are designed for depths around 13 feet (four meters), the Deepwater Model is a floating human habitat suitable for the open ocean and capable of handling large swells.
Indeed, stability is one of the SeaPod’s main selling points. Even the current shallow-water models don’t rock in the waves like a boat. “A lot of times you don’t even feel the movement on my SeaPod,” Grant assured us.
Plus, they’re far more spacious and decked out with amenities. The CEO gave us a tour of his own pod, including the kitchen, living room, bathroom, and bedroom, as well as a furnished balcony. Appliances like a large fridge to a temperature-controlled bed run off solar power managed by an internal, liquid-cooled computer. And this is all centered within gorgeous 360-degree views of the bay. Altogether, there are 830 square feet of living space (around 77 square meters).
