Shark Freediving

Most of the freedivers know the story of Audrey Mestre. James Cameron bought the rights to the story some years back from Pipin Ferreras with the intention to make a movie from it. No clear comments were given by Cameron about this project with the name ‘‘The Dive” until now, but there seems to be an update.

Cameron is currently finishing off his latest mega project Avatar and then want to take a small break from the sci-fi genre and go back into the water (The Abbys, Titanic) to film the dive.

You can read more in my 2006 article about the story behind it. Source of this item can be found here.

The big movie that started freediving for many freedivers was the Big Blue or Le Grand Bleu as it’s originally called. There are several versions out there and for me the only version that is the correct one is the extra long director’s cut version that shows the European version with around 35 minutes of extra footage.

There was also an USA version made of the movie and it was completely changed from the original format. Different music, different scenes and even a different ending. I guess movies in the USA are forbidden to have a ”bad” ending.

Below you can first watch the ending of the US version and below that the Europe version. Also check out the difference in Musci. I know my personal favorite! What is yours?

USA Version

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European Version

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There will soon be a new freediving DVD on the market, made by Jerome Espla. The title of the documentary is “Princes des Epaves”, which means “Princes of the Wrecks”, and will feature Pierre Frolla and Frederic Buyle while they explore and freedive. The 52 minute movie will take you to Togo, Rubi, Catalina, France, the Remora 2000 and much more. On May 8 at 7 pm they will show the premiere the movie at the famous oceanic museum in Monaco. And finally on May 20th the DVD will be available.

Here’s already a small teaser of the film. I must say it has some pretty impressive footage and the music really takes you in it.

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Here is a teaser for a 52 minute documentary about French top freediver Stephane Mifsud that will come out this year. These 6 minutes promise a lot if you look at it. Can’t wait for the complete version. And if anybody has some more info…. please leave a comment below.

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Excellent video, very suitable for Shark Freediving! Watch a freediver play with a great white shark and in the end hang on to his fin… Excellent video!

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The next step in getting the IMAX version of the amazing freediving documentary on DVD is here. Janson Media today announced the release of Ocean Men: Extreme Dive to television markets worldwide. This Giant Screen Film, recently converted to HDTV, tells the fascinating story of two divers and their unique relationship to the sea. Their goal – dive deeper than anyone has ever gone before on a single breath of air. For more than ten years, world champion freedivers Pipin Ferreras and Umberto Pelizzari have been vying for world records. The 480-foot mark has already been passed but their journey into the deep continues. Their love of the sea and passion to push their own physical limits to the extreme is what unites these two rivals. However, it is their different personalities and opposing diving philosophies that separate them. Pipin is the “No Limits” man who wants to go deeper and deeper. Umberto, the purist, seeks harmony in the ocean’s depth.

So now that it is released to television it’s only a slight step away from being released on DVD. Read further for some extra info.

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Some months ago I already wrote something about this new freediving flick that was coming. Deeperblue editor Paul Kotik wrote an update on the status of the movie and what is going on. Good interesting article which makes me curious about seeing it.

You can read the article here and go to the official movie website here. You can already pre-order the dvd, blue ray disc or HD-DVD version on their website.

October 12, 2002. A difficult date for most freedivers. Audrey Mestre, wife of Pipin Ferreras, makes her final dive. A dive to 171 meters that takes long, too long, and will be remembered for ever. In a quest to be the deepest person in the world, you have to descent deep into yourself and go to places, physically and mentally to places no one has ever gone too before. Unfortunately Audrey went and her spirit stayed. The accident created a big stir in the freediving community and even outsiders were fascinated and touched by what happened.

On the front page of the June 16, 2003 edition of Sports Illustrated we see a photo of Pipin and Audrey holding hands, as if dancing underwater, heading back to the surface. Inside is an 11 page story of the couple written by Garry Smith. At first I was afraid of reading it, because of the angle they could have chosen to write about. But I’m glad they took the human angle, speaking about how both freedivers met, how they bonded, lived and loved. And yes it also goes into the why and how of the dive. All in all one really fascinating article that should be remembered and re-read every once in a while to remember, not about her last dive, but about the passion, the love for each other and the sport in general, and the live she lived.

You can download the article from our site here. We’ve made a nice 10 megabyte searchable PDF of it. Something like this shouldn’t get lost between all the other magazines and papers in the bookshelf.

The rights of the article are bought by James Cameron, famous director of the Abyss and Titanic. The latest news about this is that he will be filming the story of Pipin and Audrey called the Dive, which will be released in 2008. Any updates on this will of course be mentioned on this site.

Apperantly we have to be in San Diego on April 22; that’s when a new freediving movie will see the surface. Some months ago someone already send me a link to a teaser but what I saw then was a little, well, strange. It was apperantly some sort of set-up interview that takes place during the movie with Max Avery (played by Justin Williford). Anyway, I just forgot about the teaser because I didn’t think much of it. Now sometime later, I’m cleaning up my favorites and there is the website for the movie again. This time a lot more info about the movie. I have absolutly no idea if this is going to be any good, but it surpises me that when I look at the cast that there is not one freediver name mentioned that I know of, not that I know everybody, but still, no big names here.

But then again when I look at several movie stills and the movieposter it’s not difficult to find the yamamoto suits with the ICU logo on them, clearly defining the Performance Freediving team involvement. And even in one still it’s easy to see AIDA president Bill Stromberg as a judge in the water with his clear distinctive yellow sphera mask. Unfortunatly as I write this the official trailer is not online yet, so we have to wait…