Hi everyone first of all,
Sorry for poor english,
my mother language is French from Belgium (Wallonia the south part of Belgium)…
Belgium you know,
it’s the small country "stuck" between : France, Germany, Netherlands and in front of the United Kingdom... ;-)
@ « sportyluis »
So I'll tell you !
I began « non formal freediving », in 1965 near « Genova Italia » after having carefully read a good book
about the « Plongée sous-marine ».
The Mediterranean sea is our first destination, to be able to see something under the water. There is nothing to see in the north sea… near the beach.
I spend nearly 35 period of holidays of in Mediterranean sea ( Italia (Liguria, , Sardegna) Spain (Costa Brava, Balleares (Mallorca, Ibiza, Menorca), Canarias), Turkey.)…and I discover the red sea in 2002…were I went 20 times… afterward 6 times in the Maldives and 2 times in Indonesia ( Raja Ampat).
I got a
"Scuba diving Level 1" in November 1979. I had 2 accidents
, but not because of the non-respect of the rules or by recklessness.
At the "professional diving center" in Falmouth Corwall UK, without having discovered the reason for my second accident, the doctor of the center toll me : "the scuba diving is over for you"
.
I had spent 45 hours 30 minutes
in the decompression chamber of this center
Four years later, I discovered the reason for my two diving accidents ... It was because of a too high absorption of drugs containing "ephedrine".
Then I stopped my formation for scuba level 2.
Concerning the freediving.
I started apnea in club in 2003…at the Lifras (Belgian league)…I got the « S3 apnea level » in 2004.
I started at "Apnea Academy" (the Pelizzari 's Academy) and got the "Level 1* " in 2011.
I got the "SSI Freediving Level 2* " in 2014, to get permission to dive into the pit of "Nemo 33", the deepest in this time before the creation of "Y40" in Italy.
Since 2013, I have been with AIDA , ... where I got the "Level 3* " in 2015.
But nowadays at 76,5 year « young »
, the « AIDA 4 *» will be to difficult for me…the imposed minimum depth is 32 m…( It was 24m for the level 3* ).
In pure apnea my « small performance » are (were) : Static 4 min 15 s, Dynamic 80 m, Depth 24 m.
I’m still following the AIDA training (in swim pool no any more in quarry)…to try to stay in good security for filming the underwater wildlife.
I'm not at all interested by the competition.
In October 2018, near El Quseir in the Red Sea, I went to 21 m (with my camera fixed on a wing)… just to see.
For my physical condition with my « race bike » I « climbed » the « Mont Ventoux…1909 m in septembre 2018 ;-) =>
Mont Ventoux - Wikipedia
Concerning underwater photo and video
I began to take pictures with a « Rico marine » +/- in the years ’70 ...and after with a « Calipso Nikor » till 2007, and I switched to the video with a Sony mini DV, films edited with MovieMaker from Window Vista.
In 2010 I began to edit with « iMovie » on « MacBook Pro » and since 2015 I filme with a Sony HDR-AS50.
I had the chance to approach and photograph and / or film:
- Sharks : white tip reef S., black tip S., leopard (or zebra) S., nurse S., whale S.
- Rays : manta R., sported aigle R., common eagle R.,cowtail stingray, bluespotted ribbontail R., porcupine R., honeycomb stingray, Halavi's guitarfish, panther torpedo R.,
- dugongs, sailfish, turtles ( green T., and hawksbill T., barracudas (several species), moray eels (several species), banded snake eel, spotted snake eel, dolphins ( 2 species), spiny lobster, and the wide variety of the « reefs fauna ».
I’ve a lot of videos on Vimeo (not in HD with my first Sony) and Youtube in (HD since 2015)
If you want to see
« Raja Ampat », the richest place in fauna and corals…in free diving of course, please follow this link (
Don’t forget to select the resolution 1080p
(Sorry my comments are in French)
=>
Video in free diving
And the last video episode from october 2018, in the red sea near El Quseir ( in the Marsa Alam area)
Episode 5 (Zerib Kebir) =>
If you have any questions don't hesitate, I’ will answer with pleasure.
Cheers from Wallonia ...Belgium
dcvf2