Former FLL Now MSP Diver
Contributor
Diver's deadly plunge spurs debate on safety
By Jodie Needle
Staff Writer
Posted November 17 2002
With a single breath and no air tank, Audrey Mestre plunged toward the ocean floor, determined to descend to a world-record depth.
She had spent years training in the extreme sport of "no-limits free diving," catapulting underwater on a weighted sled attached to a cable.
The goal: to see how deep one breath could take her. A balloon would then inflate and hurtle her back to the surface, usually within a few minutes.
But on this dive, several minutes passed and Mestre, 28, failed to surface. Rescue divers pulled her body from the sea as a crowd of onlookers cheered, oblivious to the tragedy unfolding. "People just didn't make the transition from festivity to horror," said Paul Kotik, a journalist and diver from Plantation who witnessed the dive from a boat.
It was the third time someone had died during a dive trip organized by Mestre's husband and fellow diver, Francisco "Pipin" Ferreras.
As in the other cases, the reason for Mestre's death is unclear, although initial reports indicate she drowned.
Her death last month is now under debate on countless Web sites, where the diving community is pressing Ferreras and the North Miami business he ran with Mestre, International Association of Free Divers, to release details of the incident. Many say IAFD, which teaches the sport, sells free-diving paraphernalia and organized Mestre's dive, is obligated to reveal what went wrong to prevent future deaths. Many have questioned whether the company follows necessary safety precautions.
"IAFD is a little more liberal and daring in regards to pushing the envelope," said Cliff Etzel, free-diving editor for deeperblue.net, who has trained with the IAFD and serves on its advisory council. "In order for continued financial backing, there were going to need to be spectacle events with prominent sponsors, events involved with record attempts. ... There was a financial incentive to pursue these record attempts."
Russian roulette
In an interview, Ferreras, 40, said he is aware of such allegations but declined to discuss them.
Neal Pollock, a research associate at the Center for Hyperbaric Medicine and Environmental Physiology at Duke University, said he studies breath-hold diving and knows of Ferreras.
"Some people will say he's doing impressive things, which is true. Other people will say he's taking unacceptable risks, which is also true," Pollock said. "It doesn't mean it can't be done safely. But it's like Russian roulette; the deeper you go, the more bullets are in the chamber."
Ferreras stressed IAFD's emphasis is on safety.
"When we dive, we try to do it at 300 percent safety," Ferreras said. "It's the only thing that's given me the tranquillity and confidence to do a dive that deep."
Carlos Serra, president of IAFD, says that an investigation into Mestre's death is ongoing and that IAFD hopes to release information soon. He suspects the cable may have been twisted.
"We're trying to determine the causes of what went wrong," he said. "We want to make sure what happened will never, never happen again."
Serra has been quoted in other media as saying an autopsy indicated she drowned.
Ferreras says he does not see how further investigation will help. Instead, he says he wants Mestre to rest in peace.
"What happened, you don't have to be a genius to understand it was some technical problems," he said. "It won't help anybody.''
Ferreras says he blames himself for Mestre's death, "because I taught her how to free dive," but added it's "her fault, too, because she fell in love with free diving."
He says he plans one final professional dive on March 8, the anniversary of the day he met Mestre in 1996.
"If I don't do it, everything [Mestre and his other friends who died while diving] was for nothing. It will be the last dive of my career probably," he said. "And then I'm going to retire professionally. But I will be diving for the rest of my life. That is what is going to keep me close to her."
On the IAFD Web site, Ferreras released this statement:
"After some deliberation, Audrey's parents and I have decided not to disclose any information whatsoever about Audrey's accident and its causes. This will only increase the morbidity of the enemies that both Audrey and I have. I'm sure this would have also been Audrey's will, and as such, I would ask that everyone respect our decision."
8 minutes, 41 seconds
Mestre and Ferreras lived in North Bay Village in Miami-Dade County. They became known internationally as accomplished athletes in free diving, garnering media attention from outlets such as People magazine and the Mexican television network Televisa.
