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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,
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you start to feel the need to breathe.
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And with everything else that's going on,
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you can very easily lose your ground
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and start to panic.
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When that happens, you think,
"Where's the surface?
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I want to go up. I want to breathe now."
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You should not do that.
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Never look up to the surface --
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not with your eyes, or your mind.
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You should never
picture yourself up there.
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You have to stay in the present.
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I look at the rope right in front of me,
leading me back to the surface.
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And I focus on that,
on the present moment.
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Because if I think
about the surface, I panic.
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And if I panic, it's over.
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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,
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where potential problems could arise.
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Every time I see them, I think to myself,
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"It's thanks to you."
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It's thanks to them,
my team, that I'm here.
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It brings back the sense of humility.
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Without my team, without all
the people around me,
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the adventure into the deep
would be impossible.
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A journey into the deep
is above all a group effort.
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So I'm happy to finish
my journey with them,
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because I wouldn't be here
if it weren't for them.
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20 meters, 10 meters,
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my lungs slowly return
to their normal volume.
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Buoyancy pushes me up to the surface.
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Five meters below the surface,
I start to breathe out,
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so that as soon as I get
to the surface all I do is breathe in.
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And so I arrive at the surface.
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(Breathing in)
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Air floods into my lungs.
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It's like being born again, a relief.
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It feels good.
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Though the journey was extraordinary,
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I do need to feel those small
oxygen molecules fueling my body.
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It's an extraordinary sensation,
but at the same time it's traumatizing.
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It's a shock to the system,
as you can you imagine.
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I go from complete darkness
to the light of day,
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from the near-silence of the depths
to the commotion up top.
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In terms of touch, I go from the soft,
velvety feeling of the water,
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to air rubbing across my face.
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In terms of smell,
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there is air rushing into my lungs.
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And in return, my lungs open up.
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They were completely squashed
just 90 seconds ago,
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and now, they've opened up again.
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So all of this affects
quite a lot of things.
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I need a few seconds to come back,
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and to feel "all there" again.
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But that needs to happen quickly,
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because the judges are there
to verify my performance;
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I need to show them
I'm in perfect physical condition.
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You saw in the video,
I was doing a so-called exit protocol.
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Once at the surface, I have 15 seconds
to take off my nose clip,
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give this signal and say
(English) "I am OK."
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Plus, you need to be bilingual.
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(Laughter)
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On top of everything --
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that's not very nice.
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Once the protocol is completed,
the judges show me a white card,
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and that's when the joy starts.
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I can finally celebrate
what has just happened.
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So, the journey I've just described to you
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is a more extreme version of free diving.
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Luckily, it's far from just that.
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For the past few years,
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I've been trying to show
another side of free diving,
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because the media mainly talks
about competitions and records.
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But free diving is more than just that.
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It's about being at ease in the water.
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It's extremely beautiful,
very poetic and artistic.
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So my wife and I decided to film it
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and try to show another side of it,
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mostly to make people want
to go into the water.
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Let me show you some images
to finish my story.
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It's a mix of beautiful underwater photos.
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(Music)
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I'd like you to know that if one day
you try to stop breathing,
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you'll realize that
when you stop breathing,
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you stop thinking, too.
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It calms your mind.
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Today, in the 21st century,
we're under so much pressure.
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Our minds are overworked,
we think at a million miles an hour,
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we're always stressed.
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Being able to free dive
lets you, just for a moment,
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relax your mind.
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Holding your breath underwater
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means giving yourself the chance
to experience weightlessness.
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It means being underwater, floating,
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with your body completely relaxed,
letting go of all your tensions.
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This is our plight in the 21st century:
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our backs hurt, our necks hurt,
everything hurts,
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because we're stressed
and tense all the time.
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But when you're in the water,
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you let yourself float,
as if you were in space.
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You let yourself go completely.
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It's an extraordinary feeling.
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You can finally get in touch
with your body, mind and spirit.
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Everything feels better, all at once.
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Learning how to free dive is also
about learning to breathe correctly.
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We breathe with our first breath
at birth, up until our last one.
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Breathing gives rhythm to our lives.
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Learning how to breathe better
is learning how to live better.
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Holding your breath in the sea,
not necessarily at 100 meters,
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but maybe at two or three,
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putting on your goggles,
a pair of flippers,
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means you can go see another world,
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another universe, completely magical.
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You can see little fish, seaweed,
the flora and fauna,
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you can watch it all discreetly,
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sliding underwater, looking around,
and coming back to the surface,
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leaving no trace.
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It's an amazing feeling
to become one with nature like that.
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And if I may say one more thing,
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holding your breath, being in the water,
finding this underwater world --
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it's all about connecting with yourself.
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You heard me talk a lot
about the body's memory
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that dates back millions of years,
to our marine origins.
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The day you get back into the water,
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when you hold your breath
for a few seconds,
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you will reconnect with those origins.
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And I guarantee
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it's absolute magic.
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I encourage you to try it out.
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Thank you.
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(Applause)