European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - October 19, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse Daily Mim Agazine free divers Are the athletes of divlng., alongside Tho Guys with the Bubble Flo tank no Bubble free divers Are at Home among the fish by Paul Dean los Angeles times hey Are elite adventurers who easily naturally expand their lungs minds and visions a beyond our miserable limits by so doing say at Leas some within the discipline they Are reaching Back to a Lima when Man May have evolved from sea mammals. Call them Homo Del Ultima. Man As Dolphin. But for the time being Call them tree divers or most classically breath hold divers men and a Tow women who prefer the purity of diving oceans alone and without air tanks so As to be better accepted by the big Blue. I m More comic table Down there than i am up Here says John Ernst. 45. Of Redondo Beach. Calif up Here he is a Captain Wilh the los Angeles fire department. Down there he is a 12-Lime National free diving Champion and a two time runner up in world meets. I Leel so much at Home in the Ocean that there have been a couple of limits when i almost forgot to come up a feeling of absolute assimilation Wilh the element is common among breath hold divers without breathing equipment you Are a Lish says Gary Thompson 45, a former commercial diver owner of a paper recycling business in Pasadena calif., and a Pacific coast free diving Champion no bubbles no squeaks in the suit you re part of the environment. Ii is not a coincidence that most scuba divers have never seen a while sea then there is Jacques Mayol the master the Seignior whose life purpose is breath hold diving he is 61 and of Marseilles Miami Crete the grand Bahamas los Angeles and wherever there is a sea to revisit and audiences to Grant. Water the Ocean. It is our most natural environment Mayot states. We Are born naked trom the miniature Ocean of the Mother s womb., and breath hold diving is a continuance of thai. It s also a cull a Way of thinking for when you Start breath hold diving you enter yourself and begin a marriage with the sea you become a diving Mayol was in los Angeles recently to Allynd Irac and Public openings of the big Blue a movie about world breath hold diving Competition where the hero is a Young Man Wilh a body and spirit Beller adapted to the sea. The actor is Jean Marc Barr. His screen name and character of Courso is that of Young Jacques Mayol. In the movie directed by Luc Besson. A Frenchman inspired by his own lust for breath hold diving in the Mediterranean off Greece and Morocco. One character says of the screen Mayol do not think of Jacques As a human being. He is from another Mayol clearly is thai. Better than ancient greeks and romans who dived Lor sponges and shells he can remain submerged for five minutes. At depth his heart rate drops from 60 Beals per minute to 26. Before Many fatalities brought an end to european contests where free divers Clung to weighted falling sleds and were judged solely on depth attained Mayol won consistently Al 250 Leet. Five years ago in a medical Experiment Oft Elba he dived on the Powers of lungs and yogic discipline deeper than any Man 347 feel. In Europe breath hold divers make up 98 percent of the diving population and their champions Are Rich sponsored heroes hailed As highly As any Bull lighter or Winner of the tour de France. In the United Stales there s a circuit from Carmet to Miami from Hawaii to Missouri from watch Hill r.i., to Seattle. Internationally the tournaments touch places untarnished by tourism Doracas Peru cad ques Spain Iquique Chile and Moorea Tahiti. However in the United Stales they Are a clique unknown beyond their sport. There Are maybe Only 3,000 breath hold divers nationwide Wilh conceal rations in Florida and soul Hern California Bui there Are observers who believe that As americans come to value a loss adulterated society in Olhorn areas More divers May abandon their scuba equipment and Lurn to breath hold. And Wilh divers of every Sunpo reportedly flocking to see the big Blu some Are predicting Iho movie May do or Tareal hold diving what the endless summer did 22 years ago for surfing. There s no doubling they free divers Are the athletes of diving. Purists alongside he Guys with the Bubblo machines says Bill Bryant president of Iho greater los Angeles Council of divers. It s so satisfying. The euphoria Al doing this successfully is indescribable. Go to a meeting with these Guys and you la Hoar 10 minutes of meeting and so min Lesol Lish for Thompson president of the fathom hers club Wilh membership Rusl riled to 25 breath hold divers the pastime represents zen an inner peace a spiritual oneness with the Ocean. He dives alone at night in storms or Lair weather Thompson estimates he has spent several thousand hours under Waler and that s a career Ihal s an obsession. Bul trial s where i want to be. My Home is the Ocean. I go to the same areas every week to learn the fish trails to know the reels to understand the population. To the Point where after a period of 20 years i be Learned about 20 Miles of our Southern California coastline from Leo Carrillo stale Beach to better feel this world Thompson tries to avoid entanglements at the surface personal frictions and business confrontations that could reduce his underwater acuity. He says that being a Christian helps. Then when beneath the sea he Rolls with its surges and goes with their pull. Ii you re in a surging a
