Denis Grosmaire Freediver

I met Denis Grosmaire while working on a photoshoot in Tahiti, we normally worked with his brother, Tikanui but he was in the event that we were shooting so Denis was our boat driver for the week.

Denis, like most Tahitians, is quiet when you first meet him, but as he gets to know you, he started to reveal more and more about himself, to the point where we realised we were being driving around by one of the top freedivers in the world; a man that been to over 80 m deep and can hold his breath for over 7 minutes!

Denis is 41, lives at home with his mother Christiane and his older brother Jody and little brother Tikanui; Jody is a sports teacher, built like a tank, a Jujitsu trainer and just happens to be a world champion, Tikanui is a professional surfer who has world renown for charging huge waves.

Denis lives in Moorea in French Polynesia. Tahiti is about water, Moorea is beautiful, the water is crystal clear and full of fish, it seemed for Denis a natural progression to freedive. He says, ‘With my brothers, we were very lucky because our mother, who was a school teacher, always wanted to teach in the most distant islands of Tahiti, so we grew up at the edge of the ocean from a very young age and started to fish and surf, swim and spend time in the ocean very early. Then I became passionate about spearfishing and I practiced a lot. Then, I wondered how did the freedivers stay as long under water and dive as deep, I then became interested in apnea but without really getting into it. It was only three years ago that I decided to become an instructor and participate in competitions.