WEBVTT

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(Video) Announcer: 10 seconds.

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Five, four, three, two, one.

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Official top.

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Plus one, two, three, four, five

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six, seven, eight, nine, ten.

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Guillaume Néry, France.

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Constant weight, 123 meters,

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three minutes and 25 seconds.

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National record attempt.

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70 meters.

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[123 meters]

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(Applause)

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(Video) Judge: White card.
Guillaume Néry! National record!

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Guillaume Néry: Thank you.

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(Applause)

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Thank you very much,
thanks for the warm welcome.

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That dive you just watched is a journey --

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a journey between two breaths.

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A journey that takes place
between two breaths --

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the last one before diving into the water,

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and the first one,
coming back to the surface.

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That dive is a journey
to the very limits of human possibility.

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A journey into the unknown.

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But it's also, and above all,
an inner journey,

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where a number of things happen,

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physiologically as well as mentally.

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And that's why I'm here today,

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to share my journey with you
and to take you along with me.

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So, we start with the last breath.

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(Breathing in)

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(Breathing out)

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As you noticed, that last breath
in is slow, deep and intense.

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It ends with a special technique
called the carp,

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which allows me to store one to two
extra liters of air in my lungs

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by compressing it.

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When I leave the surface,
I have about 10 liters of air in my lungs.

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As soon as I leave the surface
the first mechanism kicks in:

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the diving reflex.

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The first thing the diving reflex does
is make your heart rate drop.

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My heart beat will drop
from about 60-70 per minute

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to about 30-40 beats per minute

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in a matter of seconds;
almost immediately.

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Next, the diving reflex causes
peripheral vasoconstriction,

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which means that the blood flow
will leave the body's extremities

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to feed the most important organs:

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the lungs, the heart and the brain.

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This mechanism is innate.

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I cannot control it.

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If you go underwater,
even if you've never done it before,

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you'll experience the exact same effects.

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All human beings
share this characteristic.

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And what's extraordinary

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is that we share this instinct
with marine mammals --

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all marine mammals:
dolphins, whales, sea lions, etc.

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When they dive deep into the ocean,
these mechanisms become activated,

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but to a greater extent.

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And, of course, it works
much better for them.

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It's absolutely fascinating.

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Right as I leave the surface,

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nature gives me a push
in the right direction,

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allowing me to descend with confidence.

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So as I dive deeper into the blue,

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the pressure slowly starts
to squeeze my lungs.

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And since it's the amount of air
in my lungs that makes me float,

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the farther down I go,
the more pressure there is on my lungs,

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the less air they contain
and the easier it is for my body to fall.

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And at one point,
around 35 or 40 meters down,

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I don't even need to swim.

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My body is dense and heavy enough
to fall into the depths by itself,

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and I enter what's called
the free fall phase.

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The free fall phase
is the best part of the dive.

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It's the reason I still dive.

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Because it feels like
you're being pulled down

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and you don't need to do anything.

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I can go from 35 meters to 123 meters
without making a single movement.

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I let myself be pulled by the depths,

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and it feels like I'm flying underwater.

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It's truly an amazing feeling --
an extraordinary feeling of freedom.

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And so I slowly continue
sliding to the bottom.

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40 meters down,

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50 meters down,

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and between 50 and 60 meters,
a second physiological response kicks in:

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My lungs reach residual volume,

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below which they're not supposed
to be compressed, in theory.

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And this second response
is called blood shift,

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or "pulmonary erection" in French.

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I prefer "blood shift."

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(Laughter)

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So blood shift -- how does it work?

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The capillaries in the lungs
become engorged with blood --

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which is caused by the suction --

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so the lungs can harden

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and protect the whole chest cavity
from being crushed.

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It prevents the two walls
of the lungs from collapsing,

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from sticking together and caving in.

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Thanks to this phenomenon,
which we also share with marine mammals,

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I'm able to continue with my dive.

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60, 70 meters down,
I keep falling, faster and faster,

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because the pressure is crushing
my body more and more.

