Vrelo diving club to disclose details of three world records in Matka cave

The Vrelo cave diving club will hold a press conference at 9:00 on October 17, 2026, at its Matka base camp to disclose the precise results of the "Vrelo 2026" expedition, during which the team says it set three new world records in cave diving.

Club representatives announced the expedition has concluded and that records were claimed in three categories: deepest cave explored by a person, deepest cave dive, and deepest open‑water depth dive. The exact depth measurements and full expedition details will be released at the briefing.

Background and objectives

The "Vrelo 2026" operation ran from October 10 to October 17, 2026, in the Vrelo underwater cave in the Matka canyon. The stated goal was to surpass the existing record and to investigate depths greater than 300 metres.

Vrelo has been the subject of several notable explorations: Luigi Casati reached 212 metres, Krzysztof Starnawski reached 242 metres, and in 2025 Bartlomiej Pitala and his team reached 287 metres. Based on those figures, the cave has been ranked as the third deepest explored underwater cave in the world, after Font Estramar in France (312 metres) and Elefante Bianco in Italy (292 metres).

The press conference at the club's Matka base camp is expected to provide the exact reached depth, technical details of the dives and the team members involved. Journalists and interested members of the public were invited to attend the 9:00 briefing on October 17, 2026.

Photo: press material from the event