Agathe Chardon

A breath of the sea

Saint-Briac-sur-Mer

Agathe Chardon spent most of her childhood underwater, between the English Channel and the Gulf of Guinea. These days, she’s still evolving in the same element, sharing her passion at her freediving school, Liquide, while raising awareness on the irreplaceable riches of Brittany’s maritime ecosystems.

©Agathe Chardon, Ecole d'apnee Liquide|VILLALON Elodie

Ocean depths sometimes bring forth light

Agathe was only 18 when she made her first scuba dive in a swimming pool. She didn’t know it then, but the experience, which she’d spent years waiting for without getting permission from her parents, would become her lifeline.

Yet even though she didn’t come from a family of sailors, Agathe had always been attracted to the sea. When she was only 7, landing net in hand, she’d wait impatiently for low tide so that she could go shrimp fishing.

After six years of working overseas as a diving guide in Thailand, Indonesia and Mozambique, Agathe finally decided to return to Brittany, near her birthplace, determined to make diving her lifelong career.

Start from scratch and redo her qualifications so as to be able to practise: that was the challenge! She obtained her deckhand and freediving certificates in just six months and founded Liquide in Saint-Briac-sur-Mer, one of Brittany’s few permanent non-associative freediving schools.

Agathe immediately set about breathing life into her school. No question of simply limiting it to learning pure freediving and spearfishing techniques.

“Brittany’s underwater ecosystem is at the heart of what we teach. Freediving is there to open our eyes to its precious yet unstable character. It invites us to protect it.”

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For today, and for tomorrow when she’ll no longer be able to dive as much as she wants, Agathe would like to pass on what she knows about freediving’s benefits to health, in particular with regard to states of stress and depression, due to the power of breath.

In addition to her educational activities, Agathe practises spearfishing and scallop fishing, taking delight in her encounters with sharks, whales, undulate rays and her favourites, gurnards. Ask her about her confrontation with a local monkfish in Saint Quay Portrieux: she made quite a strong impression on it!

Nor does she hide how much pleasure she takes in exploring sunken ships, such as the wreck of the Fetlar behind Cézembre Island to the west of Saint-Malo – visits that are so many dreamlike diving experiences.

This place, so far away from the noise and turmoil of earthly life, Agathe has made it her own. Those precious times, spent in open spaces in the middle of nowhere, provide her with revitalising breaks. Enough to catch her breath so as to dive back down again refreshed. Splash!

Souffleurs de Breizh - portrait d'Agathe Chardon de Liquide École d'Apnée

Practical information

Plage de longchamp,
Saint-Briac-sur-Mer 35800
liquideapnee.com
@liquide.apnee