Three years ago, Jorge Perez Ortiz was on a small wooden boat travelling from Cartagena in Colombia to a group of nearby islands when the sea became unexpectedly rough. As a strong wave hit, Ortiz, sitting at the bow, felt his body lift and come down sharply on his seat. The sudden impact fractured a vertebra. He was taken to hospital and underwent emergency surgery.
“I’ve always been captivated by the power of water and the sense of freedom and escape one feels when diving into it,” Ortiz says, “but until that point, I’d never considered the other side of this freedom and the risks it carries.”
