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.