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Below 80 meters,

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the pressure becomes a lot stronger,

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and I start to feel it physically.

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I really start to feel the suffocation.

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You can see what it looks like --
not pretty at all.

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The diaphragm is completely collapsed,
the rib cage is squeezed in,

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and mentally, there is something
going on as well.

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You may be thinking,
"This doesn't look enjoyable.

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How do you do it?"

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If I relied on my earthly reflexes --

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what do we do above water
when there's a problem?

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We resist, we go against it.

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We fight.

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Underwater, that doesn't work.

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If you try that underwater,
you might tear your lungs,

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spit up blood, develop an edema,

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and you'll have to stop diving
for a good amount of time.

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So what you need to do, mentally,
is to tell yourself

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that nature and the elements
are stronger than you.

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And so I let the water crush me.

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I accept the pressure and go with it.

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At this point, my body
receives this information,

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and my lungs start relaxing.

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I relinquish all control,
and relax completely.

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The pressure starts crushing me,
and it doesn't feel bad at all.

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I even feel like
I'm in a cocoon, protected.

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And the dive continues.

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80, 85 meters down,

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90,

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100.

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100 meters -- the magic number.

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In every sport, it's a magic number.

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For swimmers and athletes
and also for us, free divers,

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it's a number everyone dreams of.

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Everyone wishes one day
to be able to get to 100 meters.

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And it's a symbolic number for us,

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because in the 1970s,
doctors and physiologists did their math,

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and predicted that the human body
would not be able to go below 100 meters.

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Below that, they said,
the human body would implode.

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And then the Frenchman, Jacques Mayol --

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you all know him as the hero
in "The Big Blue" --

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came along and dived down to 100 meters.

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He even reached 105 meters.

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At that time, he was doing "no limits."

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He'd use weights to descend faster
and come back up with a balloon,

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just like in the movie.

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Today, we go down 200 meters
in no limit free diving.

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I can do 123 meters
by simply using muscle strength.

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And in a way, it's all thanks to him,
because he challenged known facts,

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and with a sweep of his hand,
got rid of the theoretical beliefs

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and all the mental limits
that we like to impose on ourselves.

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He showed us that the human body
has an infinite ability to adapt.

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So I carry on with my dive.

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105, 110, 115.

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The bottom is getting closer.

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120,

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123 meters.

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I'm at the bottom.

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And now, I'd like to ask you to join me
and put yourself in my place.

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Close your eyes.

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Imagine you get to 123 meters.

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The surface is far, far away.

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You're alone.

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There's hardly any light.

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It's cold --

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freezing cold.

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The pressure is crushing you completely --

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13 times stronger than on the surface.

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And I know what you're thinking:

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"This is horrible.

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"What the hell am I doing here?

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He's insane."

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But no.

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That's not what I think
when I'm down there.

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When I'm at the bottom, I feel good.

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I get this extraordinary
feeling of well-being.

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Maybe it's because I've completely
released all tensions

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and let myself go.

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I feel great, without the need to breathe.

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Although, you'd agree,
I should be worried.

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I feel like a tiny dot,
a little drop of water,

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floating in the middle of the ocean.

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And each time, I picture the same image.

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[The Pale Blue Dot]

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It's that small dot
the arrow is pointing to.

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Do you know what it is?

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It's planet Earth.

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Planet Earth, photographed
by the Voyager probe,

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from 4 billion kilometers away.

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And it shows that our home
is that small dot over there,

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floating in the middle of nothing.

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That's how I feel

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when I'm at the bottom, at 123 meters.

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I feel like a small dot,

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a speck of dust, stardust,

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floating in the middle of the cosmos,

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in the middle of nothing,
in the immensity of space.

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It's a fascinating sensation,

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because when I look up, down,
left, right, in front, behind,

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I see the same thing:
the infinite deep blue.

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Nowhere else on Earth
you can experience this --

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looking all around you,
and seeing the same thing.

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It's extraordinary.

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And at that moment,

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I still get that feeling each time,
building up inside of me --

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the feeling of humility.

