October 2003

Francisco 'Pipin' Ferreras set a new ‘No Limits’ Free-Diving World Record of 170 meters (558 feet) on October 12, 2003, in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. The immersion time was an extremely short 2 minutes 39 seconds. Progressive, fine-tuning of the dive sled provided a descent rate of 2.1 meters per second with the aid of 61 kilograms (135 pounds) of lead ballast. The ascent rate peaked at over 4 meters per second. A camera on Pipin's sled recorded the dive.

In 2002, Pipin's wife and protégé, Audrey Mestre, perished during her world record free-diving attempt in the Dominican Republic. On the 12^th of October 2003, the anniversary of her death, Pipin, in his homage dive, equaled Audrey’s personal best of 170 meters.

Unique to a world record dive, a two person, manned-submersible with high definition camera equipment onboard, awaited Pipin's arrival at the depth of 170 meters. Of added interest, James Cameron - director of the most successful Hollywood film ever made - Titanic - recorded Pipin's dive in mid-water, resulting in the most documented dive in the history of free-diving.

The environmental conditions during the dive were ideal with light winds and minimal ocean current.

The dive was monitored using a dive computer designed for record dive attempts. The collected data provided the rate of descent, maximum depth attained, time at depth, rate of ascent and total dive time using precision standards.

The data was collected by Kim McCoy, Physical Oceanographer with Ocean Sensors, Inc, San Diego, California, the manufacturer of the device.

Signed,

Kim McCoy

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