Polish Diver Reaches 338 Metres in North Macedonia's Vrelo Cave, a Claimed Depth Record

The whole operation took about nine hours, Divernet said, with Pitala using sidemount closed-circuit rebreathers and underwater scooters. Rebreathers recycle the diver's breathing gas, which is what makes long, deep exploration practical at all, but they add complexity that has to be managed with discipline and redundancy.

What safety support stood behind the dive?

This was not one person alone in the dark. Fifteen divers from North Macedonia, Poland and Italy took part, and twelve safety divers were positioned at different depths, Metla reported. More than 30 gas cylinders and spare batteries had been staged in the cave beforehand. Macedonian divers built an air-filled habitat about 8 to 9 metres down and 130 metres from the entrance, where divers could rest during their long decompression stops.

On the surface the team had a hyperbaric chamber, an emergency medical team, speedboats and divers from the Tigar special unit, with an interior ministry helicopter unit on standby. Decompression is the slow release of dissolved gas from the body on the way up, and at these depths it dominates the schedule. This is journalism, not instruction: nothing here is a dive plan, and technical cave diving belongs to people with years of progressive training under certified instructors and agencies.

What else did the expedition find?

The team also found two previously unknown channels and explored more than 150 metres of new passage, Metla said. One lies about 300 metres from the entrance at 33 metres depth, and the other, at 170 metres depth, links to the main deep channel at 185 metres. On 18 October, North Macedonia's president, Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova, met the team and congratulated them, Republika reported.

The test now is verification. Depth claims at this level need to be checked against the recorded data, and the coming months will show whether the 338 metre mark is accepted and whether Vrelo goes deeper still. For the people who dive it, the cave is described as crystal clear at about 15 degrees Celsius, and its depth is still unfinished.