Loic Leferme: Explorer, Adventurer, Freediver
Posted By Peter Scott on 28 December 2004
Loic Leferme’s new record also came just after Belgian freediver Patrick Musimu announced an attempt to break the 200 metre “barrier.” While Musimu is an exceptional apneist and athlete, one can only wonder if he will be willing to invest the time and discipline to achieve his record with the same confidence and enjoyment that Leferme has demonstrated.
In the end, a certain kind of person will be drawn to the no-limits experience and to the adventure it entails. More will follow in the footsteps of Enzo Maiorca, Jacques Mayol, Pipin Ferreras, Deborah Andollo, Yasmin Dalkilic, Audrey Mestre, Mandy-Rae Cruickshank, Benjamin Franz, Umberto Pelizzari, Loic Leferme and others around the world, for there remains a special gravitas associated with the discipline. Is it the reliance on a kind of spaceship-type vessel to reach the abyss and return safely, complete with a mission control at the surface? Perhaps the horror of no-limits accidents raises the stakes for thrill seekers looking for an underwater Everest of their own. For certain, sled diving deeper than you can swim to the surface under your own power must invokes a feeling within freedivers that they are perhaps reluctant to share or just unable to express.
Loic Leferme sticks to the literal when asked what it feels like to ride the sled to the bottom: “I concentrate on the equalizations, my eyes are closed, my mask is full of water, and I find myself on the way down by the changes in pressure. I am squeezed, crushed, but I enjoy it; it no longer hurts me now. I hear the noise of the sled sliding down the line. It gets colder and then all dark.”
“But what about your thoughts and emotions?”
The phone is quiet for the length of time it takes Leferme’s heart to beat at 171 metres.
“How can one explain these personal sensations?”
Loic Leferme is sponsored by Tribord, Decathlon, Hubolt watches, and BWA, as well as many local businesses in Nice and the surrounding area. Suunto provided official gauges with Stingers and the new D9.
- Bookmark with :
- what are these?
