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Krzysztof Starnawski (born 1968) is a Polish technical and cave diver and International Association of Nitrox and Technical Divers (IANTD), Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques (CMAS), French Federation of Speleology (FFS) diving instructor.
- Overview
- What did you hope to achieve on this expedition?
- How did your dive and the ROV’s search for the bottom unfold?
- Why did you opt to deploy an ROV at that point, instead of diving farther down?
- What was going through your mind during your dive?
- How did you verify the new record?
- After diving to a depth of 200 meters, how long did you have to sit in the decompression chamber near the surface? How did you pass the time?
Czech-Polish expedition overcomes dive challenges to get to the bottom of a European abyss.
A team of explorers in the Czech Republic has just discovered the world’s deepest underwater cave. The legendary Polish diver Krzysztof Starnawski, leading a Czech-Polish expedition supported in part by a National Geographic grant, found on September 27 that the flooded limestone abyss measures 404 meters (1,325 feet) deep.
That beats the previous record holder, 392-meter (1,286-foot) Pozzo del Merro in Italy, by 12 meters (39 feet).
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Starnawski first explored the Czech cave, named Hranická Propast, in 1999. The limestone formation developed in an unusual way, he told National Geographic last year, that suggested it could extend down a great distance: hot water saturated with carbon dioxide bubbled up like a volcano, which wore away the rock from the bottom up. The team said the water made their exposed skin itch.
Over the past two years, Starnawski completed dives that offered further clues. In 2014, he reached a depth of 200 meters (656 feet)—which he thought was the bottom. Instead, he found an extremely narrow opening called a “squeeze passage” that led to another vertical tunnel, pitch-black and circled by rough limestone. He lowered a probe through the tunnel and ran out of line at 384 meters (1,260 feet), just shy of the Italian cave’s limit.
The dive on September 27 was one in the long series of dives that I did in the last 20 years in Hranická Propast. They all had the same goal: to explore the cave further and deeper. As the expedition leader for the last several years, I've prepared the equipment and the route in and out for the ROV’s dive, so the ROV could go beyond the limits of a...
During this push, the most important part of the job was done by the robot. I scuba dived down to 200 meters just before the ROV’s deployment to put in the new line for the robot to follow. The goal was to give the ROV a good start from there to the deepest part of the cave. I came back to the surface, and then we went down with the robot to a dept...
My intention was not to achieve the deepest dive by a human, but to assist the exploration by the ROV. In this cave we wanted to explore beyond the 400-meter limit. It can't be done, so far, by a scuba diver in the cave. So I invited Bartlomiej Grynda from GRALmarine, with his custom-built ROV, to send the robot as deep as possible to explore the c...
I'm always focused on the task. I've been to this cave many times before, and a dozen times to the depth of approximately 200 meters, so I felt pretty confident. The goal for this particular dive was to make the ROV operation smooth, easy, and most effective. This time that meant showing the robot the way through the cave.
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The ROV that reached 404 meters has a depth gauge that was tested and certified by our state commission, so we are 100 percent sure the measurements were accurate.
In the dry decompression bell that is underwater, I spend between two and four hours. And it's 40 percent of the entire dive time. Usually I read. I laminate book pages to prevent paper from being destroyed by water. Crime stories and political thrillers are good reads!
Sep 4, 2015 · Record-setting diver Krzysztof Starnawski leads a Polish team currently exploring a flooded cave in the Czech Republic that may be the world’s deepest.
Krzysztof Starnawski (ur. 1968) – polski sportowiec ekstremalny, płetwonurek, speleolog, taternik, ratownik TOPR. Specjalizuje się w nurkowaniu w jaskiniach oraz nurkowaniu pod lodem. Życiorys.
Sep 30, 2016 · The team, led by Polish diver Krzysztof Starnawski, managed to reach a depth of 404 metres (1,325 feet) using a remotely operated vehicle (ROV), which means this limestone cavern is 12 metres (39 feet) deeper than the second deepest underwater cave that we know of - Italy's Pozzo del Merro.
Oct 4, 2016 · Polish explorer Krzysztof Starnawski, who led the team, told The Associated Press Friday he felt like a “Columbus of the 21th century” to have made the discovery. Starnawski, 48, found the...
Polish explorer Krzysztof Starnawski, who led the team, told The Associated Press on Friday that he felt like a “Columbus of the 21th century” to have made the discovery near the Czech town of Hranice.
