Operation Audrey -
First Release
Miami, Oct. 14, 2003 - Greetings to all and thanks for the support I have been getting from all of you in this the hardest year of my life. Today I will give you a small brief about Audrey’s Memorial that I did this Sunday. (Oct 12.2003)
For this particular dive I had to give an eternal thanks to Audrey who was with me through the whole process of my training, this whole month and especially when I was being attacked by people whom I thought were my friends. The day of the dive, I was committed to the descent and during the first three warm up dives, I was still hurt by these harsh attacks. As a result my performance on
those warm up dives was very poor. While everyone was prepared in the water, I wasn’t mentally ready to start this dive. I excused myself from everyone on the dive team who was ready at the surface, who were all ready to do one more warm up dive. This particular dive, I felt as if I was descending down to the bottom. I went into a trance like state where Audrey was taking control over me. I kept descending down the line and I stopped when I realized that I was at 30 meters. I was enjoying this moment. It was private and felt different. I felt a kind of connection with her. When I 
felt my first contraction, I started ascending all the while she was illuminating my path back to the surface. She was the one who gave me the power. That along
with my skill and with her own magic touch. When I came up at the surface, Tata was the one who awoke me from my trance. Then the two of us checked my computer and the time of my dive was 3 minutes and 22 seconds. This last dive gave the signal in which I knew I was ready to do my homage dive. And that is how it was. I completed the dive in 2 minutes 40 seconds. Something which I consider to be the best personal achievement of my career. Taking in account that on the way back to the surface, I let the balloon go at 20 meters and I ascended slowly swimming back to the surface, escorted by Tata. I also used the same sled and line that Audrey used at her record and for the first time in freediving history, this dive was eye witnessed by three people at the depth of 170 meters, and recorded by two cameras. The people were Pascal Bernarbe, the pilot of the submarine and one of the directors of photography who recorded the arrival with a digital cam. The whole event was confirmed by more than 85 people. And to all of them, Audrey and I want to send our gratitude. Especially to James Cameron who, without his support the dive would not have been a success.
Sincerely,
Pipin
PS: I will be writing the training dive diary soon as well as new pics and time comes along. In the future, I will still work on the projects that Audrey and I wanted to materialize which is the film, the book and also the 151 meter tandem dive that was initially planned for this year. The next dive below 115 mixed tandem and the attempt to get down to the 200 meter mark.
