Francisco "Pipin" Ferreras broke his own world record for "no-limits" free diving on Oct 12th, descending to a depth of 170m in Los Cabos Bay in Mexico.
The dive was reported to have taken approximately two minutes and 40 seconds for the record setting plummet using a weighted sled, then rocket back up to the surface via the special lift bag utilized to bring him back to the surface.
Ferreras, who was born in Cuba and now lives in Miami, founded the International Association of Free Divers. He set the previous record of 162m in January 2000.
This record setting dive marks the the one-year anniversary of the death of his wife, Audrey Mestre, who died after a failed attempt last year in deep waters near La Romana, Dominican Republic with a target depth of 171m.
It has been reported by various news sources that the Cuban diver was dressed in a blue and black wet suit, and took more than 20 minutes to prepare mentally and physically for the dive.
According to these same sources, among those watching from the floating pier was Titanic director James Cameron, who had called a news conference in the resort city of Cabo San Lucas on Friday to announce he was using two mini-submarines loaded with cameras to film Ferreras’ dive.
The filming of the dive was hampered by poor visibility at depth, while the first 30m (100 feet) of the dive had excellent visibility, this dropped to barely 3m (8 feet) at the bottom. The location had been chosen because it was where Audrey and Pipin first met in 1996.
As reported earlier on DeeperBlue, the Hollywood Producer had also said his production company was in the process of obtaining the rights to make a film about the lives of Ferreras and Mestre.
The Cuban born diver chose not speak to reporters after his dive, but was reported to have said before it that attempting to break the world record "made him feel more alive than ever", despite conjuring up sad memories of his wife’s death.
Ferrarras was quoted as saying that "More than a record it’s a tribute to Audrey".
The "No-Limits" dive is to be recognised as a world record by Pipin’s own organisation, the International Association of Freedivers, but has been confirmed that due to not following organizational requirements of AIDA, the governing body for competitive freediving, the dive will not be recognized as a world record.
