Montreal real estate broker and model breaks Guinness record for underwater photo shoot

2023 was an epic year for Montreal real estate broker Kim Bruneau.

The year began with the birth of her first child and ended with her breaking the Guinness World Record after posing 40 metres underwater on the sea floor.

The 38-year-old model and philanthropist broke the record with photographer Pia Oyarzun in Nassau, Bahamas, during a photoshoot of 40.2 metres (131 feet) underwater.

"Although I was very nervous when I got there, when I saw my team and the security divers, all my fears went away. The conditions were perfect. The water was a mirror; you could barely differentiate the water from the horizon," she told CTV News. "It was like all the stars aligned for this special moment."

• IN PHOTOS: Kim Bruneau and Pia Oyarzun's photographic journey underwater breaks record

She apeared in the photos without any breathing equipment, but used scuba gear to breathe between takes.

To pose for the record-breaking photos, "she had to remove her mask and hold her breath between each shot taken by underwater photographer and colleague, Pia [Oyarzun]," Guinness wrote on its site.

Bruneau posted a recap of the 37-minute dive and shoot below the submerged Sea Trader wreck.

"I went down with enriched air until 30 meters (100 feet), just below the Sea Trader wreck off of Nassau, while the other divers used regular air tanks. Once at that depth, I removed my fins and my scuba diving equipment and went down the last 10 meters (30 feet) using @captnixon242's octopus (a secondary demand valve that is a common alternate air source that allows you to share air from your scuba tank with any other diver in need). I only kept a weight belt hidden under my skirt and placed all the weights in the back so they wouldn't show."

Kim Bruneau posed 40 metres underwater and broke the Guinness World Record in the Bahamas. SOURCE: Kim Bruneau

Once in her spot, Oyarzun swam below her and started shooting.

The pics include Bruneau in a white ballerina dress walking in and around the submerged oil tanker that was purposely sunk to create an artificial reef. She first visited the wreck two years ago and decided to go back for a shoot.

"If someone had told me that two years later I would be going down into the abyss, hanging on its wall, to pose for a world record I probably would've laughed frivolously," she wrote on Instagram.

The shoot, as Bruneau described, had to be quick to avoid decompression illness and nitrogen narcosis, due to them being below 100 feet.

She was assisted by a security diver who would swim over and provide air when she needed it, Bruneau wrote.

"Since without a mask, I can't see anything, if Pia wants to signal me something, I quickly put it back on, but otherwise, I simply trust Stephen to bring me air and take me to the correct spot for me to pose." she wrote. "It's better if I don't swim to avoid exhausting myself, that way I can hold my breath for longer periods."

• LISTEN ON CJAD 800 Radio: Montrealer breaks Guinness record for underwater photo shoot

 

JOURNEYS TO DIVE AND TO GET PREGNANT

Bruneau's journey to the bottom of the ocean runs parallel to her pregnancy journey.

After unsuccessful fertility treatments in Canada, she went to a clinic in Mexico after a recommendation.

She suffered a surfing accident while there and instead decided to try underwater diving.

"I was like, I need to get better underwater, not just above water," she said.

After a freediving class, she was hooked and began exploring Mexico's underwater paradises.

With a complication related to her fertility treatment, Bruneau wound up in the hospital and had to hang up her fins.

Then she heard about a doctor in Florida, and again packed her bags.

"At that time, I was doing everything they tell you to help with your fertility, so acupuncture, massages, Chinese herbs, healers, you name it. I was trying everything to be relaxed, and it really just wasn't that relaxing for me because I guess I was putting a lot of stress into it," she said.

She learned to swim with sharks in Florida and got her master diver licence.

She met Oyarzun on Instagram and arranged to meet the photographer in the Bahamas to work together.

A miscarriage in Florida sparked another shift on her journey.

"After that, I said, 'I'm quitting all these other things to relax, to make me relax, and I'm just going to dive, and whatever happens, happens,'" she said. "I kept going with my treatments, and I got pregnant. Part of me truly believes that the diving helped me."

Kim Bruneau poses after getting pregnant. Her photographer Pia Oyarzun and the model are now Guinness World Record holders. SOURCE: Kim Bruneau

Feeling weightless in the silence underwater, she said, helped her to relax after so much stress surrounding her fertility treatments and miscarriage.

She said the same feeling returned when she was pregnant. Her daughter was very active in her belly, but when she was in the water, she stopped moving.

"But after that, when we got back on the boat, she started moving again," said Bruneau. "I think that it was very freeing for her also. Even for her, the fact that it was weightless, there was no gravity on my belly pressing on her, the water was cool, maybe the sound of the waves. These are all things that I find extremely relaxing and I feel that my baby felt the same. There's some sort of connection to the water." 

Underwater model Kim Bruneau began posing underwater after learning to dive in 2021. SOURCE: Kim Bruneau