The Ocean

In 1993, a Unexso scuba instructor in Freeport, Bahamas, disappeared during a free dive. I already wrote a post about it somewhere.

It just so happened that both Jacques Mayol and Pipin Ferreras were in Freeport at the time. Jacques Mayol was actually on Keith's boat, preparing for a dive. He was already fairly old by then, and I suppose he had seen a lot of tragedy in the midst of his career. In any case, there was no obvious outward reaction from him after the accident. He didn't know Keith and kept to himself, but didn't seem overly disturbed.

That night, we had dinner with a group of people, including Pipin, who had befriended my husband. Pipin, at least, took the time and trouble to express his regrets and sorrow upon hearing of what had happened. He seemed genuinely shocked.

I made his acquaintance during his stay in Freeport. My husband and him talked quite a bit. He had a formidable presence and personality. We even played tennis, the three of us, my husband and I playing double against Pipin playing single.

After the Freeport years, I ran across him briefly at an underwater show in New Orleans a few years later. That was the last of our paths crossing.

I read how his wife died in a free diving accident in 2002. And the images mingled in my mind: Besson's film, and the death of Enzo in Jacques's arms on the dive platform; the frantic and fruitless search for Keith; photos of Audrey's lifeless body lifted on the boat, surrounded by divers. It's all so hauntingly familiar, all so intermingled: faces I've known, places I've known, and always, death and tragedy. I don't know...

As a dive instructor, a free diver, a safety coordinator, you watch the video of her death and you can’t help wonder: why didn’t she do this, or that? What went wrong? From what I’ve gathered so far, plenty did go wrong. I think people had become jaded about safety, Audrey included. When so much depends on a poney bottle, you devise alternatives, back-ups, when-things-go-wrong-plans. There didn’t seem to be any in place and there weren’t enough safety divers.

Throughout and always, the sea quietly laps against the side of the boat.


P.S.
James Cameron is making a film, (I believe “The Dive” is the working title) about Pipin’s and Audrey Mestre’s love story and her death. Cameron is no stranger to the deep, after gracing us with the excellent "The Abyss".
Rumors put in in theaters in 2010. Rumors also mention Salma Hayek as Audrey… hmmm, I’m not sold on that.