SAN LUIS POTOSÍ, Mexico.- Cuban Francisco “Pipín” Ferreras Rodríguez, world champion of dive free-diving, achieved a feat this Sunday, August 11, by achieving a dive of 80 meters at the age of 62.
According to the reports media Cuban officials, Pipín implemented a new record by descending 82 meters, in the diving modality that is practiced in apnea, that is, with your lungs. His new descent to the depths occurred off the coast of Trinidad, in an action sponsored by the companies Marina Marlin, Palmares, Ecotur and the operator DCA Travel.
The record holder kept training for several days, however, he was unable to beat his own world record of 112 meters, set 35 years ago. He recorded a great achievement in the Master category, for those over 55 years old.
And here is the expected result! The record of 112 meters was not achieved, it was 80 meters which is also a great record; no one over 60 years old has achieved it. Congratulations Pipín Ferreras!!https://t.co/jTZqutGU3G#TrinidaddCuba Also a Diving Destination!! We are waiting for you!! pic.twitter.com/wtGNN8wDdu
— Trinidaddecubatravel (@trinidaddtravel) August 11, 2024
The renowned Cuban freediver had established in that category (Master) a record world immersion championship in the Dominican Republic, in 2019.
At Boca Chica beach the diver descended to a depth of 106 metres, breaking the previous record, set by Jacques Mayol in the Master category, with a mark of 105 metres.
That year, she had declared that the Dominican dive would be her last competitive dive, as she would later retire.
Ferreras, born in Matanzas in 1962, is a world champion in freediving, recognized as the “Living Legend of the Underwater Abyss” for having established 21 world records in his more than 30-year career.
He achieved his first on November 16, 1989, after reaching 112 meters. This goal also made him the successor of Enzo Maiorca and Jacques Mayol, immortalized in the Oscar-winning film The Big Blue (by Luc Besson).
His great rival was Umberto Pellizzari, who dived to a depth of 150 metres, a record that Pipín himself tried to break.
His world records include a dive to 170 metres in 2003.
In 2022, Netflix released the film Out of breath, Based on Francisco Ferreras and his wife, Audrey Mestre, who died in 2002 while diving in the Dominican Republic, after the device that was supposed to take her to the surface failed.
A year after the film’s release, Ferreras presented a demand for defamation against the streaming platform for depicting him as a murderer in the film.
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