July 13, 2003

• Free Diving
  
  

  
  A French article about Audrey and Pipin
  
  Yesterday I found a great little niche to study in the university’s Fine Arts Center. The patrons’ bathrooms were flooded because of some kind of reconstruction going on, so I went downstairs to use some of the bathrooms in the dressing rooms. And because I’m so nosey, I found a lovely bunch of pictures in front of an opera instructor’s office. AND, a copy of the June 13, 2003 issue of Sports Illustrated.
  
  On the cover is a picture of a couple dancing underwater. The title on it is “The Deadly Dive”.
  
  Sports Illustrated rarely talks about anything other than football, basketball, and baseball in any depth (no pun intended). (I was surprised they covered the America’s Cup as much as they did.) So I paused to read about this “Deadly Dive.”
  
  It was about a freediver from Cuba who met and married a woman who also learned to free dive, and together they tried to beat the world’s record for free diving (that’s diving without any breathing equipment other than what God gave you). Well, his wife died on one of her record attempts. Something about the bag not inflating to bring her back to the surface. Many people were angry at the husband for not taking more precautions during the dive.
  
  I love snorkeling. I like SCUBA diving too. I do it because I like the view! And the three-dimensional freedom of motion. Free diving though is not something I aspire to do. Yet, I do enjoy bluewater sailing, and some might consider that dangerous as well. And yes, I always tell people I sail with to wear their lifejackets because you never know when you might accidentally jibe and the boom performs its namesake. You can’t swim when you’re unconscious. But sometimes, I take my lifejacket off too.
  
  In medical school, we’re taught to ask every patient questions about their medical history. It sounds dumb, but we’re supposed to ask every patient whether or not they wear their seatbelts. It’s supposed to give us an idea about their “risk-taking behavior”. (It also helps to assess whether they might have abdominal injuries if they were in a car accident.) I always wear my seatbelt (except when I go to the drive-through ATM because I can’t reach the buttons with my seatbelt on), so I was really shocked when about 20% of my patients responded that they don’t wear their seatbelt. They might have been joking with me, but I don’t think so.
  
  It’s funny how people criticize other people for taking risks (free diving without emergency intubation equipment on the boat, free diving without backup ascension equipment), but they don’t wear their seatbelts. To one it’s a deadly risk, to the other it’s just the way life is lived.
  
  Jso’s got some cool pictures from a SCUBA dive.
  
  
  
  Audrey Mestre, marine biologist, artist, and world champion freediver
  8/11/74 – 10/12/02
  
  
  
  

  • 10:32 am
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