Walking On Water: Freedivers Create Stunning Underwater Illusions
A group of freedivers in the Canary Islands have utilized their expertise to film an astonishing video of underwater illusions, in which they appear to walk on water, sit cross-legged on the ocean’s surface, and fly through the void like a superhero, before they are pulled from the sea in a scene reminiscent of a sci-fi movie.
The illusions are the handiwork of brothers Armando and Francisco del Rosario, according to the Daily Mail. Shot by biologist Armiche Ramos, the stunning footage employs no computer generated effects, relying instead on the abilities the pair have developed as freedivers. Though several camera tricks were utilized to create the underwater illusions, they amount only to altering its orientation.
The trio, who call themselves the Ocean Brothers, filmed their illusions as part of an underwater photography competition, World Shoot Out. Their entry, which was filmed in El Hierro, the smallest of the Canary Islands, won the prize for best short film.
“We didn’t use any special effects, just camera tricks and weights which were hidden inside the wetsuits,” Ramos said. “People who watch it usually don’t know what’s happening, they think that the images are made by computer.”
The Ocean Brothers- Freediving (270k views) http://t.co/ivlG627JEg #5After5 pic.twitter.com/igmvX4uRFK
— m/SIX Agency (@MSIXagency) December 1, 2014
The illusions took three years to record, as the freedivers were forced to wait for optimal conditions, according to Barcroft TV. At one point, filming was suspended for a year, due to an active underwater volcano in the region.
“The location is not always calm and we had to wait for the correct moment for several months at a time,” Ramos noted.
As the video begins, one of the divers can be seen running on the surface of the ocean, though in reality he is inverted underwater. In another segment, a diver sits cross-legged on the water in a similar fashion, before one of them is filmed flying through the underwater world wearing a Superman-like cape. In the final scenes of the video, one of the divers walks along a rock face, and is pulled out of the sea in a scene reminiscent of the iconic portal from Stargate.
A freediver performs an illusion of walking underwater in El Hierro, Canary Islands. © Ocean Brothers/Barcroft Media pic.twitter.com/OwwVyLgGRK
— Barcroft_Media (@Barcroft_Media) November 20, 2014
Earlier this year, a group of freedivers in the Atlantic filmed a far different experience while underwater. As the Inquisitr previously reported, one of the divers was rammed by a whale shark, unaware that the animal was behind him until the last second.
The underwater illusions created by the Ocean Brothers reveal not only the astonishing beauty of the world below the surface, but also the full potential of their skill as freedivers.
[Image: Barcroft Media via the Daily Mail]