On Oct. 12, Mestre was aiming for a world-record depth of 171 meters (about 550 feet, or nearly two football fields) off the coast of the Dominican Republic.
Storms raged the morning of the dive, delaying the event. But as skies cleared a few hours later, Mestre descended into the water.
Dozens of spectators and journalists gathered on boats to watch. It was supposed to take her about three minutes to descend and then emerge, Serra said.
But when the clock hit the three-minute mark, there was no sign of Mestre.
"The moment she passed three minutes and I didn't see the balloon coming up ... I got concerned," said Serra, who served as a judge during the event.
Four minutes elapsed. Then five ...
Divers raced to bring Mestre to the surface. She was underwater for 8 minutes, 41 seconds, Serra said. She was rushed ashore within five minutes, Serra said, with him and rescuers performing CPR all the while.
"Pipin was in the ambulance, holding her hand ... we would not stop," he said. "We didn't stop CPR till we got to the hospital, until they said it was too late."
On the IAFD Web site, Serra listed the names of nine medically trained personnel he stated were with them when Mestre made her dive as well as the names of a dozen other safety divers he said were in the water.
Still, Etzel, a diver and photojournalist, and others want details such as the specific depths at which the safety divers, who wear tanks and aid free divers as needed, were positioned. That, he said, would tell how far away Mestre had been from help.
"You could have 11 safety divers bunched up at the surface," Etzel said.
Ferreras formed IAFD in 1997, and its Web site, iafdusa.com, lists affiliates in Spain, Scandinavia and elsewhere in Europe.
Serra says Kim McCoy, a physical oceanographer, is examining the death.
Reached twice via e-mail, McCoy, who is listed on IAFD's advisory council, declined to release details, including for whom he is working, his credentials as an investigator and when he will conclude the investigation.
2 deaths off Mexico
While viewed by many as a pioneer and even a legend in no-limits free diving, Ferreras has a mixed reputation in the sport.
Six years ago, two safety divers -- Massimo Berttoni and Pepe Fernandez -- working with Ferreras died in separate dives off the coast of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Both had been training with him, Ferreras said, and in both cases he said he does not know exactly why they died.
Their autopsies listed drowning as the cause, he said.
In a recent phone interview, Ferreras initially said he was close friends with Berttoni. Days later, he said he had just met Berttoni shortly before the dive.
Ferreras and Fernandez, who died at age 45, had known each other for several years from their Cuban homeland.
"What I think is ... he had been bitten by a scorpion [the day before] in Cabo San Lucas by his foot," Ferreras said. "We were preparing the place to start training, putting anchors and all of that. He went down like between 70 and 80 meters [about 230 to 262 feet] I guess the poison from the scorpion [killed him]. Doctors said he drowned, too. I'm not a doctor."
Gabriele Fernandez, Fernandez's widow who lives in Germany, said in a recent phone interview that she doesn't believe the scorpion story. She and Pepe Fernandez's daughter, Hedda, who lives in Miami, say they have never received an autopsy report or any more details about the death even though they say they have demanded them from Ferreras.
Ferreras said both men "were very close friends of mine. What happened didn't have anything to do with me. Pepe was like my little brother. Pepe was the person who introduced me to Audrey."
Reached at home in Mexico, Mestre's parents said they were too distraught to discuss their daughter.
"It's been only four weeks since this happened and we are suffering a lot," said her father, Jean Pierre Mestre. "Nothing will bring our daughter back."
Diving study
Mestre began diving as a child in France. When she was just 21/2 years old, she competed and won a medal in a swimming event.
As a child, she went spear-fishing in the Mediterranean Sea with her grandfather.
She began scuba diving at the age of 13 and when she was in high school, she and her family moved to Mexico. Her love for the sea intensified, so she pursued marine biology at La Paz University near the Sea of Cortez, in Baja California, Mexico.
In May 1995, she started her thesis on marine physiology, and to do it, she studied Ferreras, who had been diving professionally since 1987.
