On March 26, 2021, Karen Van den Oever dived to 236 meters in open circuit in the submerged cave of Bushmansgat, in the Northern Cape province of South Africa, with a bottom gas of 6/85, surpassing the previous cave diving record of 221 meters set by Verna van Schaik in 2004.
Karen, a 38-year-old South African, works in medical research for a pharmaceutical company and also runs a diving school with her husband – Somewhere Out There Diving (Swot Diving). She started scuba diving in 2001 and became interested in technical diving in 2006. Gradually, she accumulated experience and specific skills. She then felt confident enough to attempt the women’s deep diving record.
» I started technical diving under the guidance of Nuno Gomes at the Wits Underwater Club and continued my training when my husband and I created our own diving school. The idea of Swot Diving was to create a commercial entity for extraordinary diving trips, expeditions, explorations, which fit well with technical diving activities, in preparation for this world record attempt. »
She began training for this dive in the ocean at Sodwana Bay, where she reached a depth of 140 meters. She realized then that it would be too dangerous and logistically difficult to go much deeper in the ocean, in South Africa, given the state of the coast. She continued her progression at Komati Springs (a flooded mine) and at Boesmansgat.
» This record has been one of my personal goals since around 2004-2005, when Verna van Schaik and Nuno Gomes respectively broke the women’s and men’s depth records. I had the chance to know these two people and their achievements have been a great source of inspiration.
For this immersion, the journey is just as important as the record itself. To reach the point where I felt comfortable attempting this dive, I had to develop techniques and improve my skills and understanding of decompression theory. It was a personal challenge. And I’m still learning »
Training for this challenge really began in 2016, diving a little deeper over time until she successfully completed a 200-meter dive in February 2020. That was the last « test » to see if she could really attempt the record.
» On D-day, my « target » depth was 250 meters, but I decided to stop at 236 meters. I can’t really describe my sensations at that moment, I am very focused on the dive, on what I have to do, and my intuition tells me that this is where I should stop. It’s the hardest dive I’ve done to date.
I have considered several times diving with a rebreather. It would make this type of immersion much more cost-effective and logistically easier. But starting on a rebreather would have set me back a few steps and slowed my progress, so I decided to continue in open circuit. Now, I think I’ll take the plunge and look more seriously into the rebreather. »
Due to the Boesmansgat site configuration, a team of 14 people was necessary for logistics, both for emergencies that could have occurred, and for the support diving team at various depths. A hyperbaric doctor was also present and an individual recompression chamber ready to serve.
» I have no big plans for the moment, I think I won’t do anything much deeper than 150 meters for a while. I will consider moving to the rebreather and also focus on training and sharing the knowledge I have acquired during this adventure. »
The dive lasted 7 hours and 18 minutes, with only 15 minutes for the descent.
Marc Langleur
