The moment free dive world record breaker William Trubridge thought he might not make it

Freedive world champion William Trubridge thought he missed out on another world record attempt this morning when his body started to tell him he was low on oxygen.

The 36-year-old felt he was still too far from the surface but he pushed through the negative thoughts to complete his 18th world record in the Bahamas.

Trubridge swam to a depth of 102 metres and back to complete the world record that he fell agonisingly short of breaking in 2014.

This morning he made it to the surface with no issues, completing the attempt without touching a rope or using any form of propulsion assistance.

"It feels really good to get the monkey off my back. To do it with the whole nation behind me, it's a relief and a huge sense of jubilation...finally," Trubridge told NZH Focus from his Bahamas base this morning.

Trubridge said the descent towards the bottom was a comfortable procedure for him, but he began to struggle halfway through the ascent back to the surface.

"It was a tough dive. They are all pretty difficult when I'm diving to this sort of depth. The descent on the way down, I felt good. I was relaxed, I was in the zone. I was able to shut out the whole idea of what I was doing and the significance of it. When I turned at the bottom - that voice just kind of piped up and there was a moment there when (I thought) 'I'm going to get this' and ushered in all the negative thoughts like 'No you're still 102 metres down, you've got a long way to go'," he said.

"The ascent, I started to feel about halfway up, there's kind of a draining feeling when you start to get low on oxygen. When I felt that I thought I was still too deep and that I may not make it. I started to get worried."

Fortunately, he remained composed to reach the surface in 4 minutes and 13 seconds.

"But then I met my safety divers and stay on top of that feeling."

In May he broke the free immersion dive record of 124 metres, where he used a rope to assist with descent and ascent.

In January 2015, Trubridge announced he had beaten his personal breath-holding record, after lasting nine minutes with "empty lungs".

WHITE CARD! and a new WORLD RECORD 102m CNF!!!

Posted by Vertical Blue on Wednesday, 20 July 2016