Mestre was intrigued.
"I wanted to know everything about him," she wrote on a Web site about her, www.freediving.net/Audrey/bio.htm.
"I gathered all the information available on articles, experiments, books, videos. ... He became my only conversation topic, my only preoccupation, my new obsession."
He had organized a dive in Cabo in 1996.
"Since he took my sleep away several times during the developing of my thesis, I couldn't resist the temptation of going to Cabo to meet him, even from afar," she wrote. "I took a bus that also carried chickens, egg cartons and dogs. After four long hours, I arrived to Cabo."
"They fell in love, almost immediately," Serra said.
She became one of his safety divers as well as an underwater photographer.
"The first day we met was the first day we started living together," Ferreras said. "We never separated until now."
With time, she wanted to dive without tanks as he did, to experience what he would.
"It is very difficult to live with someone that experiences sensations unknown by the rest of the world, sensations that can't be described or shared," she wrote.
"That is why in 1997 I took the decision of setting my first record in free diving. ... I thought that if I could enter his underwater world, I could be closer to him ... and I did."
"Free diving is a magical world, but unfortunately we are not marine mammals, and accidents can happen. That is why it is so important to learn the safe way and the right way to free dive, that is why I believe so much in the IAFD," Mestre is quoted in a profile last year on www.deeperblue.net.
Purpose in records
She continued: "I don't do records just to do them or ... to be a champion, I do them because it is the only way to live very different sensations. The depth is the only place to go and touch, feel and live the power of the Ocean. But to reach it, it has to be done in harmony with it. When you dive with the sled you don't need your body, you have to be so relaxed that, at one point you just forget that you have one and that is when you meet the other person who lives inside you, the one in control of everything: your mind."
On a different Web site, she wrote that sharing a passion for the ocean, she and Ferreras wed in August of 1999 "over a dock, near the sea, of course."
Three years later, Mestre's ashes would be scattered at sea.
Jodie Needle can be reached at jneedle@sun-sentinel.com or 954-385-7908.
Copyright © 2002, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
By Jodie Needle
Staff Writer
Posted November 17 2002
With a single breath and no air tank, Audrey Mestre plunged toward the ocean floor, determined to descend to a world-record depth.
She had spent years training in the extreme sport of "no-limits free diving," catapulting underwater on a weighted sled attached to a cable.
The goal: to see how deep one breath could take her. A balloon would then inflate and hurtle her back to the surface, usually within a few minutes.
But on this dive, several minutes passed and Mestre, 28, failed to surface. Rescue divers pulled her body from the sea as a crowd of onlookers cheered, oblivious to the tragedy unfolding. "People just didn't make the transition from festivity to horror," said Paul Kotik, a journalist and diver from Plantation who witnessed the dive from a boat.
It was the third time someone had died during a dive trip organized by Mestre's husband and fellow diver, Francisco "Pipin" Ferreras.
As in the other cases, the reason for Mestre's death is unclear, although initial reports indicate she drowned.
Her death last month is now under debate on countless Web sites, where the diving community is pressing Ferreras and the North Miami business he ran with Mestre, International Association of Free Divers, to release details of the incident. Many say IAFD, which teaches the sport, sells free-diving paraphernalia and organized Mestre's dive, is obligated to reveal what went wrong to prevent future deaths. Many have questioned whether the company follows necessary safety precautions.
"IAFD is a little more liberal and daring in regards to pushing the envelope," said Cliff Etzel, free-diving editor for deeperblue.net, who has trained with the IAFD and serves on its advisory council. "In order for continued financial backing, there were going to need to be spectacle events with prominent sponsors, events involved with record attempts. ... There was a financial incentive to pursue these record attempts."
Russian roulette
In an interview, Ferreras, 40, said he is aware of such allegations but declined to discuss them.
Neal Pollock, a research associate at the Center for Hyperbaric Medicine and Environmental Physiology at Duke University, said he studies breath-hold diving and knows of Ferreras.
