In
February 1996, Pipin organized a Free Diving world record attempt in Cabo San
Lucas, Baja
California, Mexico, 250 kilometers south of La Paz. Since he took my
sleep away several times during the developing of my thesis, I couldn’t resist
the temptation of going to Cabo to meet him, even from afar. I took a bus that
also carried chickens, egg cartons and dogs. After four long hours, I arrived to
Cabo.
Pipin
was offering the possibility to be present with scuba tanks in one of his
underwater practices. I paid the required fee and attended his training. After
this first meeting that left me amazed I had the chance to talk to him. This was
actually a very awkward moment since I had the feeling of knowing him very well.
I didn’t know what to say or ask because I knew everything about him, due to
my research. Fortunately, by then
my Spanish was very fluent because I had lived in Mexico for 7 years now and I
even had a Mexican accent. After a while talking, a conversation came up about
France and the French. Pipin started to tell me about his negative experiences
in France and the hatred he had for French people... Finally, after he finished
his discharge, he asked me from what
part of Mexico I was… at that moment I
had to admit that I wasn’t Mexican, but French…Of course, we did not talk
anymore that day. To apologize for his comments, he invited me to go diving with
him for free the next day. After he saw my skills as a diver he asked me to join
his safety divers team, which I accepted immediately. He also had the patience
to teach me how to take underwater pictures and video; he told me this was a
good way to express my feelings about the sea since I was capturing with my
camera what I saw and felt and what I wanted to share with the rest of the
world. During that time, we spent every moment together so we got emotionally
involved and I moved to Miami with him that same year.