Dear friends,
i wish you all a very happy new year 2011!
I started the year with a wonderfull training with the CIPA team in the bay of Villefranche.
We did some sled dives but the reason we were in the water in a tradition!
"1st of January under water and your life all year long will be better!"
FREE FALL, the short film we directed with Julie, won 2 awards in 2 prestigious film festival:
* LES ICARES DU CINEMA: 28th International Free Flight Film Festival: Short Film Award
We were very surprised to win an award at this Film Festival mostly dedicated to Free Flight films. It's said on the official website (in french), translation below: http://www.coupe-icare.org/le-palmares-du-festival.html
" A performance, a liquid choreography : an uncommon flight, a brightly evocative wordless tale. 5 intense minutes holding breath in both literal and figurative ways. A short fashioned "Big Blue" in its right place in Saint Hilaire"
* The World Festival of Underwater Pictures: Award of the Unusual Film
The festival took place for the second successive year at the Palais du Pharo in Marseille, from 27 to 31 October 2010. This festival is the most famous underwater festival in the world, so we are very proud to win a price!
L'Equipe, biggest sport newspaper in France
Dear friends,
sorry for the lack of informations the previous weeks, but I have been very busy! Moving everywhere around France and Europe for some PR work, TV, conferences, freediving course, music video shooting... I also started the beginning of my new training program for the upcoming season full of deep dives!
In the following days, I will try to post some reports about all this things I have done with pictures and videos. Keep on following this blog, I am back!
Cheers!!
Hello everybody,
A new adventure just ended. The 7th team world championship was organised for the first time in Asia, in Okinawa-Japan, from the 30th
to the 11th july, day of my 28th birthday !
Woman French team was composed of Julie Gautier, Alice Modolo and Aurore Asso.
Men’s french team was composed of Christian Maldame, Morgan Bourc’His, Fred Sessa and me.
We all arrived 5 days to 1 week before the beginning of the competition to have time to adapt to jetlag and also have several training
sessions in the ocean.
After the calm Mediteranean sea of Kalamata, what a change ! Current, wind, rain or waves, it was bad luck for Ryuzo Shinomya, the
organiser, as the conditions could have been perfect as he expected.
This year, we had maybe the best conditions ever to succeed in this competition : a sponsor Sony Ericsson, 2 coach, 1 captain, 1
physiologist and of course 8 athletes very strong, well prepared and motivated.
Unfortunatly, it seemed that french team was cursed for this event : Brigitte couldn’t join us because she injured herself, Cyril the
coach had to cancel his trip at the last minute because of an emergency at work, I got tangled at 102m by an anchor roap in the constant weigth disipline, my nose clip broke during the
static, etc….
On the top of that, it was hard for Morgan, Fred and me to handle the nomination of Christian Maldame as the alternate of the
team, as it was obvious for us he was the strong leader of the team.
Anyway, no excuse. At the end of the competition, the Danish won the world champion title. Even without all our troubles, it would have
been very very hard to dominate them.
Japanese team took the the 2nd place and like in 2008, Finland took the bronze medal.
For the woman, Japanese were very strong and took the gold medal. Finally the Russians are not world champions anymore !
The french girls are at the 5th place.
Fortunatly, this world championship ended with a french fireworks : a new dynamic WORLD RECORD by Fred Sessa with a 255m swim !
Congratulation to him !
Welcome back on the blog !
From the 7th to the 20th of june was organised the 3rd Mediterranean World Cup in Greece.
This competition usually took place in Sougia –Crete, but this year, the organiser Stavros Kastrinakis moved it to the Peloponese, in Kalamata.
The first week of the event was dedicated to the training and the second week was the competition week. The winner is the one that collect the biggest amount of point in the 3 unassisted depth
discipline :
- CWT (constant weight with fin) : swimming down and up with the fins
- CNF (constant no fins) : swimming down and up without any material
- FIM (Free Immersion) : pulling down and up to the rope
In CWT, I did a fantastic dive at 114m but unfortunaty failed in a national record attempt the last day of the comp at
118m (early turn at 100m).
In CNF, I went to 70m
In FIM, I pulled down to 96m
I am very happy to win this competition, and especially with my CWT dives. On the 114m, I felt I had some air left in the tank. My early turn in the 118m was due to a technical mistake on the way
down.
It was a good start before the main competition of the year : The team world championship in Okinawa – Japan, where french team will try to defend his world champion title !.
I will arrive in Okinawa the 24th of June, so I keep you informed very soon !
This video is a FICTION and an ARTISTIC PROJECT, I don't claim to have reached the bottom of the hole (202m) without rope and fins, as the world record in no-fins discipline is 95m.
We made this movie to show another approach in freediving videos.
We wanted to express the strenght of the elements water-earth-air and the sensations of freedom, harmony, exploration.
All the shots were made on breath hold by Julie Gautier.
We directed and edited the movie ourself, Julie and me. Jerome Espla (Poisson Lune Productions) was the gradder of the clip (color corrections...).
The music is from ARCHIVE - you make me feel.
The camera is a Canon 5D mark II
