Space Dive - Conquering New Horizons

Despite the limitations from spinal cord injury, last month divers from the IAHD Adriatic -International Association for Handicapped Divers Adriatic (a member of CMAS) made good on the opportunity of a lifetime — diving in Russia’s Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center (GCTC).

“This opportunity was the first of its kind in the world for disabled divers,” adds Anna Arzhanova, the new president of CMAS.

Located in Star City, Russia (Zvyozdny Gorodok), the GCTC is one of the most unique dive environments in the world, named after Yuri Gagarin, the first human being in space. The GCTC allowed the Suunto-equipped divers into an area where few divers have ever been– it’s the same place that Russian cosmonauts train for operations in the weightlessness of space.  The indoor dive tank is a massive 5,000 cubic meters in volume, 12 meters in depth, and offers 45 viewing windows. It houses unique sights for scuba divers, including full-size mockups of Russian space station modules.

The team of sixteen divers ( Ales Povse, Damjan Peklar, Barbara Slacek, Zoran Wlah, Peter Majcen, Alenka Fidler,Urska Gajsek, Nevenka and Katarina Pece, Tomaz Bobik, Blaz Ribic, Gaber Guna, Rajko Prelog, Petar Peresnik, Matjaz Paj and Branko Ravnak)spent an hour in the crystal clear water of the hydrolab examining space modules, together with Nikita Vankov, the first Russian wheelchair diver to be certified by CMAS/CRASA.

The team was supplied with a range of Suunto diving instruments, including the Suunto D4i, Suunto D6i, and the Suunto D9tx. Diving product manager for Suunto, Anna de Torres, shares excitement for the IAHD Adriatic divers. "The group is so inspiring, and we're very happy to have supported them in this unique project,” she says.