Francisco Ferreras is a well-known diver from Cuba. He is well-known for his deep free diving accomplishments and his nickname Pippin.
Ferreras is also well-known for marrying Audrey Mestre, a world-record-holding freediver from France. Throughout the 1990s, he set several World Records, frequently competing against Italian Umberto Pelizzari.
Ferreras made his final recorded dive in January 2000, going 12 metres deeper than Pelizzari’s previous record of 162 metres (531 feet)
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What happened to Francisco Ferreras?
Francisco Ferreras currently resides in Miami, Florida, with his wife and family. In 2022, he will be 60 years old.
Ferreras is currently married to his second wife, Juscelina Cacau Melo 2012. His wife is a former South Beach model from Canada.
Ferreras lived in Cuba before beginning his freediving career, but little is known about its certainty.
Audrey Mestre and Francisco Ferreras were in a relationship from 1999 to 2002.
Audrey Mestre and Francisco Ferreras were in a relationship from 1999 to 2002. (Image credit: fr33d1v1ng)
Soon after, the two began dating, and Mestre eventually married the diver four times. Mestre eventually began competing in the sport, and not long after that, she broke the world record for female divers. On October 12, 2002, however, tragedy struck when Mestre attempted to break her husband’s previous record by more than thirty feet.
Ferreras, who was born in Matanzas on Cuba’s northern coast, began free diving at the age of five. His childhood nickname was “Pipin,” and he later added “Ferraras” to it.
Ferreras’ life story is told in his books The Dive: A Story of Love and Obsession and Dive The. In his autobiography, he describes meeting Mestre in 1996. The marine biology student was looking for Ferreras as part of her thesis research.
Relationship of Francisco Ferreras and Audrey Mestre
In the year 1999, Francisco Ferreras and Audrey Mestre married. Their marriage ended after Mestre’s death in 2002.
After marrying, the couple quickly became a regular record-breaking couple in the sport of freediving, splitting the men’s and women’s records equally.
A large portion of the diving community’s criticism was directed at Ferreras, who rushed an underfunded organisation for this new record attempt, which had been scheduled for a later date, specifically with too few safety divers, insufficient rescue equipment, and no doctors at sea or on land.
The traditional diving technique in a no-limits free dive involves the diver holding onto a weighted sled until they reach the desired depth, at which point they release a pressurised air tank, which fills a large inflatable balloon and lifts them back to the surface.
AUDREY MestreE
The Net Worth of Francisco Ferreras in 2022
Francisco Ferreras has a net worth of $3 million. He made his fortune through his diving career. The former world champion is also a published author of two books.
Audrey Mestre’s net worth was estimated to be $1.5 million. She was one of the world’s wealthiest divers.
Mestre decided to break the no-limits world record on October 2, 2002, after both of them had accumulated a number of world records. Her massive inflatable balloon was supposed to guide her to the water’s surface, but it broke down after she descended 171 metres. Mestre died while attempting to break her own record when her dive took longer than expected and she ran out of air.
Ferreras decided to freedive to the same depth of 171 metres a year later in honour of his wife.
Ferreras was born in Matanzas, on Cuba’s northern coast, and began free-diving at the age of five. “Pipin” was his childhood nickname, and he later added Ferreras.
Life
He began his underwater career spearfishing, a little-known sport. Some Italians visiting Cuba introduced Pipin to the sport of free diving. They recognised his talent right away. He fell in love with the sport and quickly realised that while spearfishing and diving for black coral, he could go as deep as the free diving champions. At the age of 27, he decided to start competing in the sport and set his first world record. That was only the first of 21 world records he has established. From the late 1980s to the early 1990s, he made a name for himself in the “No-Limits” discipline of freediving, where he set his first known world record of 112 metres (367 feet) depth in November 1989. He defected to Italy shortly after and later moved to Florida, United States. Throughout the 1990s, he set a long string of World Records, often in close competition with Italian Umberto Pelizzari. During this phase, Ferreras’ last logged record dive in January 2000 reached a depth of 162 metres (531 feet), 12 metres (39 feet) deeper than Pelizzari’s deepest record.
Ferreras and Pelizzari’s rivalry became the focus of the 2001 IMAX film Ocean Men: Extreme Dive, directed by renowned underwater photographer Bob Talbot.
Ferreras founded the International Association of Freedivers (IAFD) in 1996 in direct opposition to the organisation AIDA, but it had limited sporting success and closed in 2004. Ferreras’ record dives during this time period were all conducted within the confines of IAFD.
The DIVE
After Audrey’s death, Ferreras produced a book, ghost-written by Linda Robertson, The Dive.
In 2010 James Cameron acquired the movie rights and was to co-produce the film.Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Lawrence was announced in January 2015 as being cast to play Audrey Mestre. Francis Lawrence, director of The Hunger Games, is directing. The film was scheduled to be released in 2017 but by June 2019 nothing has been announced.
