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Nice is considered by many as the birthplace of modern freediving. This is where AIDA started, under the leadership of freediving personalities such as Claude Chapuis. This is where a new generation of deep freedivers trained and set records: from the sorely missed Loïc Leferme to other amazing freedivers like Pierre Frolla, Morgan Bourc'his, and of course, Guillaume Néry who lives and trains in Nice still to this day.
The bay of Villefranche-sur Mer is a gorgeous bay, only a five-minute boat ride away from Nice main harbor, and offers almost unlimited depth, with very protected conditions, hidden from wind and waves. Being so easily accessible from one of the main cities in France and in Europe is a luxury for most freedivers: you can get an international flight, land in the center of Nice, and within half an hour of a simple tramway ride, you're in your wetsuit, on the boat, ready to go dive!
The proximity to Nice is also an incredible asset in terms of safety. Within 5 minutes you can be back on land, where you have access to all the medical care with some of the best hospitals in the country and a recompression chamber, with Carl Willem, one of the most renowned doctors in diving hyperbaric medicine and a freediving specialist, running Nice's hyperbaric chamber.
Being such a hot spot for deep freediving in France, you have many options of clubs and schools to book your training sessions with. From schools such as Chango Diving or BlueNery Academy to associative clubs such as the CIPA, which also organizes a depth competition once a year, or freediving excursions on sailing boats, freedivers of all levels can find what they're looking for. Freediving courses, pool training, depth training with sonar and counter ballast system, it's all there and available a phone call or a click away for you to have fun and feel safe.
For those of you who prefer to fun-dive, the entire bay of Villefranche is the perfect playground! The bay is part of a huge marine sanctuary, Natura 2000, meaning you'll find all sorts of underwater life to admire, dive with, and take pictures of. Many places are accessible on foot, by the « Chemin des Douaniers », a scenic footpath along Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, leading in many places to small hidden beaches from where you can go and fun-dive.
And for the photography lovers among you, the new underwater museum located on the Lérins islands is the perfect playground. One hour by boat from Nice, it hosts big underwater statues by artist Jason DeCaires Taylor which were sunken there in 2020 to create this museum. At only a few meters of depth, it is accessible to freedivers of absolutely all levels.
I've been privileged to learn and then teach freediving almost exclusively in tropical conditions like Bali, the Philippines, or Dahab. So, yes, when I settled in Nice, the water felt different, the Mediterranean is a little colder and it takes a while to adjust to the thermocline. But now, I actually see it as an asset for training: “make your training conditions tougher, make your competition dive easier”. If you can relax and manage your equalization perfectly through colder water and thermocline, on the day that you'll go for that PB or that competition in the Bahamas, Greece, Egypt, or anywhere else, with warmer water and no thermocline, everything will feel 1000 times easier, smoother and more enjoyable, making that big competition dive that much easier!
Plus, it is like everything else: we adapt and get used to it. The human body really is an amazing machine, we can adapt to pretty much anything. If the water feels cold to you at first, I can guarantee that after a few weeks of training, you'll be totally used to it.
When the team of freedivers here in Nice asked me to join them for a weekly bikini swim in February, I laughed in their faces and said they were crazy. I was convinced it would take me about 30 minutes just to manage to get my body fully immersed and then I wouldn't be able to stay in there more than a minute. I was shocked to manage a 20-minute swim on my first attempt, without feeling cold, and now I absolutely love my ritual weekly winter swims just as much as they do!
Let's be honest, we don't spend all day freediving, do we? Well, come to think of it, maybe we do... But still, we also like to enjoy other activities outside of the water. Well, Nice is a hidden gem in that it not only gives you amazing options on and underwater, it also offers endless possibilities on land. Amazing hiking trails, hidden waterfalls in the countryside, small villages to explore, cycling, rock-climbing, motorbiking on the winding roads, and even skiing resorts just a short car ride away!
And let's not forget you're in France... The country known for its food and wine... Do I really need to say more? Nothing quite like a massive « pan bagnat » on the beach under the sun when you come out of your morning training session! And finally, let's face it, how can you resist coming to dive in a place that's called “Nice” ?!