Author(s): Pipin Ferreras

Sport

Francisco 'Pipin' Ferreras, a native of Cuba, is a world champion in the dangerous and controversial sport of freediving, in which athletes test the limits of their minds and bodies by diving to unthinkable depths without oxygen tanks. Audrey Mestre was a beautiful French marine biology student researching the physiology of freediving. When she decided to base her studies on the legendary Pipin, a passionate romance was born. Pipin and Audrey soon married and moved to Miami, where she took up the sport herself and proceeded to break the female world record (115 metres). They became freediving's power couple, constantly training together and encouraging one another. But on 17 October 2002, Audrey pushed her body too far and died off the coast of the Dominican Republic while attempting to break the world record