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What is Pipin doing these days???

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I bought it and read it.

He makes no bones about his hungover safety diver on the day that Audrey had her accident and the fact that the gas bottle for the lift bag was empty (he said that he called out "is it full" - someone replied "yes" to that day no-one knows who said that).

If it was my wife going down 500+ft I would checked everything personally. I was sad reading the book, in some parts i felt sorry and in others sheer anger at his arrogance.
Everything he did seemed to be sketchy and spontaneous :(

However, I guess it's not for anyone to judge but the Higher Being out there... we all make mistakes and we have all have regrets.
 
Not one to Judge, but from my own experience of a few years at the highest level of the work i done it was normal to become slightly complacant so we changed duties frequently to avoid just that. From what i got from pipins book was just that, he trusted everyone around as one should, trusted that the tank was full, asked, and got an answer, in his mind there was no reason to Question that answer, if you give your car to the service and you trust him when he says "yes the brakes are OK", do you check them?. Its all typical of having done the same thing so often, that nasty thing called Routine Complacancy creeps into us all and we dont ever see it untill its too late.

And i hope the film stays OFF forever.

Good People are Written into History, "HOLLYWOOD" just Destroys what is real and invents fantasy.
 
island_sands said:
he said that he called out "is it full" - someone replied "yes" to that day no-one knows who said that.
That's a little different than your example of "the breaks are ok" Groupy...
It may possibly be that at that exact moment another dude asked someone if he wanna go for a hamburger afterwards and Pippin heard his "yes".
IIRC he said that there was no specific person whose job was to take care of that bottle.
Ignoring all that, one should still question the safety array that was amaturistic at best - from what I read it seems quite obvious that if an accident was to happen the safety would fail or even add the safety diver (SINGLE diver) to the fatality list.
 
If only the empty bottle had been the only safety measure neglected...

But, it's easy to be a wise ass after the tragedy and point out mistakes. If everything would've gone ok, we'd all be celebrating them as heroes. Could it have been avoided? Who knows, but I sure hope people learned something from it.

But it's a good book. I thought it does not paint a wholly positive picture of Pipin, but at least up to that degree, it seems to be quite honest. I absolutely recommend it to anyone interested in freediving.
 
DeepThought said:
That's a little different than your example of "the breaks are ok" Groupy...

yes. i was just using and example of how some things become routine to us which do endanger us without knowing, probably the bigest killer of all is doing the same thing and getting used to that and only that, then something changes and ............................ But as you said it was not down to one single occurance it was the string of events that led to this tragic accident, and we should learn from these things, first time accident, second time, Negligence.
 
I thought the book was good it was the first I had ever read on freediving and read it before i discovered this site and had my mind expanded. I re read it a while back and like so many incidents it seemed it was a series of things that went wrong rather than one item. Dont know anything about Pipin other than what i read and heard so who am i to question the dive safety but is certainly a lesson to be learnt.
Regards Feargus
 
Alun said:
yes. i'm sure it's been mentioned on DB before - try searching for it.

he did it when Patrick set his 87m IAFD WR, back in 2002 i think. i heard Pipin did it with a monofin (despite not having had much practice) but he did have a small samba if i remember the story correctly. i don't know who else was there, but i'm sure Patrick witnessed it.

40... i only say that because for most sports people reach their peak much younger than 40. no doubt age is a minor factor in freediving, compared to other sports like athletics, but things inevtiably gets harder with age, especially in the more physical disciplines like CW.

I was there when this dive occured Alun, and like you said, after everything that has happened to Pipin, I agree - he deserves some peace.
 
I read the book over two nights when my wife was out of town. I didn't know all that much about freediving except for watching the Big Blue and this website. Although I try to not be a gossip and rumor-hound, I have to say that I was taken in by the story. The book wasn't written all that well, but I guess it didn't have to be. I know some of the details in the book are biased and some may be flat out wrong or embelished, but the book still felt authentic. (The story of how Pipin made a mask by melting a rubber tire around a piece of glass as a kid in Cuba sounds a little outlandish, but hey, what do I know?).

Like somebody else said, I truly felt sorry for the man. For Pipin to lose the love of his life like that was tragic. I don't know about the James Cameron movie being a dead concept or not, but I would go see it. Freediving could use a big-budget picture to increase its popularity.

Regarding No-Limits diving, I know it's often referred to as a circus act, but hey, circus acts are what draw viewers. If the sport doesn't want publicity, then the correct response about Pipin would be "Who cares," as said above. If, on the other hand, the sport wants to grow, then the story of Pipin and Audrey's is important.

- Tahoe Diver
 
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I do check my brakes :) and while I am going slow. In fact once a garage left one of my front brake calipers dangling around in there - unbolted.

I can say from experience - I would have to know each and every variable was working to spec - no question - no asking anybody else. I'd also have several people check it at different times right up to the last minute.

Just the way I do things.

I wish pipin well. A very difficult thing to face - and to have it all so public..
 
There have been other records, successful records, which have been done with very flakey safety setups. They got lucky. No accident happened. We celebrated the diver(s) as heroes.

Sure, the safety setup on Audrey's dive was flakey. But if that bothers you, then rather than criticizing Pipin, you should go out and criticize all the other divers who use flakey safety setups. Why? Because with LIVING divers, there is a chance you might make a difference, and PREVENT an accident.
 
Today I was driving to work - travelling at a safe speed, neither accelerating or slowing down. 300lbs of sand ahead of the rear axel, excellent new tires - straight road. Suddenly my truck fishtailed wildly - I did everything correctly - clutch in, steer into it - no brakes - it went the other way even further - and again and again! Luckily everyone else around me was driving carefully as well - after 3 or for iterations it came back inline - aside from avoiding glaring errors I'd not a whole lot to do with it.

Cause, effect - control...ha!

Pipin put it all out there for all of us. I was most impressed by the incredible sadness of it. It is not possible to comprehend the entire context of someone elses experience. It's like digesting another person's meal.

Still - having had it in front of me - I feel compelled to wish him well.
 
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Personally I really enjoyed the book I just wanted to ask others though because I was not into freediving at the time of the accident. I never heard any of the media hype or anything but I found the book really open and extremely sad. One can only be thankful for the people they love after reading it. I also hope Pippin has found peace and thank him for sharing it with all the readers. Thanks for all the feed back!
 
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It's Pipin's birthday today.

Sadly, he is not around to wish him well... in spite of everything - I think that he was open and honest about his whole life, in his book. He does not hide his arrogance, or moments of humility, bad times and good times. He was not afraid to talk about who he really is. You have to give him that credit. He did a lot for the world of freediving and it cost him a very personal sacrifice in the end. :(

Donde estes Pipin, que tengas un buen cumpleanyos. Que Dios te de paz de corazon y mente y fuerza para seguir adelante.

Un abrazo
Sara
 
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