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Looking at this picture,
I feel very humble --

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just like when I'm all the way
down at the bottom --

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because I'm nothing,

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I'm a little speck of nothingness
lost in all of time and space.

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And it still is absolutely fascinating.

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I decide to go back to the surface,
because this is not where I belong.

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I belong up there, on the surface.

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So I start heading back up.

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I get something of a shock

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at the very moment when I decide to go up.

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First, because it takes a huge effort
to tear yourself away from the bottom.

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It pulled you down on the way in,

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and will do the same on the way up.

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You have to swim twice as hard.

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Then, I'm hit with another
phenomenon: the bends.

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I don't know if you've heard of that.

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It's also called decompression sickness.

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It's something that happens
to scuba divers,

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but it can happen to free divers.

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It's caused by nitrogen
dissolving in the blood,

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which causes confusion

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between the conscious
and unconscious mind.

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A flurry of thoughts goes spinning
through your head.

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You can't control them,
and you shouldn't try to --

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you have to let it happen.

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The more you try to control it,
the harder it is to manage.

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Then, a third thing happens:

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the desire to breathe.

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I'm not a fish, I'm a human being,

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and the desire to breathe
reminds me of that fact.

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Around 60, 70 meters,

00:12:43.551 --> 00:12:45.804
you start to feel the need to breathe.

00:12:47.650 --> 00:12:50.086
And with everything else that's going on,

00:12:50.110 --> 00:12:53.047
you can very easily lose your ground

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and start to panic.

00:12:55.871 --> 00:12:58.292
When that happens, you think,
"Where's the surface?

00:12:58.316 --> 00:13:00.251
I want to go up. I want to breathe now."

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You should not do that.

00:13:01.931 --> 00:13:03.765
Never look up to the surface --

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not with your eyes, or your mind.

00:13:07.161 --> 00:13:09.890
You should never
picture yourself up there.

00:13:09.914 --> 00:13:11.552
You have to stay in the present.

00:13:11.576 --> 00:13:16.398
I look at the rope right in front of me,
leading me back to the surface.

00:13:16.834 --> 00:13:19.344
And I focus on that,
on the present moment.

00:13:19.829 --> 00:13:22.005
Because if I think
about the surface, I panic.

00:13:22.029 --> 00:13:23.718
And if I panic, it's over.

00:13:24.925 --> 00:13:27.136
Time goes faster this way.

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And at 30 meters: deliverance.

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I'm not alone any more.

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The safety divers,
my guardian angels, join me.

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They leave the surface,
we meet at 30 meters,

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and they escort me
for the final few meters,

00:13:38.655 --> 00:13:41.331
where potential problems could arise.

00:13:41.881 --> 00:13:44.226
Every time I see them, I think to myself,

00:13:45.253 --> 00:13:46.841
"It's thanks to you."

00:13:46.865 --> 00:13:48.961
It's thanks to them,
my team, that I'm here.

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It brings back the sense of humility.

00:13:51.611 --> 00:13:55.056
Without my team, without all
the people around me,

00:13:55.080 --> 00:13:57.435
the adventure into the deep
would be impossible.

00:13:57.459 --> 00:14:00.687
A journey into the deep
is above all a group effort.

00:14:01.359 --> 00:14:03.617
So I'm happy to finish
my journey with them,

00:14:03.641 --> 00:14:06.135
because I wouldn't be here
if it weren't for them.

00:14:06.159 --> 00:14:07.750
20 meters, 10 meters,

00:14:07.774 --> 00:14:10.021
my lungs slowly return
to their normal volume.

00:14:10.045 --> 00:14:12.392
Buoyancy pushes me up to the surface.

00:14:12.416 --> 00:14:15.964
Five meters below the surface,
I start to breathe out,

00:14:15.988 --> 00:14:19.253
so that as soon as I get
to the surface all I do is breathe in.

00:14:19.277 --> 00:14:21.242
And so I arrive at the surface.

00:14:21.544 --> 00:14:24.469
(Breathing in)

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Air floods into my lungs.

