Enzo Maiorca: Free-Diving Legend

For those of you who have seen Le Grand Bleu; the French film directed by Luc Besson about the sport of competitive free-diving, sad news today: Enzo Maiorca, immortalised by Jean Reno in the film, has died at the age of 85.

Maiorca truly took the sport of free-diving to new levels, constantly challenging and breaking the records over and over again. His rivalry and friendship with fellow free-diver Jacques Mayol is captured in Besson’s film, documenting the free-diving competitions in which they used to participate. Watch a trailer for the film here to give you a flavour (beware it is quite dated). The two divers pushed each other to the limits, taking the sport to new heights; Maiorca was the first diver to dive to 50 metres with Mayol claiming the first 100m dive at the age of 56. Maiorca caught up, finally hitting 100m at 57 years old.

A keen spear fisherman throughout his life, he abruptly stopped this pastime after a close encounter with a grouper. Morality provoked an epiphany in Enzo and he publicly stated that by killing a fish he “felt like a terrorist”; he never speared a fish again. Thus, later in his life, Maiorca dedicated most of his time to marine conservation, protesting particularly against certain types of fishing net that were ensnaring and killing dolphins in the wild.

Defying doctors and experts alike with his incredible dives, Maiorca truly paved the way for the free-divers of today and will always be remembered fondly with great admiration.