I just read a book (“The Dive”) written by an idiot named Pipin Fererras. He is a champion free diver…that is , somebody who holds their breath, and holds onto a weight…and plunges into the deep opcean. The idea is to get as deep as possible…then, when you cannot hold your breath any longer, you open a tank of comptessed air, and inflate a bouyancy bag. Hopefully, this pulls you back to the surface, where you can breath.
The book relates how this bozo met a beautiful Frenchwoman (Audrey), and married her. In Oct. 2002, Audrey decided to try for a deep diving record of her own. She made it to 171 meters, and then drowned, because her idiot husband forgot to check the airtank (needed to inflate the balloon).
Now, I cannot understand the motivation of people who would risk their lives for this kind of “sport”-to me it seems like an elaborate way to commit suicide. But I can’t understand letting someone you love get into such danger.
I finished the book feeling puzzled…if you love life, why so eager to throwit away.
Or maybe, this is natural selection in action.
I am not clear on why HE is the idiot. Didn’t she check her own tank? Did she ask him if he had checked it? It seems like she forgot too. Seems like they are both idiots.
Gee, it’s almost as if they’d been deprived of oxygen or something.
sports illustrated had a story about this guy. While i kind of feel for him and his wife, it is pretty clear that they were risking death as much as almost anyone. i just can’t must up a lot of sympathy for this guy or anyone that engages in stupid death defying events.
Kind of like speed freestyle rock climbers. no gear, no safety checks, climb up a 300 foot or higher cliff as fast as you can. What? you fell to your death? Wow, I never saw that coming…
Maybe she died in the way she’d wanted to.
Having her lungs filled with salt water in a reflexive and desperate rush for air? Panicked and thrashing wildly?
I can’t imagine it was on her List of Pleasant Ways to Die.
oh i remember this.
She was beating his record. He was the only one to check her tanks because she did deep meditation and breathing before her dive. He’s been suspected of not filling her tanks purposely.
Rather interesting story.
For more, see the movie, The Big Blue or Le Grand Bleu (french version), by Luc Besson, the guy who did The Professional, La Femme Nikita, and Fifth Element. One of my all time faves.
And Jean Reno rocks. “Im so glaaad you’re heeeeeere…”
Inky
They also risk heart damage due to lack of oxygen.
Incidentally, Fererras founded something called the International Assoc.of Free Divers, who compete (for who can do something more stupid). Currently, the record for free dive depths is 162 meters. So some fool can try to go even deeper-who cares? If somebody ventures deeper, and suffers something horrific (like a total implosion of the chest cavity), who would mourn such idiocy?
Again, stupid is as stupid does. :eek:
ralph124c, if you haven’t read The Shadow Divers you’d find it interesting. The deep-sea wreck divers profiled in that book at least had an historical question of some interest to answer (how did a WWII-era U-boat wind up on the sea bed off New Jersey when no such boats were supposed to be in the area?).
In the main, though, Atlantic wreck divers come off as something less than intelligent - people who routinely risked death in order to be first to loot a passenger vessel of its dinner china.
THanks, JACKMANNI, I did read the book. Another band of idiots. My cousin’s son is a rescue swimmer in the US Coast Guard. He has actually accompanied the bodies of some of these wreck divers to the New London hospital…in one case, the deceased was a 35-year old NYC stockbroker, who left behind a wife and two young children. WHAT was this dope thinking? He got tangled up on the wreck of the ANDREA DORIA, and either had a heart attack or seizure, and drowned in the cold black depths of 240 feet…al to get some stupid old china! His buddies almost drowned recovering the body, and the coast guard sent a rescue helicopter to the scene…the man’s frantic wife insisted that they take him to a hospital, even though everybody knew the dope was dead.
I wonder what the coroner’s report looked like…drowned due to stupidity?
And, if you wish to dive to the Andrea Doria, it ain’t cheap! It’s about $2000 for a 3 day trip, funeral expenses not included.
Idiots!
You seem to have a real irrational contempt for people who take risks. I bet you’re a real blast at parties :rolleyes:
Gotta agree with Cisco. I’d rather die freediviing than in a hospital bed.
Go to www.freediving.com, if you want to contribute to the next suicide attempt!
Irrational contempt? Nope; perfectly rational. The people who are irrational are those who do the diving or climb the mountains, especially when they expect us to foot the bill, or worse, expect Ralph’s cousin to risk his life, when they fail. There are justifyable risks in life and then there is plain ol’ stupidity. Free diving is stupidity.
I disagree. While free diving certainly isn’t for me, I ski in the backcountry and have to make informed decisions about avalanche and other safety issues. Perhaps society will come to a concensus about what constitutes “too much risk” but for the most part it is still left to the individual to decide. I like it that way, as I don’t want someone else telling me that my chosen sport is stupidity even if it involves objective risks. If that were the case, ice climbing would be outlawed.
Search and Rescue teams debate this type of objective danger issue all the time. I’ve done a little bit of volunteer S&R, and it’s a tough call when you feel you are being put at risk trying to rescue someone who volunterily got into a situation that you yourself feel was beyond acceptable norms. But for me S&R is a volunteer activity, I can say no anytime I don’t want to go. Others whose job is S&R don’t really have that luxury. I don’t think it’s black and white.
Another thought on this: Fererras has a big sponsor (Seiko watches)…their logo is plastered all over his wet suit. I wonder what kind of advertisng value they would get, if you saw them hauling in the lifeless body?Seriously, at about 200 meters depth (which is what he is striving to hit) the pressure is probably at the point where his body cavities might well implode.
I haven’t seen the SPORTS ILLUSTRATED article, but apparently, they had a picture of Audrey’s lifeless body on a stretcher…that can’t be good for the sport of “free diving”!
That they did. I also seem to remember reading that he created his own diving federation because the recognized body in existence at the time refused to count his records due to some combo of questionable and dangerous technique/seriously foolhardy behavior.
Who pays for the search and rescue when the searchee skis in an avalanche zone? I know you’re labor is free but helicopter fuel is not. Yet what sort of uproar would there be if your boss were to say, “That fuckhead got what he should’ve expected. Maybe somebody will stumble on his body next Spring?” I understand some S&R groups are starting to charge for their services when there is a rule violation and I’m all for it.
I hadn’t realized people would be so contemptuous of this sort of thing. If you’re contemptuous of freediving, are you equally/less/more contemptuous of, say:
Climbing Everest?
Boxing?
Stock car racing?
Smoking?
Drinking alcohol?
Taking recreational drugs?
Having a diet and/or lifestyle that contributes to high blood pressure?
etc.?
Not being snarky or anything, I’m genuinely curious.