"Some people will say he's doing impressive things, which is true. Other people will say he's taking unacceptable risks, which is also true," Pollock said. "It doesn't mean it can't be done safely. But it's like Russian roulette; the deeper you go, the more bullets are in the chamber."
Ferreras stressed IAFD's emphasis is on safety.
"When we dive, we try to do it at 300 percent safety," Ferreras said. "It's the only thing that's given me the tranquillity and confidence to do a dive that deep."
Carlos Serra, president of IAFD, says that an investigation into Mestre's death is ongoing and that IAFD hopes to release information soon. He suspects the cable may have been twisted.
"We're trying to determine the causes of what went wrong," he said. "We want to make sure what happened will never, never happen again."
Serra has been quoted in other media as saying an autopsy indicated she drowned.
Ferreras says he does not see how further investigation will help. Instead, he says he wants Mestre to rest in peace.
"What happened, you don't have to be a genius to understand it was some technical problems," he said. "It won't help anybody.''
Ferreras says he blames himself for Mestre's death, "because I taught her how to free dive," but added it's "her fault, too, because she fell in love with free diving."
He says he plans one final professional dive on March 8, the anniversary of the day he met Mestre in 1996.
"If I don't do it, everything [Mestre and his other friends who died while diving] was for nothing. It will be the last dive of my career probably," he said. "And then I'm going to retire professionally. But I will be diving for the rest of my life. That is what is going to keep me close to her."
On the IAFD Web site, Ferreras released this statement:
"After some deliberation, Audrey's parents and I have decided not to disclose any information whatsoever about Audrey's accident and its causes. This will only increase the morbidity of the enemies that both Audrey and I have. I'm sure this would have also been Audrey's will, and as such, I would ask that everyone respect our decision."
8 minutes, 41 seconds
Mestre and Ferreras lived in North Bay Village in Miami-Dade County. They became known internationally as accomplished athletes in free diving, garnering media attention from outlets such as People magazine and the Mexican television network Televisa.
On Oct. 12, Mestre was aiming for a world-record depth of 171 meters (about 550 feet, or nearly two football fields) off the coast of the Dominican Republic.
Storms raged the morning of the dive, delaying the event. But as skies cleared a few hours later, Mestre descended into the water.
Dozens of spectators and journalists gathered on boats to watch. It was supposed to take her about three minutes to descend and then emerge, Serra said.
But when the clock hit the three-minute mark, there was no sign of Mestre.
"The moment she passed three minutes and I didn't see the balloon coming up ... I got concerned," said Serra, who served as a judge during the event.
Four minutes elapsed. Then five ...
Divers raced to bring Mestre to the surface. She was underwater for 8 minutes, 41 seconds, Serra said. She was rushed ashore within five minutes, Serra said, with him and rescuers performing CPR all the while.
"Pipin was in the ambulance, holding her hand ... we would not stop," he said. "We didn't stop CPR till we got to the hospital, until they said it was too late."
On the IAFD Web site, Serra listed the names of nine medically trained personnel he stated were with them when Mestre made her dive as well as the names of a dozen other safety divers he said were in the water.
Still, Etzel, a diver and photojournalist, and others want details such as the specific depths at which the safety divers, who wear tanks and aid free divers as needed, were positioned. That, he said, would tell how far away Mestre had been from help.
"You could have 11 safety divers bunched up at the surface," Etzel said.
Ferreras formed IAFD in 1997, and its Web site, iafdusa.com, lists affiliates in Spain, Scandinavia and elsewhere in Europe.
Serra says Kim McCoy, a physical oceanographer, is examining the death.
Reached twice via e-mail, McCoy, who is listed on IAFD's advisory council, declined to release details, including for whom he is working, his credentials as an investigator and when he will conclude the investigation.
2 deaths off Mexico
While viewed by many as a pioneer and even a legend in no-limits free diving, Ferreras has a mixed reputation in the sport.
