Press Release
Received from: Buddy Dive

Buddy Dive Launches Bonaire Shore Diver Specialty Course

Buddy Dive

Buddy Dive Resort Bonaire is introducing the Bonaire Shore Diver Specialty Course, a unique new program designed to help certified divers safely and confidently experience Bonaire's world-renowned shore diving. Developed in-house by Buddy Dive Resort Bonaire, the Bonaire Shore Diver Specialty Course is designed specifically around the unique conditions and diving culture that make Bonaire a world-renowned shore diving destination.

Press Release
Received from: Buddy Dive

Dive Rite Technical Training Strengthens Buddy Dive Resort's Technical Diving Team Ahead of Bonaire TeK 2026

Buddy Dive
Dive Rite

The training formed part of Buddy Dive Resort's ongoing commitment to investing in its Technical Diving Department and ensuring its team remains trained to the highest professional standards. By working with leading industry professionals and brands such as Dive Rite, and staying current with the latest CCR technology and equipment, Buddy Dive continues to strengthen its technical diving capabilities and deliver premium service and expertise to its guests.

X-RAY MAGAZINE FEATURE

Maldives Recovery: Exclusive Interview With DAN Europe’s Laura Marroni and Sami Paakkarinen

It made headlines worldwide. Five Italian divers died in a cave in the Vaavu Atoll in the Maldives. On behalf of DUIKEN magazine (the biggest diving magazine of the Netherlands and Belgium), editor Patrick Kranenbroek spoke with Laura Marroni, CEO of DAN Europe, and Sami Paakkarinen, a member of the Finnish recovery team.

Words:
Interview by Patrick Kranenbroek
Images:
DAN Europe and Sami Paakkarinen
Team of Italian divers who died in a Maldives cave
➥ Download the full article as pdf ⬅︎
Tech and Training

The team of five Italian divers who died in a cave in the Maldives included (clockwise) Monica Montefalcone, an associate professor of ecology at the University of Genoa, her daughter Giorgia Sommacal, instructor Gianlunca Benedetti, researcher Muriel Oddenino and marine biologist Federico Gualtieri. 

 

Laura Marroni, CEO, DAN Europe

First of all, when DAN Europe became aware of the accident, what were the very first priorities in organising the rescue and recovery operation?

X-RAY MAGAZINE FEATURE

Crucible, Part I: A Deep Dive Into the Early Days of Technical Diving

Today, when you execute planned decompression stop dives using mixed gas and multiple gases, with open-circuit or closed-circuit hardware, in the caves of Florida, Russia or Mexico, the wrecks of Scapa Flow, the Great Lakes or Truk, the abandoned flooded mines of Finland and South Africa or the walls of Palau—whichever of the alphabet soup of agencies trained you in this kind of diving—you will be carrying the same equipment, configured in one of a few recognised, accepted and well-tried ways, and using similar combinations of gases, decompression tables and procedures. Simon Pridmore has the story.

Words:
Simon Pridmore
Images:
Advanced nitrox diving
➥ Download the full article as pdf ⬅︎
Tech and Training

Ed. – In this two-part series, we present one chapter, called “Crucible”, from Simon Pridmore’s book, Technically Speaking: Talks on Technical Diving, Volume 1: Genesis and Exodus, which draws the bolts and picks the locks on the vaults in which are stored the memories of a time in the not-so-distant past, when the sport of scuba diving was on the cusp of change. It is a deep, deep dive into the early days of technical diving that explores how it all happened, why it all happened and who made it all happen.

 

Maldives Cave Tragedy Probe Widens

Italian prosecutors are seeking dive equipment, cameras and records from the Maldives as investigators attempt to reconstruct the fatal cave dive that claimed six lives in May.

Cave diving tragedy in the Maldives
Tech and Training

The investigation into the Maldives cave-diving disaster that killed five Italian divers and one Maldivian rescuer is expanding, with Italian prosecutors formally requesting equipment, cameras and documentation from Maldivian authorities as part of an ongoing culpable manslaughter inquiry.

Update: Rescuers Find Five of the People Trapped in the Flooded Laos Cave

Rescuers from Laos and Thailand, who have been working to reach seven people trapped inside a flooded cave system in northern Laos, in an incident drawing comparisons with the 2018 Thai cave rescue, have located five people alive, reports on Facebook show.

Tech and Training

Emergency teams, which have been racing to reach seven people trapped inside a cave in Laos after heavy rainfall caused rising water levels to block their exit routes, have now found five people alive.

According to international news reports, the group became stranded inside the cave system last week when sudden flooding cut off access passages and complicated rescue efforts. Thai cave rescue specialists have since joined local authorities in the operation.

DAN-Led Recovery Mission Concludes After Maldives Cave Diving Tragedy

A week of coordinated search and recovery operations in the Maldives has concluded following the deaths of five Italian divers and a Maldivian rescue diver in a flooded cave system in Vaavu Atoll.

Patrik, Sami and Jenni
Tech and Training

DAN Europe and Maldivian authorities have released a detailed preliminary reconstruction of the recovery operation following the cave diving tragedy at Dhekunu Kandu, also known as Thinwana Kandu, in the Maldives.

Over four operational days between 18 and 21 May, an international recovery mission involving DAN Europe, the Maldives National Defence Force, Maldivian police diving units and a Finnish specialist cave-diving team successfully located and recovered all four missing divers from inside the cave system.

Specialist Cave Divers Locate Victims in Maldives Tragedy

Finnish cave divers have successfully located the remaining victims in the Maldives cave diving tragedy, highlighting the extreme complexity of deep overhead-environment recovery operations.

Sami Paakkarinen and Jenni Westerlund
Tech and Training

DAN Europe confirmed on 18 May that a specialist international search and recovery team successfully completed the first operational cave dive at the Dhekunu Kandu site in Vaavu Atoll, where five Italian divers died earlier this month.

According to DAN, the three-member recovery team located all four remaining missing victims during a technical cave penetration dive lasting approximately three hours.

Six Dead in Maldives Cave Diving Tragedy

Five Italian divers and a rescue diver have died following a cave diving accident in the Maldives, one of the deadliest diving incidents reported in the region in recent years.

Five Italian divers and a rescue diver have died following a cave diving tragedy in the Maldives, one of the deadliest incidents of its kind in recent years.
Tech and Training

Authorities in the Maldives confirmed that five Italian divers lost their lives during a cave dive, while a rescue diver later died during efforts to recover the bodies.

According to official statements and international news reports, the group became trapped inside an underwater cave system during a dive near Vaavu Atoll. Poor weather and difficult underwater conditions complicated the subsequent search-and-recovery operation.

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