00:14:29.685 --> 00:14:32.073
It's like being born again, a relief.

00:14:32.896 --> 00:14:34.051
It feels good.

00:14:34.075 --> 00:14:35.941
Though the journey was extraordinary,

00:14:35.965 --> 00:14:39.917
I do need to feel those small
oxygen molecules fueling my body.

00:14:40.385 --> 00:14:43.970
It's an extraordinary sensation,
but at the same time it's traumatizing.

00:14:43.994 --> 00:14:46.391
It's a shock to the system,
as you can you imagine.

00:14:46.415 --> 00:14:49.188
I go from complete darkness
to the light of day,

00:14:49.212 --> 00:14:53.434
from the near-silence of the depths
to the commotion up top.

00:14:54.388 --> 00:14:58.921
In terms of touch, I go from the soft,
velvety feeling of the water,

00:14:58.945 --> 00:15:01.247
to air rubbing across my face.

00:15:01.271 --> 00:15:04.248
In terms of smell,

00:15:04.272 --> 00:15:06.908
there is air rushing into my lungs.

00:15:06.932 --> 00:15:09.344
And in return, my lungs open up.

00:15:09.368 --> 00:15:11.911
They were completely squashed
just 90 seconds ago,

00:15:11.935 --> 00:15:13.623
and now, they've opened up again.

00:15:13.647 --> 00:15:17.483
So all of this affects
quite a lot of things.

00:15:17.507 --> 00:15:19.827
I need a few seconds to come back,

00:15:19.851 --> 00:15:21.430
and to feel "all there" again.

00:15:21.454 --> 00:15:23.036
But that needs to happen quickly,

00:15:23.060 --> 00:15:26.172
because the judges are there
to verify my performance;

00:15:26.196 --> 00:15:28.781
I need to show them
I'm in perfect physical condition.

00:15:28.805 --> 00:15:31.657
You saw in the video,
I was doing a so-called exit protocol.

00:15:31.681 --> 00:15:35.844
Once at the surface, I have 15 seconds
to take off my nose clip,

00:15:36.684 --> 00:15:39.565
give this signal and say
(English) "I am OK."

00:15:39.989 --> 00:15:41.487
Plus, you need to be bilingual.

00:15:41.511 --> 00:15:42.953
(Laughter)

00:15:42.977 --> 00:15:44.143
On top of everything --

00:15:44.167 --> 00:15:45.436
that's not very nice.

00:15:46.897 --> 00:15:50.548
Once the protocol is completed,
the judges show me a white card,

00:15:50.572 --> 00:15:52.169
and that's when the joy starts.

00:15:52.501 --> 00:15:55.201
I can finally celebrate
what has just happened.

00:15:55.976 --> 00:15:58.254
So, the journey I've just described to you

00:15:58.278 --> 00:16:01.451
is a more extreme version of free diving.

00:16:01.921 --> 00:16:04.112
Luckily, it's far from just that.

00:16:04.136 --> 00:16:05.343
For the past few years,

00:16:05.367 --> 00:16:08.054
I've been trying to show
another side of free diving,

00:16:08.078 --> 00:16:11.185
because the media mainly talks
about competitions and records.

00:16:11.209 --> 00:16:13.090
But free diving is more than just that.

00:16:13.114 --> 00:16:15.042
It's about being at ease in the water.

00:16:15.066 --> 00:16:18.050
It's extremely beautiful,
very poetic and artistic.

00:16:18.074 --> 00:16:20.138
So my wife and I decided to film it

00:16:20.162 --> 00:16:22.688
and try to show another side of it,

00:16:23.284 --> 00:16:25.728
mostly to make people want
to go into the water.

00:16:26.089 --> 00:16:30.584
Let me show you some images
to finish my story.

00:16:31.854 --> 00:16:34.036
It's a mix of beautiful underwater photos.

00:16:34.060 --> 00:16:35.212
(Music)

00:16:35.236 --> 00:16:40.295
I'd like you to know that if one day
you try to stop breathing,

00:16:40.319 --> 00:16:42.615
you'll realize that
when you stop breathing,

00:16:42.639 --> 00:16:44.726
you stop thinking, too.

