Atlantis objective: 20 years… already…

Everything starts in Bordeaux, in 1989. Daniel Méouchy, then an executive at IBM, wanted to offer divers adventures off the beaten track. He imagines giving them the same emotions as treasure hunters… For the first edition, 12 teams, each coming with their tire and diving equipment, meet on the Lérins Islands. The partners do not jostle each other. It's up to us to prove ourselves! But for the first time, it is a success. The media coverage is significant, and for 3 years, we will continue to make our weapons in the Mediterranean, dreaming of hot water and white sand. In 1994, it is the year of tourism in Malaysia, and the country dreams of an event in scuba diving: it is for us…

1993, Cala Montjoi. Third year and first beautiful "galley". Our story is about the smuggling of wine, artwork and counterfeit money. We made 100-franc banknotes with Daniel's head instead of Delacroix and that of Luc, our bald cameraman photographer, in Freedom leading the people. All this on cut and glued paper, because we could not do double-sided printing. Well we have been reported to the Guardia Civil! Daniel had to go and explain, with his improbable Spanish, that these tickets were part of a game ...

The dream ! Malaysia rolls out the red carpet! We are moving more 100 people, including 60 participants and more than 20 journalists. The hunt becomes international, with English, Malaysian, Swiss, New Caledonian participants. Consequence: we have to translate the file in English, which limits us in our enigmas, because we can not play on words anymore. We embark on the ideograms.

Cuba, Ile de la Jeunesse, 1995. We are putting in place the last clues, the participants must take off from Paris in a few hours. Daniel receives a phone call from one of the main partners in the operation, the Cuban airline. She threatens not to land the plane in Paris and therefore to leave our participants, journalists and VIPs on the tarmac, if Daniel does not sign a new substantial check… Daniel will succeed in convincing them, but he will miss the passage of the shark -whale.

Upon our arrival on Ko Racha, one week before the participants, we wait in vain for the boats "long tails" which must help us to disembark. The pilots went on strike, protesting against the despotism of the boss of the resort where we will be staying. We will land on the other side of the island, swimming, pulling and pushing a bad youyou loaded with all our gear. The nickname of the beach: "Omaha Beach"!

There, it was SARS that forced us to postpone the treasure hunt for a year. And when we returned to Whale Island in 2004, the scenery was not quite the same. During the scouting in 2003, we found a magnificent strangler fig tree, which we had used as a landmark and described in the file. A year later, it had been transformed into charcoal… We had to install a sign: Here lies the strangling fig tree…

Since we go to distant lands, we no longer travel without our doctor, certified diving and tropical ailments. He treated: acanthaster bites, diadem sea urchin, pterois, stinging plankton, centipede, hornet, scorpion ... In this Prévert-style inventory, we will add the inevitable tourist, painful ears, renal colic crisis, acute sciatica, gastro, sores that become infected, heatstroke (treated by the Cuban doctor in a hyperbaric chamber, the equipment must be kept running!)… Rest assured, Doc Jacques succeeds anyway, apart from consultation schedules, to make a few forays underwater.

The organizing team is made up of volunteers who, over the course of a few months, become screenwriters, writers, cartographers, designers, potters, welders, handymen ... Not always easy! From the founding team, there are still a few pillars, joined by other friends depending on family life and availability…. around the great organizer… I named Daniel Méouchy. He finds destinations, seeks partners, organizes, contacts the media, gets people talking about the event, moves heaven and earth so that this great adventure continues. Not to mention all those who support us, former participants or not. I will not quote them, the list would be too long. I will only speak of Albert Falco, who has given us the pleasure and honor of his presence since the first edition.

ATLANTIS OBJECTIVE
on scuba people

Virginie BOREL
on scuba people

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