Loic Leferme: Explorer, Adventurer, Freediver
Posted By Peter Scott on 28 December 2004
Adventure, more than anything, is what motivates Loic Leferme to plunge beneath the surface. On the phone from his home in Nice, France, he likes the idea that he is participating in a great exploration of the human being in the underwater realm. The decade he has spent in pursuit of records and sponsorship are not in the service of the great egotism of wanting to be the best in the world. In the end, it turns out that in Ibiza, relegated to the sidelines by Nitsch, Pelizzari and Stepanek, Leferme was staying true to his character. Profil bas, after all.
“There are one hundred freedivers who are better than I am,” Leferme says, “But few have the advantages that I have for training and the motivation.”
If Pipin was a talented self-promoter and media-magnet, then Loic Leferme is the underwater explorer who has put in the time to know his arena inside out. His pursuit of “profondeur absolute” or absolute depth, as he prefers to call no-limits, hinting at his adventurous spirit, is something that extends beyond media attention and world records. It is an adventure that fills his life and attracts other freedivers to support him.
For fifteen years, Leferme has been training with the same core group of people from Villefranche-sur-Mer. His world records are the result of the efforts of the whole team of ten or so friends who have joined his adventure. His wife Valerie is the coordinator for Leferme’s communications with the public, the media and his sponsors. Close friends, Francois Gautier and Cedric Palerme, head logistics and safety. And on October 30, 2004, an additional forty people volunteered to help with the attempt.
But that is not so unusual. Crowded media and volunteer boats are ubiquitous at high profile freediving events. Pelizzari also trained and set world records with a closely-knit team. What really sets Leferme apart is the philosophical glue that holds his group of freedivers together. A philosophy inspired by Claude Chapuis, one of the founders of AIDA, and retained for over fifteen years.
“It is our way of doings things that is unique,” says Leferme. “It is our spirit of group security that has developed a system of etiquette and philosophy that holds good sensations as primary over the performance of the individual.
“We embody this approach through the overall structure of our preparations and training. I never decide on depth or targets; it is the group’s decision and the group’s success when we achieve our goal.”
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