Polish diver sets world record with 338 m cave dive in Vrelo at Matka
Bartlomiej Pitala reached 338 metres in Vrelo at Matka; ascent and staged decompression took almost nine hours.
Polish diver Bartlomiej Pitala descended to a depth of 338 metres in the underwater Vrelo cave at Matka, reaching what organisers describe as the deepest human exploration of an underwater cave to date.
The dive took place during an international expedition that brought together divers from Poland, North Macedonia and Italy. Pitala pushed beyond last year’s guideline, which reached 287 metres, and explored previously uncharted sections of the cave.
Decompression and logistics
At 338 metres Pitala decided not to risk continuing even though the tunnel kept descending. He wrote after the dive: "I was the person who reached the deepest."
His time below 300 metres lasted roughly a minute and a half, but the ascent proved far more complicated. Returning to the surface required almost nine hours in total, including more than eight hours of staged decompression.
The expedition included seven support divers and the team placed over 25 safety cylinders inside the cave. For emergencies, a helicopter and a hyperbaric chamber were on standby in Skopje.
The achievement has focused international cave-diving attention on Vrelo at Matka. Explorations of its submerged passages continue, but extreme pressure, technical constraints and long decompression schedules make each mission highly complex and hazardous.
Photo: press material from the event
