William Trubridge dove his way into a New Years honour.
William Trubridge celebrates a successful dive in The Bahamas. Photo: Samo Vidic
The world champion freediver has been made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to his sport.
Trubridge, who spoke to RNZ in October about his fears of catching Covid-19, began freediving in 2003 and, in 2005, became the first freediver to dive at Dean's Blue Hole in the Bahamas.
There he broke his first world record in the discipline of CNF (Constant Weight No Fins) in 2007, diving to 81 metres.
Now holder of multiple world records, in 2010, Trubridge became the first human to descend to 100 metres with no assistance.
He furthered that record to 102 metres in 2016 and, in the same year, also set the world record of 124 metres in Free Immersion - a discipline in which the diver doesn't use propulsion equipment, only pulling on a rope during descent and ascent.
In 2011 and 2012, he won the World's Absolute Freediver Award - an annual prize for freedivers with the highest combined score in six freediving disciplines.
The 40-year-old hasn't just contributed to his sport as a competitor, though.
Trubridge founded, and is course director of, Vertical Blue, which is both the most prestigious annual freediving competition as well as a freediving school in the Bahamas.
He also instigated Project Hector in 2010, to raise awareness of New Zealand's critically endangered Hector's and Maui dolphin species and, in 2019, completed an 'underwater crossing' of the Cook Strait as a series of 934 breath hold dives to highlight the plight of endangered dolphins.
Trubridge was also an ambassador for the Ocean Recovery Alliance, an organisation working to find solutions and raise awareness of the plastic waste epidemic.