00:16:45.355 --> 00:16:47.147
It calms your mind.

00:16:47.934 --> 00:16:51.220
Today, in the 21st century,
we're under so much pressure.

00:16:51.244 --> 00:16:54.271
Our minds are overworked,
we think at a million miles an hour,

00:16:54.295 --> 00:16:56.175
we're always stressed.

00:16:56.199 --> 00:16:59.203
Being able to free dive
lets you, just for a moment,

00:16:59.227 --> 00:17:00.702
relax your mind.

00:17:01.362 --> 00:17:03.354
Holding your breath underwater

00:17:03.378 --> 00:17:07.374
means giving yourself the chance
to experience weightlessness.

00:17:07.398 --> 00:17:10.352
It means being underwater, floating,

00:17:10.376 --> 00:17:14.199
with your body completely relaxed,
letting go of all your tensions.

00:17:14.223 --> 00:17:16.102
This is our plight in the 21st century:

00:17:16.126 --> 00:17:18.443
our backs hurt, our necks hurt,
everything hurts,

00:17:18.467 --> 00:17:20.676
because we're stressed
and tense all the time.

00:17:20.700 --> 00:17:22.129
But when you're in the water,

00:17:22.153 --> 00:17:24.743
you let yourself float,
as if you were in space.

00:17:25.151 --> 00:17:26.835
You let yourself go completely.

00:17:26.859 --> 00:17:28.352
It's an extraordinary feeling.

00:17:28.376 --> 00:17:34.033
You can finally get in touch
with your body, mind and spirit.

00:17:34.476 --> 00:17:36.514
Everything feels better, all at once.

00:17:37.952 --> 00:17:42.147
Learning how to free dive is also
about learning to breathe correctly.

00:17:42.718 --> 00:17:47.176
We breathe with our first breath
at birth, up until our last one.

00:17:47.200 --> 00:17:50.754
Breathing gives rhythm to our lives.

00:17:50.778 --> 00:17:54.127
Learning how to breathe better
is learning how to live better.

00:17:54.746 --> 00:17:57.881
Holding your breath in the sea,
not necessarily at 100 meters,

00:17:57.905 --> 00:17:59.180
but maybe at two or three,

00:17:59.204 --> 00:18:01.270
putting on your goggles,
a pair of flippers,

00:18:01.294 --> 00:18:02.990
means you can go see another world,

00:18:03.014 --> 00:18:05.072
another universe, completely magical.

00:18:05.096 --> 00:18:08.501
You can see little fish, seaweed,
the flora and fauna,

00:18:08.525 --> 00:18:10.843
you can watch it all discreetly,

00:18:10.867 --> 00:18:14.153
sliding underwater, looking around,
and coming back to the surface,

00:18:14.177 --> 00:18:15.684
leaving no trace.

00:18:16.096 --> 00:18:20.152
It's an amazing feeling
to become one with nature like that.

00:18:21.219 --> 00:18:23.691
And if I may say one more thing,

00:18:24.509 --> 00:18:29.676
holding your breath, being in the water,
finding this underwater world --

00:18:29.700 --> 00:18:31.669
it's all about connecting with yourself.

00:18:31.693 --> 00:18:35.986
You heard me talk a lot
about the body's memory

00:18:36.621 --> 00:18:39.522
that dates back millions of years,
to our marine origins.

00:18:39.546 --> 00:18:42.212
The day you get back into the water,

00:18:42.236 --> 00:18:44.727
when you hold your breath
for a few seconds,

00:18:44.751 --> 00:18:47.671
you will reconnect with those origins.

00:18:48.243 --> 00:18:49.762
And I guarantee

00:18:49.786 --> 00:18:51.127
it's absolute magic.

00:18:51.151 --> 00:18:52.604
I encourage you to try it out.

00:18:52.628 --> 00:18:53.794
Thank you.

00:18:53.818 --> 00:18:57.539
(Applause)