An 11-year-old schoolboy has smashed a world scuba diving record - despite living almost 100 miles from the sea.<br /><br />Ethan Evans is the youngest person ever to complete 130 dives before the age of 12, beating the previous record of 102.<br /><br />He reaches depths up to 30m (98ft) on each dive and regularly swims alongside tiger sharks and deadly giant manta rays.<br /><br />The fearless youngster, from Worcester, began diving when he was nine and became open water certified just a year later. <br /><br />Despite living 80 miles from the sea, Ethan took up the sport with the help of his dad Paul, 49, who is a trained scuba instructor.<br /> <br />Every summer they travel to the Maldives where they explore the Indian Ocean and rack up Ethan's dive count.<br /><br />The current scuba record for children under 12 is 102 dives but Ethan beat the record on July 23.<br /><br />Now he's aiming to log an unbeatable 150 dives before his 12th birthday in April next year.<br /><br />Ethan's mum Aimee Ford said he often has spare oxygen left due to how calm he is on dives, often coming back with more than most adults.<br /><br />The 42-year-old Zumba instructor said: “He’s 11. At that age they’re only really supposed to go 10 or 12 metres but he’s so advanced he can go much further. <br /><br />"There’s no sort of hardline rules. They tend to gauge how good you are in the water by the amount of oxygen left in your tank. <br /><br />“He’s gone down 30m before. That’s where you see the best stuff. He’s not satisfied with the little fish. <br /><br />“His dad used to be a dive guide but he now runs his own businesses in Dubai.<br /><br />“We as a family loved the middle east and we would be over there. Ethan did his first dive at nine and a half and totally fell in love with it. <br /><br />“Now he goes off spending summers and weekends off with his dad diving.”<br /><br />The mum-of-two added: "Ethan's dad worked as a diver and has taken all of our kids diving.<br /><br />"When Ethan turned to he could get an open water certification so he could start diving without an instructor. <br /><br />"After Ethan got his certification they saw the record and decided he wanted to break it."<br /><br />Aimee says Ethan wants to become a diving guide when he’s older and hopes to help clean up the ocean.<br /><br />She said: “The dives vary in time, some can be 30 minutes, some can be 45 minutes, some can be an hour. <br /><br />"They’ve just moved to a different island where they have seven metre tiger sharks around him. <br /><br />"You can come up at any time you want, because he has so much oxygen left he can stay down there longer.<br /><br />“He’s just completed his 130th dive. The previous record was 102. His plan is to come home with 150 dives by the end of August. <br /><br />"His words were 'I’m going to set the record so high so that no one can beat it'.<br /><br />“He’s got his heart set on beating it. He turns 12 in April so he’s got plenty of time to do it.<br /><br />"He loves it, he's extremely confident and really calm in the water even when he's swimming with manta rays and all kinds of sharks.
