Francisco Ferreras (free-diver)
| Francisco Rodriguez | |
|---|---|
| Born |
January 18, 1962 Matanzas, Cuba |
| Nationality | Cuban-American |
| Other names | Francisco "Pipin" Ferreras |
| Occupation | Professional Freediver |
| Spouse(s) |
Audrey Mestre 1999–2002, Juscelina Cacau Melo 2012 |
Francisco Rodriguez, better known as Francisco 'Pipin' Ferreras (born January 18, 1962) is a Cuban free-diver known for his achievements in deep free diving and his relationship with his wife, Audrey Mestre.
Ferreras was born in Matanzas, on the northern coast of Cuba, and began to practice free-diving at the age of 5. "Pipin" was his nickname from childhood, and years later he added Ferreras.
Not much is known for certain about Ferreras's personal life in Cuba. He began his underwater career in the little known sport of spearfishing. Pipin was introduced to the sport of free diving by some Italians who were visiting Cuba. They immediately recognized his talent. He fell in love with the sport and soon realized that, while spearfishing and diving for black coral, he routinely went as deep as the free diving champions. He decided to start competing in the sport and established his first world record at the age of 27. That was only the first of the 21 different world records he has set. From the late 1980s and onward he made a name of himself in the so-called "No-Limits"' discipline of freediving where he established his first known world record of 112 meters (367 ft) depth in November 1989. Shortly thereafter he defected to Italy and later migrated to Florida, United States. Through the 1990s he established a long series of World Records, often in close rivalry with Italian Umberto Pelizzari. During this phase, Ferreras' last logged record dive reached a depth of 162 meters (531 ft) in January 2000, 12 meters deeper than Pelizzari's deepest record.
The rivalry of Ferreras and Pelizzari became the focus of the 2001 IMAX production Ocean Men: Extreme Dive, directed by renowned under water photographer Bob Talbot.
In 1996, Ferreras established the sports association International Association of Freedivers (IAFD) in direct opposition to the organization AIDA, but this had limited sportive success and closed in 2004. All of Ferreras' record dives of this era were conducted within the ambit of IAFD.
...
Wikipedia