A dive into the soul
My name is Umberto
The call of the Great Blue
My life, the sea
The ocean inside us
A challenge beyond limits
The records of Umberto Pelizzari
Bibliography
Photographic credits

 

From the surface to 100 meters and beyond, headlong into the abyss: the pulse slows, the body disappears, every sensation is new and surreal. Only the soul remains. It’s one long dive into the soul that seems to soak up the universe. Each time returning to the surface is a choice: meter upon meter towards the light, I ascend to reclaim my human form. I am often asked what there is to see down there. Maybe the only true answer is that we don’t freedive to look around, but to look inside ourselves. In the abyss I am in search of my self. It is a mystic experience, bordering on the divine. I am incredibly alone, but it is as if I am bringing with me the whole essence of humanity. It is my human essence that transcends the limits, that merges with the sea in its search for itself, and that ultimately dives inside to find itself.
When I first thought about writing an autobiography I had a bit of a laugh – writing was never my favourite sport. And yet I did have something to say.
What I feel when I freedive cannot be described in words, nor even in thoughts. It is a unique experience of body and mind. And yet since I could never take everyone by the hand and drag them with me underwater I started to observe my emotions and experiences: in every training session I would decode what I felt and memorize the sensations, then after I would hurry to write them down, translating them into symbols on a page. Every time I reviewed what I wrote strong emotions built up within me, bursting with thousands of details. I let myself observe my feelings, which intensify and become transparent like a world of water. As this world fills me, everything appears to me with an intensity that is both simple and spontaneous. Now I can describe what I see in the depths.Umberto Pelizzari