One Breath... | Adam Skolnick | Talks at Google
59Author Adam Skolnick visits Google Los Angeles to read from and discuss his new book "One Breath: Freediving, Death and the Quest to Shatter Human Limits", a riveting tale of the extreme sport of freediving. He's joined by competetive freediver and Googler Ben Weiss.
Competitive freediving—a sport built on diving as deep as possible on a single breath—tests the limits of human ability in the most hostile environment on earth. The unique and eclectic breed of individuals who compete at the highest level regularly dive hundreds of feet below the ocean’s surface, reaching such depths that their organs compress, light disappears, and one mistake could kill them.
Even among freedivers, few have ever gone as deep as Nicholas Mevoli. A handsome young American with an unmatched talent for the sport, Mevoli was among freediving’s brightest stars. He was also an extraordinary individual, a fierce competitor, and a gentle soul who rebelled against the vapid and commoditized society around him by relentlessly questing for something more meaningful and authentic, no matter the risks. So when Mevoli arrived at the world’s premier freediving competition, Vertical Blue, in 2013, it was widely expected that he would challenge records and this would be one more stop on his meteoric rise to stardom.
Instead, before the end of the competition, Nick Mevoli had died, a victim of the sport that had made him a star, and the very future of free diving was called into question.
Part Into the Wild, part The Wave, Adam Skolnick’s ONE BREATH: Freediving, Death, and the Quest to Shatter Human Limits (Crown Archetype, January 12, 2016) reveals the captivating world of daredevil freedivers addicted to the buzz that comes from tempting their own fate. Their quest is both spiritual and athletic, but the deeper these athletes go, the more obsessed they become. With each dive they’re compelled to go ever further, every new meter amplifying their familiar fix and driving them closer to their own mortality.
With unparalleled access to the sport and its stars and masterfully crafted prose, ONE BREATH tells Mevoli’s unforgettable story, and will take readers behind the scenes of the sport that shaped and, ultimately, destroyed him.
ADAM SKOLNICK has written for the New York Times, Playboy, Outside, ESPN.com, BBC.com, Salon.com, Men’s Health, Wired, and Travel + Leisure, among others. He has visited 45 countries and authored or coauthored over 25 Lonely Planet guidebooks. His coverage of Nicholas Mevoli's death at Vertical Blue earned two APSE awards.
Book Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jgE7nGPhpI