This Saturday, June 8, is Oceans Day. On this occasion, 20 minutes offers you a series of articles, videos, reports, etc. entitled “20 Minutes Under the Sea”. There, we invite you to take a deep breath, we go for a freediving with Akhenaton from the IAM group.
A free dive to become aware of the beauty and fragility of the seabed. The three-time freediving world champion, Morgan Bourc’his invited the singer of the group IAM, Akhenaton, to introduce him to his discipline. And above all raise awareness about the protection of the oceans by extending the experience with the documentary Immersed with Akhenatenbroadcast this Saturday on the Ushuaia TV channel, on the occasion of the World Oceans Day.
A sporting challenge, first of all, for Akhenaton who maintains both privileged and conflicting relationships with the sea. The rapper comes from a family of dockers and sometimes likes to isolate himself in a cove on his boat. But he also experiences seasickness. “If I stay on the boat that is listing like that, I’m good after three minutes,” he confides in the documentary, seeing the sailboat that serves as a stern base pitching .
Breath as a common point
When it comes to breathing, he is more comfortable. And even achieves a 2’45 apnea on his second try… on land. Breathing is what unites the freediving champion and the rapper.
“ This is what we have in common, but we each use it in different ways. Expresses the need for it to circulate, for it to come in, for it to come out, to maintain his flow of words and so that he does not run out of steam. There is this breath that must live in him. I’m going to keep this breath as long as possible before releasing it. We use it differently but that’s what binds us. That was the goal, for him to discover my world, the retention of breath and of course the aquatic environment. » »
Akhenaten’s first launch into the water is like a cat in a bath, but the training pays off and the beauty of the seabed has its effect. Several personalities come to meet them to share their expertise, such as the fisherman Gérard Carrodano for his incredible experience or the director of the Paul-Ricard Oceanographic Institute, Patricia Ricard, for her positivism.
“Accentuate visibility”
The documentary also looks back on the underwater heatwave of 2022, a unique episode of its kind which decimated almost all gorgonians from 0 to 30 meters deep. Because yes, the Mediterranean is home to significant coral colonies, which many people are unaware of. This is also why Akhenaten was invited by Morgan Bourc’his.
“They are these public figures who have very varied and diverse influences. We will touch different cultural strata, different communities, because Akhenaten touches these multiple citizens. Involving a personality means increasing visibility on what interests us, certainly the sporting challenge, but above all there is the message on the preservation of the oceans and the state of the place, too,” says Morgan Bourc’his .
Our 20 Minutes Under the Sea file
The sporting challenge was more than met by Akhenaton, who ended up completing a freediving of almost two minutes at a depth of around ten meters. “I am Ok”, he comes out of the water all smiles. I can’t wait for the oceans to say the same.