 I was one day with the tourists and I saw the hammerheads and I wanted to go see them and I did something very stupid. I held my breath so the bubbles didn't scare the sharks and really you might end up losing consciousness down there, you know? I cannot shoot up because then I get the compression sickness and you know you can end up in a wheelchair. So I start coming up and then I start losing my consciousness and then eventually I said let yourself die, you're not going to make it so why don't you just let yourself go and it's going to be peaceful, you know? Thankfully my survivor inside me said no, no, no, just get out, get out, don't let yourself go, you know? That took me a while to recover from that thing. That was very bad. That was very, very bad, you know? Let me drink some water. The job we do, the beauty is created for us. The things are there, we just train in different ways mentally and physically to capture dance. Sometimes filming is like you are dealing with some willing dancers, good dancers, all of them and you are one of them sometimes, you know? It's super exciting, you know? It's like oh my god, it's like a dance of life and death happening in front of you. I'm so excited that I'm unable to hold my breath for a very long time. When you're dealing with an animal that doesn't think like you or with an event that is unfolding that you don't know how it's going to go some things might take risks, but I cannot help it. You're one of them when you are in the water and you are in their terms and you have to respect them. Sometimes they choose you even, you know? And that's amazing. Beautiful, isn't it? Professional cinematography looks very glamorous from the outside, but it's difficult and not everybody is made for it. All the reading of nature, reading of animals, myself, the water, very absorbing, you know, you have to do a lot of stuff in your mind and physically. We have to be really in good shape physically to be able to do this job and a big component of what we do is physical. It's not a hobby, it's a beauty. What kind of research do you do? A lot, man. Being an underwater cinematographer coming from where I come from, you have to give up things and you have to risk a lot. You came from Cuba, I had zero. I spent all my money traveling, getting experience, going to dive and many, many times I had $20 in my whole world. I never had a mentor. I learned, I think because the gods, let's call it that way, put the things in my road for me to gather the knowledge along the way and, you know, get to where I am today. Sometimes in the more experience you are, the more comfortable you feel as bad sometimes. That leads to disaster and I was led to disaster a few times. We were in Costa Rica filming spinner dolphins, thousands of dolphins. You go very fast with the scooter underwater, super fast speed because if the scooter is not fast enough the dolphin could get bored and leave. It was very choppy, the water was windy, big waves and it's getting late in the day and the boat might not be able to find my bubbles from the surface. When I got out I couldn't see the boat no more. I had to inflate some signaling device and after two, three minutes down there I knew I should be heading up but it was so beautiful, but that can cost your life. I mean, people die. You still go in the water because that's what you're made for is you can't help it. So you learn to go back in the water and try again, so you try again. I feel extremely compelled to film too. I think we are hunters, genetically hunters. I don't hunt with weapons, I hunt lights and shadows. Now I send footage to Arlist and they put it out there for the world to use. Not only for documentaries, other people use it for other stuff for conservation, they use it for installation. I can feel proud to have my footage there. I began to discover the sea when I was a kid, you know. And the sea was my calling. I was built for this. The fact that I can do that is freedom. Remember, I come from a country you are not free. You have no freedom there. When I'm doing that, I am me at my best in my total absolute freedom. That's like paradise on earth and that's when I have my wings open in the widest extension. It's like, okay, I'm blessed right now. This is what I live for.