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PROTAGONIST / TACKLING THE ABYSS

W hether free diving, with an aqualung, watches with rotating bezel that marks the dive time, and
or with oxygen tanks, for 18 years I the decompression tables stuffed into the pocket of their
have been living the sea intensely. The BCD (buoyancy control device) or their weight belt if they
‘sixth continent’ or the ‘world of silence’, are purists who dive with only a backpack for the air tank.
as it was called in the first documentaries Depending on physics, this technique can make lead weights

on diving, is another dimension. It is unique because first superfluous, as it allows a naturally neutral buoyancy.

you contemplate it, then you plunge in. Physics, ostentation, And so we come to the dive that Protagonist organized to

the appearances that reign on land are all distorted when you field-test eight watches (plus another three above the water),

propel yourself downwards with your flippers. Archimedes’ each with its own ethical and aesthetic salient points. On

law applies and you must adapt, acquiring a sunny spring morning we went to the

that which Luigi Ferraro, commando and } Truth reigns in Promontory of Portofino, one of the most
father of scuba diving, called aquatility. the abyss. When you beautiful spots for diving in the whole
Down there, you have to be watery, and your dive, you must keep Mediterranean, and we dived along the
chatter in the boat beforehand amounts to your wits about you face of the Torretta, to the left of the Bay
nothing. In the abyss, truth reigns. When of San Fruttuoso, going down 33 metres

you dive, you must keep your wits and watch to swim among grouper fish, barracudas

the time. While pressure alters sounds, gravity and the and croakers, in a sea that was still warm. There were three

exchange of gases in the lungs and blood, time is not testers: yours truly, Nicola Manna, a scuba diver for a couple

distorted. It would be lovely if it slowed down in proportion of years and an avid watch enthusiast, and Martina Monte,

to the heartbeat so we could stay down forever. Yet it flows a sergeant in the Carabinieri. We were immortalized by two

inexorably, determining time frames that must be respected, long-time underwater photographers: Massimo Corradi

otherwise there is pain. That is why every diver must (underwater photography safari instructor and winner of

have a watch on his wrist. By now, post-modern servo- five Italian awards), and Gianni Risso (record-holder as

assistance is replacing it with the impersonable computer, longest-standing founder and president of a diving club,

which combines watch, depth gauge, decompression table, Cicasub Bogliasco Seatram since 1963, and author of 6,000

and thermometer. It thinks for you. Divers who do not, diving articles), buddied by marine biologist Paola Bearzi.

however, wish to forego thinking still love their mechanical This article details our impressions, under pressure.

Top of page, a moment during the briefing at the Tortuga diving centre in Portofino (Genoa, Liguria) before setting out for the dive.
From left, Paola Bearzi, Alessandro Botré, Massimo Corradi, Nicola Manna and Martina Monte. Adjoining page,
just arrived in Santa Margherita Ligure, Nicola Manna, one of the divers and a watch enthusiast, unloads his gear from a sporty Audi S1.

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