VUE

What's been your most memorable encounter with ocean life? I was in Tahiti last year in September for the whale migration. I was freediving and I'd never been in the water with humpback whales before and it's been one of my dreams to interact with them. I'd learned they communicate via body language because I'd done a bit of research. I really wanted to swim with a whale and I was really nervous and it took me a couple of days of being out on a boat and watching their behavior because I didn't want to disturb the marine environment or make the whales upset. We have to respect their space because that's their world. Eventually the captain said, "OK, you've got to get in the water." So I quickly threw everything on and we were literally dropped in the open ocean, like a kilometer off the coast and he just dropped my photographer and I in the water. I had my monofin on, my mask, and my photographer had a boogie board and we were sort of just kicking around with a whole other world beneath us! Suddenly a 25-ton mother and her calf appeared. e mom was sleeping and so, when whales are sleeping, they hang upside down so they're sticking out of the water a bit, and the mother was probably like 25-30 tons worth of whale—she was massive and so intimidating! Her baby, also quite big, he was about 17 tons or so. We just watched them swim around us for 40 minutes and let them know we were there. I was feeling a little nervous and I thought to myself when they kind of got a little bit closer to us, "OK, this is the feeling right now. ey know that we're here—it's now or never." And I dove down to 15 meters and got the baby whale's attention. Once the baby caught on, I spiraled to the surface and I had this baby humpback whale right in front of me playing with me for 45 minutes. He would swim over to me and I would open my arms, and this whale is just like opening its fins and we're copying each other. So then I thought, "is is kind of epic. Everything I'm doing, he's doing." Eventually I turned upside down and he turned upside down—it was super cute. en he sort of disappeared and all the while this is going on, I hear its mother. I knew there was this massive whale somewhere around me in the deep blue. It was black beneath me. I didn't know where she was but I could hear her. ey make these grunting noises as if to say, "Hey, I'm still here. I'm watching you. You're playing with my baby but we're cool." I'm diving on impulse and this baby whale knows I can't hold my breath as long as he can. As I'm coming up to the surface with him, I'm over exerting myself but I just couldn't stop because it's this moment in time that's a real-life dream. Eventually, I kind of dove down and I couldn't find the baby anymore and I thought he was gone...but then I turned around and the whale is literally a meter away from me—his nose in my face. It opens your eyes to how closely related we are to these animals. ey feel and they communicate like we do. It's fascinating to be a part of their world. How do you feel about diving with sharks? I've been cage diving but I've been in the water with tiger sharks, black tips, bull sharks—sharks are pretty awesome. I've had a hundred sharks surround me in Tahiti underwater just freediving with them. Like all marine life, you need to take precautions and it's mostly the media and movies who perceive them as dangerous. You kind of have to see it for yourself. ere's so much positive reinforcement about freediving and scuba diving with sharks but people only believe what they want to believe. V U E N J . C O M 97

• Cover