{"id":11050,"date":"2022-10-01T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-01T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.underwatertales.net\/2022\/10\/01\/senza-limiti\/"},"modified":"2023-06-20T12:30:13","modified_gmt":"2023-06-20T10:30:13","slug":"without-limits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.underwatertales.net\/en\/2022\/10\/01\/without-limits\/","title":{"rendered":"Without limits"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Limitless<\/a> is the film of the moment, you can find it in the suite of the Netflix<\/a> platform. Beautiful, ugly? True, unreliable? It came out exactly twenty years after the Audrey Mestre<\/strong> accident. Let me give you my opinion, aware of the risk of attracting criticism\u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

20 years ago<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

In 2002<\/strong> I was a young diver. Relatively young in age (much more than now) but above all with diving experience. I had recently become a CMAS instructor<\/a> and had just returned from my first experience in a diving center on Pantelleria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I regularly attended the diving club where I had done my entire journey and compared myself with my friends from the club. In those days there was the Internet but there was no Google<\/strong>, there were @mail but there were no social networks<\/strong>. There wasn’t even YouTube<\/strong>. Diving was read in specialized magazines<\/strong>. There was Underwater World<\/a>, Sub<\/a>, Aqua<\/strong> and the Diver<\/strong>. The news mostly came from those sources.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Senza
Alberto Balbi<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

I don’t remember how I learned of the death of Audrey Mestre<\/strong>, or rather Pipin’s<\/strong> wife. Yes, because those were the roaring years of freediving<\/strong>. Those of No Limits, of Sector<\/a> who probably poured a lot of money into the system. And of the records, repeatedly beaten, by Pipin Ferreras<\/strong> and Umberto Pelizzari<\/strong>. Of Audrey I remember those photos by Alberto Balbi<\/a>, at the time the most famous Italian photographer in the underwater world. Albert was there. I remember her sitting on the support catamaran, with the Mares<\/a> yellow wetsuit while she ate a banana. I remember her with that gaze lost in space, with that melancholy veil of sadness. A look that reminded me of Ayrton Senna, sitting in his car, still without a helmet, on the starting grid of the Imola Grand Prix.<\/p>\n\n\n

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<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

We talked a lot about it at the diving club. I also remember seeing the video of the dive<\/a>. I remember her fumbling with the sled in a desperate attempt to disengage and escape from those depths. And I remember Alberto Balbi’s TV interview with Sfide<\/a>. The story of him dismayed by that terrible experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, as always, I never thought about it again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The last attempt<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

I think it was 2010, or so, when, I don’t know how, I received advertising content probably on Amazon<\/a>. Those things like who bought your product also bought this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a book, written by Carlos Serra<\/strong>, Pipin’s associate and friend. A book written in English, and I believe to date never translated into Italian, which wanted to offer a reconstruction of the record attempt that led to the death of Audrey Mestre. I was intrigued, that episode became a scar on me. And, deciding to make an abnormal effort because I’m not an ace with English, I decided to buy it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A world opened up for me. Carlos Serra’s version of events left me dumbfounded<\/strong>. Breathless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Serra, at the time of the tragedy, was the president of the IAFD<\/strong>, the company that at the time certified the No Limits records<\/strong>. He was also a great friend of Pipin. But in this book Serra paints a very dark picture of Pipin. The record holder I remember in the photo of Alberto Balbi who climbs madly from the bottom with the head raised by his now lifeless wife is depicted as a horrible man. An arrogant, manipulative and vengeful macho. And she, poor Audrey as a victim of him. She, with two suicide attempts behind her, trying to free herself from the emotional trap she had gotten herself into.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of the idea of \u200b\u200bthe love story between Pipin and Audrey, destroyed by the mocking and cursed fate, nothing remained after reading this book.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Pipin e Audrey<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

And for a long time, Pipin had become a very bad example for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without limits<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Limitless is the film of the moment, you can find it in the suite of the Netflix platform. Beautiful ugly? True, unreliable? It comes out exactly twenty years after the Audrey Mestre accident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The film is presented as a reconstruction even if, before the final word, there is the usual disclaimer. \u201cAny reference to facts, people, things that actually happened or existed is to be considered purely coincidental.\u201d And it ends with the inscription: \u201cin memory of Audrey Mestre 1974-2002\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are some scenes that can’t really be truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each record attempt narrated takes place within an event called the \u201cworld freediving championships\u201d. I don’t know if these championships exist, but I am sure that the No Limits records were special events, outside of any type of competition. There was an athlete trying to beat the previous record. And that’s that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then the underwater computer that signals the alarm for too fast ascent to the safety diver who was trying to bring poor Audrey back up. It was 2002, the diver was in a mix and there was no computer capable of providing a dive profile nor at those depths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there are also some exciting, adrenaline-pumping scenes. Scenes that glue you to the sofa, the armchair. Scenes from “Without Limits”. They are those of diving, those eternal moments during which a man, a woman, measure themselves in the depths of the sea. Without limits, indeed.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Senza<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

The reconstructions<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

But this film, “Without Limits\u201d is the reconstruction of Carlo Serra. Where Pipin, who in the story is French, is an arrogant being, a womanizer and a serial traitor. A great manipulator, with a manic sense of control. A man who projects onto his woman, who is not called Audrey but Roxane, his need to always be the best.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Senza<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

And then that empty cylinder<\/strong>, the sole cause of a deadly drama. That tank that would be used to inflate the lifting balloon that was supposed to bring her back to the surface. That cylinder that in the film “Without Limits” the superman personally controls<\/strong>. A scene that even sounds like a veiled accusation of murder<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe a little too much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The live Facebook of the couple Genoni \u2013 Balbi<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Who better than them to shed some light on this story that is becoming a little too disparaging for Pipin?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gianluca Genoni<\/a> set No Limits records and Alberto Balbi<\/strong> was in the Dominican Republic, on the support catamaran for that unfortunate record.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alberto<\/strong> was with Pipin<\/strong>, Audrey<\/strong> and the whole team for three days. He lived with them, in close contact. Both in breaks and in rehearsals. In those days he did not know the Pipin described in the film “Without Limits”. He had to deal with a very physical man, who loved to be center stage and disrespectful of rules and procedural standards. A champion who has made many records with his rules and habits. And he has translated these rules into Audrey’s enterprises. She simply trusted her husband and his rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surely the organization<\/strong> of this record attempt was lacking, in particular compared to the maniacalness of the organization that Gianluca demanded for his records. Companies that saw the participation of a close-knit team of professionals, an organizational leader, a large team of safety divers and a top-level medical assistance service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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