Six years ago, two safety divers -- Massimo Berttoni and Pepe Fernandez -- working with Ferreras died in separate dives off the coast of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Both had been training with him, Ferreras said, and in both cases he said he does not know exactly why they died.
Their autopsies listed drowning as the cause, he said.
In a recent phone interview, Ferreras initially said he was close friends with Berttoni. Days later, he said he had just met Berttoni shortly before the dive.
Ferreras and Fernandez, who died at age 45, had known each other for several years from their Cuban homeland.
"What I think is ... he had been bitten by a scorpion [the day before] in Cabo San Lucas by his foot," Ferreras said. "We were preparing the place to start training, putting anchors and all of that. He went down like between 70 and 80 meters [about 230 to 262 feet] I guess the poison from the scorpion [killed him]. Doctors said he drowned, too. I'm not a doctor."
Gabriele Fernandez, Fernandez's widow who lives in Germany, said in a recent phone interview that she doesn't believe the scorpion story. She and Pepe Fernandez's daughter, Hedda, who lives in Miami, say they have never received an autopsy report or any more details about the death even though they say they have demanded them from Ferreras.
Ferreras said both men "were very close friends of mine. What happened didn't have anything to do with me. Pepe was like my little brother. Pepe was the person who introduced me to Audrey."
Reached at home in Mexico, Mestre's parents said they were too distraught to discuss their daughter.
"It's been only four weeks since this happened and we are suffering a lot," said her father, Jean Pierre Mestre. "Nothing will bring our daughter back."
Diving study
Mestre began diving as a child in France. When she was just 21/2 years old, she competed and won a medal in a swimming event.
As a child, she went spear-fishing in the Mediterranean Sea with her grandfather.
She began scuba diving at the age of 13 and when she was in high school, she and her family moved to Mexico. Her love for the sea intensified, so she pursued marine biology at La Paz University near the Sea of Cortez, in Baja California, Mexico.
In May 1995, she started her thesis on marine physiology, and to do it, she studied Ferreras, who had been diving professionally since 1987.
Mestre was intrigued.
"I wanted to know everything about him," she wrote on a Web site about her, www.freediving.net/Audrey/bio.htm.
"I gathered all the information available on articles, experiments, books, videos. ... He became my only conversation topic, my only preoccupation, my new obsession."
He had organized a dive in Cabo in 1996.
"Since he took my sleep away several times during the developing of my thesis, I couldn't resist the temptation of going to Cabo to meet him, even from afar," she wrote. "I took a bus that also carried chickens, egg cartons and dogs. After four long hours, I arrived to Cabo."
"They fell in love, almost immediately," Serra said.
She became one of his safety divers as well as an underwater photographer.
"The first day we met was the first day we started living together," Ferreras said. "We never separated until now."
With time, she wanted to dive without tanks as he did, to experience what he would.
"It is very difficult to live with someone that experiences sensations unknown by the rest of the world, sensations that can't be described or shared," she wrote.
"That is why in 1997 I took the decision of setting my first record in free diving. ... I thought that if I could enter his underwater world, I could be closer to him ... and I did."
"Free diving is a magical world, but unfortunately we are not marine mammals, and accidents can happen. That is why it is so important to learn the safe way and the right way to free dive, that is why I believe so much in the IAFD," Mestre is quoted in a profile last year on www.deeperblue.net.
Purpose in records
She continued: "I don't do records just to do them or ... to be a champion, I do them because it is the only way to live very different sensations. The depth is the only place to go and touch, feel and live the power of the Ocean. But to reach it, it has to be done in harmony with it. When you dive with the sled you don't need your body, you have to be so relaxed that, at one point you just forget that you have one and that is when you meet the other person who lives inside you, the one in control of everything: your mind."
On a different Web site, she wrote that sharing a passion for the ocean, she and Ferreras wed in August of 1999 "over a dock, near the sea, of course."
Three years later, Mestre's ashes would be scattered at sea.
Jodie Needle can be reached at jneedle@sun-sentinel.com or 954-385-7908.
Copyright © 2002, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
