Audrey Mestre-Ferreras

Audrey Mestre-Ferreras (born  August 11, 1974 in Saint-Denis , France , †  October 12, 2002 in La Romana , Dominican Republic ) was a French freediver and multiple world record holder.

Mestre learned to swim (at the age of 2) and diving (at the age of 13) at an early age. After her family moved, she spent her youth in Mexico City . She studied marine biology at the University of La Paz . She wrote her diploma thesis on the pressure-related changes in the lung tissue in apnea divers.

In 1996 she met the Cuban freediver Francisco Ferreras , known as Pipin , with whom she later moved to Miami and married him in 1999. Under his aegis, she began to deal seriously and practically with apnea diving.

In 2000 she set a new world record for women in her No Limit (NLT) discipline with 125 m, which she broke in 2001 with 130 m.

At the beginning of October 2002, she began preparations for a new record attempt off the coast of the Dominican Republic. At 166 m it already reached an unprecedented depth. In her actual record attempt, she reached a depth of 171 m on October 12, 2002. But during the ascent there were problems with the balloon, which was supposed to fill with air to enable a quick ascent. However, the compressed air bottle that normally fills the balloon was not filled with air and could not fill the balloon. As a result, after the usual dive time of around 4 minutes, she was still at a depth of around 120 m. After over 8 minutes, she was brought to the surface unconscious. In the hospital they could only pronounce the doctors dead.

She was cremated and the ashes scattered in the sea.

In 2004 Francisco Pipín Ferreras published a book called Tiefenrausch , in which he not only describes the life story of his wife, but also her passion for freediving .

literature

• Pipín Ferreras: deep intoxication . Blanvalet Verlag, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-7645-0190-1