Nathalie Cabrol

And the first time I actually dived at the summit of that lake was free diving.

People look at me like I'm nuts.

Well, maybe I am a little bit.

No, we knew what- It's a risk.

Actually, it's a lot less of a risk than getting with conventional air.

And I can explain that.

But ultimately, what decided me to certify scuba

and go over my fear was that as a scientist, I needed more time at the bottom of the lake to sample, you know, rationally take my time to think, and I can stay quite long enough as a freediver underwater.

But the last thing you want to do at 20,000 feet is to come up at the surface with empty lungs because there is not much you can breathe out there to replenish your oxygen.

So definitely your time in the water is cut short.

Yeah.

just for safety.

And I realized that it was not a good trade-off for me at some point.

So I certified scuba.

And after three years of exploring that lake free diving, we finally came up with a full scuba diving expedition.

But we were diving with rebreathers, which means that we dived with pure oxygen.

So rebreathers give you a bag with stuff that looks like cat liters in it, which is basically to absorb the CO2 that you are expelling when you're breathing.

And they're recycling oxygen this way.

So basically you are rebreathing your own body.

Wow.