At 91 years old he is full of dreams, he continues to admire the underwater world as much as the first time he put on diving goggles and among his fish friends he feels at home.
Don't miss the story ofone of the living legends of Spanish diving.
Yumping.- Eduard, has been dedicated to the world of diving for almost 67 years. How do you remember the beginnings?
Eduard Admetlla.- Like one of the most beautiful stages of my life. It is not often that you discover a new world, because you think that everything has already been discovered, but suddenly, one day I put on glasses and saw the bottom of the sea. Not many people had underwater goggles at that time, it was something unknown then.
For me it was a new world that I never left, since I have been in it since I was 24 years old and I continue diving to this day.
They were exciting beginnings, there was no material, you had to invent everything yourself and figure out: glasses, tube... I was discovering what I needed and I was making it, because before there was nothing.
Y.- All those years ago perhaps this sport was reserved only for a few. The equipment has improved, new destinations have been discovered, who more or less has had contact with this sport... What do you think of the world of scuba diving today?
E.A.- Before it was an unknown, mysterious specialty, with the halo of great risk but now it has become a mass sport. Every week I go to the Medes Islands, which is a marine reserve, and there is a concentration of divers, it is excessive, it is very well known... Even any 7-year-old child already has diving equipment, which was previously unthinkable.
The aura of risk has partly disappeared, there are courses where they teach you everything, not only the techniques, but also the rules and regulations that, it must be said, are not always respected.
It is very good that the world of diving is known, but perhaps the negative part is that there are many people who practice it. I have seen people queuing, the centers leave on boats in turns... There comes a time when you say: isn't this the wrong way to go?
Y.- We are neither more nor less than before the inventor of watertight boxes for underwater cameras and it was you who devised the aqualung, a variation of the one created by the Cousteau-Gagnan duo. How did you decide to take that step?
E.A.- It was a real odyssey. I had the opportunity to try the diving suit that came from France, to breathe underwater for the first time (I came from freediving fishing) and when I saw that I could breathe I said: I want a diving suit for myself! So I designed it, made the invention patent and created it.
It was an odyssey, I was looking for material everywhere, even one day at 3 in the morning I took out the curtain rod! But of course, when my wife saw it the next day... (laughs). But he didn't know where to get materials to make the equipment.
I even went to a company that manufactured fire extinguishers at that time, we put compressed air in it, I took a domestic gas regulator and little by little I put it together. I did a dive with a firefighting team! In the end I managed to submerge the 50 meters by hand.
The patent was promoted, it was marketed... and now there are ones for all tastes: aluminum, steel, there are green, yellow rubber suits... (laughs).
Y.- And if that were not enough, he is the first diver who managed to go down to 100 meters deep with compressed air bottles, even at the risk of not living to tell the tale. What did it mean to you?
E.A.- That was very significant, but not only for me but for diving, because it was a way to start my diving career. There were precedents, in fact the Frenchman Cousteau was the first to try it, but he went down to 90 meters; An American also tried and even exceeded 100 meters... but he did not rise to the surface. The third man was me.
I thought about doing a well-done, verifiable dive, so I went to Cartagena, to the navy divers school to get it certified and everything went very well.
That feat was the foot that diving needed to begin to develop.
Y.- Another of his great passions is underwater cinema and photography. How did you get started in this world?
E.A.- A pioneer in something is someone who sees something that no one has seen yet. So at that moment you want to explain very well what is under the sea, you tell people about it, but I saw that the people to whom I told my experiences They understood my explanations, yes, but they wanted to see it.
That's when I started taking photos and videos. Years later I came into contact with television and spent 15 years making underwater documentary series with Televisión Española.
At that time I had a very important job, as a manager in a large company. But TV spoke to me and proposed the project; At 50 years old I asked for a leave of absence to record television series and started working on what I liked. Of course, it was a job, it was not easy, otherwise the television would not accept your recordings and you have to have full dedication, vacations are not worth it. Someone signs you a contract and you have to comply and that's what I did.
Everyone told me that I was crazy to abandon my professional career, including my wife, but I remember it as the best time of my life, where I had the best time. If I didn't do it at that moment I was never going to do it.
It was wonderful. Keep in mind that I thought of a destination, I gave a budget to television, they studied it, they accepted the budget and we met a group of expert divers.
We went to the places we wanted to do what we liked most... like playing poker knowing that you are going to win (laughs). At that time I was able to dedicate myself fully to diving and filming, it was incredible.
And.- What did you want to convey with it?
E.A.- How beautiful and interesting it was and that at least whoever wanted to could see what I could see. Many people were eager to discover the bottom of the sea and I became obsessed with knowing it and so that people could have the same experience as me.
There they call me the "Spanish Cousteau", but honestly I don't like it very much, because besides the fact that I have nothing to do with it, I had to work a lot and very hard to move forward, he did it more commercial and they helped him a lot with it.
Y.- In 1954 he founded the C.R.I.S. (Underwater Research and Recovery Center), why did you see that need?
E.A.- At first I went into the water alone with my invention. I had friends who did underwater fishing, which is where I also came from in my beginnings.
We began to be a large group of people who practiced the activity and we decided that we had to group together so that people would know more about it.
Y.- They understood my explanations, yes, but they wanted to see it.
That's when I started taking photos and videos. Years later I came into contact with television and spent 15 years making underwater documentary series with Televisión Española.
At that time I had a very important job, as a manager in a large company. But TV spoke to me and proposed the project; At 50 years old I asked for a leave of absence to record television series and started working on what I liked. Of course, it was a job, it was not easy, otherwise the television would not accept your recordings and you have to have full dedication, vacations are not worth it. Someone signs you a contract and you have to comply and that's what I did.
Everyone told me that I was crazy to abandon my professional career, including my wife, but I remember it as the best time of my life, where I had the best time. If I didn't do it at that moment I was never going to do it.
It was wonderful. Keep in mind that I thought of a destination, I gave a budget to television, they studied it, they accepted the budget and we met a group of expert divers.
We went to the places we wanted to do what we liked most... like playing poker knowing that you are going to win (laughs). At that time I was able to dedicate myself fully to diving and filming, it was incredible.
And.- What did you want to convey with it?
E.A.- How beautiful and interesting it was and that at least whoever wanted to could see what I could see. Many people were eager to discover the bottom of the sea and I became obsessed with knowing it and so that people could have the same experience as me.
There they call me the "Spanish Cousteau", but honestly I don't like it very much, because besides the fact that I have nothing to do with it, I had to work a lot and very hard to move forward, he did it more commercial and they helped him a lot with it.
Y.- In 1954 he founded the C.R.I.S. (Underwater Research and Recovery Center), why did you see that need?
E.A.- At first I went into the water alone with my invention. I had friends who did underwater fishing, which is where I also came from in my beginnings.
We began to be a large group of people who practiced the activity and we decided that we had to group together so that people would know more about it.
Y.-
