The Main Actors

Francisco "Pipin" Ferreras
Born on January 18, 1962 in the small Cuban seaport of Mantanzas, Pipin began spearfishing in his early childhood and quickly discovered that the largest fish swam in the deepest waters a freediver was born. In 1987 he established his first record in the Constant Weight discipline, diving to the unbelievable depth of 192 feet. He remained unbeatable for 3 years until Umberto Pelizzari began competing. Pipin had a falling out with the Cuban regime and left the country in 1994 for the USA. In 1997 he married his former student and actual No Limitsworld champion, Audrey Mestre.

Today Pipin lives in Miami and heads his own TV production company.

- lung capacity 8.2 liters (compare: average is 6 liters)
- is able to reduce his heartbeat to 12 beats per minute
- more than 50 records
- more than 500 diving courses over 300 feet

Pipins favorite discipline is No Limits, whereby he uses a weight-sled for downdiving and an airbag for surfacing. Pipin thereby reached the incredible depth of 531 feet in Cozumel, Mexico in January 2000. He is currently preparing to once again increase the world record.

Umberto Pelizzari
Umberto Pelizzari was born on August 28, 1965 in Busto Arsizio, Italy near Milan. To cure him from his early fear of water, his mother took him to swimming lessons. Since then it has been difficult to get him out of the water, as he quickly developed into a professional swimmer. During his military service on Elba, Umberto discovered his love for freediving. He has devoted all his energy to the sport since 1984, winning his first world record in 1988 in static apnea with a time of 5 min 33 seconds.

In November 1990, he topped PipinÕs record in Constant Weight by diving to a depth of 195 feet. And thus, the rivalry began. Today Umberto lives in Busto Arsizio on Sardinia where he runs his own diving school and also teaches apnea diving.

- lung capacity 7.9 liters
- is able to reduce his heartbeat to 10 beats per minute
- practices auto suggestion and Pranayama yoga, to be able to store more oxygen in his body tissue

In October 1999, Umberto made diving history with two new world records within only a few days. First he reached a depth of 262 feet as the first and only diver in his favorite discipline Constant Weight and then he increased his own No Limitsworld record to 492 feet.