“Our life is hanging on safety,” confides a freediver after fainting
Plongée dans le “Grand Bleu”. MAXPPP – Mediadrumimages/Victor de Valles
Les Mondiaux d’Ajaccio sont l’occasion de découvrir les safeties, ces apnéistes de sécurité. Plongée en eaux profondes.
A business leader-beekeeper, civil servant or instructor out of the water, Marine, Emmanuel and Arthur, safety freedivers, are the guardian angels of the competitors at the World Freediving Championships in Ajaccio, to secure their dives into the depths. A vital mission chosen by “passion and vocation”.
For the general public, deep freediving is often summed up in “The Big Blue”, the Luc Besson film. But, a notable difference is that there are no longer any scuba divers, unable to bring up freedivers in difficulty because of the stops to be made. The safety of competitors is now ensured by safety freedivers, “safeties”. in English.
First World Championships Organized in Corsica
For the first World Championships organized in Corsica by the International Association for the Development of Apnea (AIDA), bringing together 120 competitors of 50 nationalities until Sunday, 15 "safeties" also coming from all over the world, from Uruguay to Taiwan, under the direction of the Cypriot Savvas Savva, are ready to rescue divers at risk of fainting, mainly during their ascent.
A safety must be focused on the athlete but also on him, so as not to put himself in danger
“It's a passion and a vocation. I love being in this position, seeing the athletes surpass themselves because they know they trust us,” confides Marine Russo, 35, one of these guardian angels. In her daily life, she is the head of a consulting firm in Porticcio and a budding beekeeper in Coti-Chiavari (South Corsica).
“I have crossed 50 meters but I am not looking for great depths“, adds this freediver, who particularly likes to be “for and with the athletes when they are giving their best”. Same pleasure for Emmanuel Zuccarelli, 43-year-old agent of the Corsican community, who is experiencing his first World Championships as a safety freediver.
They save lives
“I really like sharing. We are there for each other, for their safety. A freediver is focused on themselves, on their sensations, their relaxation, their dynamism. A safety must be focused on the athlete but also on themselves, so as not to put themselves in danger”. “There is no athlete without safety”, confirms Abdelatif Alouach, 48, six times French champion and five times world champion of freediving.
“He is not just someone who watches over us. He is someone who knows how to position himself, descend to the right depth, make the necessary effort to bring us back up if we need help, rescue us if we are unconscious, trigger the rescue chain… It is our life that is attached to safety”, he says, recalling a fainting spell he experienced three years ago.
During each dive, four safety freedivers prepare on the surface. Under the supervision of a probe that gives his depth in real time, the athlete descends alone, filmed by the “dive-eye”, an underwater camera. When he comes back up, a first “safety” joins him with an underwater scooter, at 40 meters, then a second finds him, using his fins, at 25-30 meters, before a third at 20 meters.
Four safety freedivers on the alert
A fourth surface watch and a counterweight system are planned in case of a deeper incident. Everyone must therefore dive at the right time and know their role.“We start timers at the start of a dive and we are given the depth as we go, which tells us the speed of the athlete. We know that to descend to 25 meters it will take 30-35 seconds", explains Marine.
If the diver faints…
"If the diver faints (loss of consciousness), a first safety will block his airways with his hand, so that he does not swallow or inhale water if he regains consciousness during the ascent. The second will relieve this rise by pushing him on the hips and the third will keep his head out of the water on the surface, while we perform" resuscitation gestures, explains Arthur Voisin, 36, head of one of the two diving lines at the Ajaccio World Championships, each with its own dedicated safety team.
"Many people think that we save people, that we do extreme things, but the main thing is to make sure that the athletes but also the others around them feel good. It is this atmosphere of trust that allows performance”, explains this former competitor, now a freediving instructor and mainly “safety”, officiating at the World Championships since 2019.
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