European penetration record at Doux de Coly


Welcome to the web page about the setting of the European cave penetration record that took place August 9th 2001 by a pan-European team of divers. All dives were directed using the DIR-philosophy developed by the Floridian cave diving team WKPP.

The concept of using redundant rebreathers for cave diving was originally introduced by Olivier Isler with his RI 2000.

Thank you to...
We would like to thank Olivier Isler for his previous dives and for putting the line to 4300 m.

We would also like to thank George Irvine and Jarrod Jablonski and all other members of the WKPP for sharing their experience and thoughts prior to this dive.

The Doux de Coly is one of the most spectacular cave systems in the south west of France.
The last push dive here was done around 3 years ago by Olivier Isler using his triple-redundant RI2000 rebreather during a solo dive, reaching 4300 m.
He left the end of the line in 30 m depth with a max depth of 60 m during the dive.

(Please click on the profile for a larger version)






Dr. Reinhard Buchaly was there during Isler's dive and thus was familiar with the dive site before this project