Weekend 10-10-2010
My favorite shot from the past couple weeks
For all those who have been bugging me, sorry it took so long to get these up. I’ve been in an odd mode lately. I have been a schizophrenic melange of extremely overbusy/super lazy. When I have not been busting my tail with some household or work project, I have been a crazy couch potato. I think it is a combination of my U.S. trip, and winter creeping in that has my energies so messed up.
Anyways, nothing really new beyond that. I have some shots from club dives through the last couple weekends, and I wanted to get those up before people start getting mad at me. I had one or two pretty nice shots that I liked quite a bit from the last couple weeks, as well a bunch of other so-so shots.
Weekend 8-1-2010 Apnea Diving with the CIPA
Freediving in Villefranche
Well, I as in northern France all last week for a buddy’s birthday bash so I didn’t get a chance to update my photos from last week. I’ll post them in two updates, since I kind of had two different themes going on last weekend. The first half was pretty heavy free diving, and the second was mostly practicing my macro techniques as you will see in the next post. If my photos from this week look an awful lot like the ones from my last batch, they are. I had so much fun a few weeks ago, that I decided to go visit the exact same spots and do the exact things again. This first batch is the freediving part, taken in two sessions at Villefranche.
Video of Our Club by Francois Gautier
Below is a video created by Francois Gautier a long-time member of our CIPA (our diving club). I think it’s pretty freakin’ awesome, mostly because I am in it. 
Look for the guy in the wetsuit, and you’ll find me . Anyways, I’d like to give a special thanks to Francois for posting this. To everyone else, I recommend stopping over at his site: OceanColors
CIPA En Hiver by Francois Gautier
See Guillaume Néry, World Record Freediver And President of CIPA
Guillaume Néry
[Update: For those of you looking for where to find Guillaume's Base Jumping Dean's Blue Hole Video, click here]
Guillaume is the President of the CIPA (my diving club), as well as a world champion free diver, recording depths of 113 meters (370 feet). He recently took bronze in the Bahamas at the free diving world championships in the no fins category, achieving a depth of 78 meters (256 feet). The following video is a short preview of a 52 minute documentary on the Orange Sport Channel this year.
I saw it earlier this week, and am really excited to post it, not only because it is pretty cool stuff, but it actually shows my hobby in detail. In it, you can see the beach near my apartment (very beginning), my club, the boat I take for free diving, several members of my club, several people I train and dive with, the places I dive, and even the very set of fins that I bought off one of the members of the club (I bought them off of him after this film was shot). It’s not about me, but the first 5 minutes of the video are really, very close to my life here in Nice. These are the places I go, and many of the people I see. It’s all in french, but for those of you who only speak English, enjoy the pretty scenery!
DEEP BLUE – L’apnée selon Guillaume Néry from Mi Ka on Vimeo.
Update: after the fact, I realized I should put a link to his blog for everyone to check out: http://guillaumenery.over-blog.com/.
Ocean Quest and Frédéric Buyle
Free diver extraordinaire Frédéric Buyle. Photo by Zena Holloway.
Last week a friend sent me a video about an extraordinary free diver named Frédéric Buyle. The original video that he sent is located here.
It’s all in french, but worth watching even if you don’t speak french. This guy can hold his breath for over 4 minutes underwater, and he does a lot of photography and research work. In the film, you can see him aiding researchers in tagging sharks.
Anyways, I’ve been learning more about this gentleman, and in the course of my research I came across his work on the upcoming documentary “Ocean Quest”. The series is supposedly coming out late this year sometime, and if anyone finds a release date, please let me know, because I want to see it pretty bad!
Trailer:
The documentary site is here: http://www.ocean-quest.com
In the series, Buyle teams up with Christian Petron (who was involved in Luc Besson’s The Big Blue) in order to explore the vast underwater world without scuba gear. You see, bubbles disturb the marine life and scares many varieties of fish. This is an ambitious project, and I for one, am anxious to see the result.
Koh Tao Photo Gallery Sept. 2009
Koh Tao Photo Gallery Sept, 2009
Spent some time snorkeling and diving in Koh Tao, Thailand in Sept 2009. Koh Tao is just next to Koh Samui, and is accessible from Chumphorn by boat. The marine life there is as varied as it is beautiful. An incredible place that I highly recommend!
View Gallery Here: http://www.azur-diving.com/Thailand-Marine-Pics/
Updated About Page as promised!
I made updates to the “About” page as promised. Check it out: http://www.azur-diving.com/about/. I’m off to Port-Cros, an island in southern France for a weekend of snorkeling and diving. Check out this video of what I might see this weekend. Pics when I get back.
