‘Like a kindergarten for divers’: 45-meter deep diving pool opens in Poland

MSZCZONOW, Poland: A 45.5-meter-deep dive pool with artificial underwater caves and Mayan ruins, the deepest structure in the world, opened near Warsaw this weekend.

The complex, called Deepspot, even includes a small wreck for divers and free divers to explore.

It has 8,000 cubic meters of water, more than 20 times the amount of a normal 25 meter pool.

Unlike normal swimming pools, Deepspot can be opened despite COVID-19 restrictions in Poland because it is a training center that offers courses.

There is also a hotel with rooms from which guests can watch divers from a depth of 5 m.

“It’s the deepest pool in the world,” Deepspot director Michal Braszczynski, a 47-year-old diving enthusiast, told AFP at the opening on Saturday.

The current Guinness World Record holder is located in Montegrotto Terme in Italy and is 42 meters deep.

The Blue Abyss pool that is planned to open in Britain in 2021 will be 50 meters deep.

About a dozen clients arrived on day one, including eight experienced divers hoping to pass an exam to become instructors.

“There are no great fish or coral reefs here, so it is not a substitute for the sea, but it is definitely a good place to learn and train in order to dive safely in open water,” said Przemyslaw Kacprzak, 39. diving instructor.

“And it’s fun! It’s like a kindergarten for divers!”

Jerzy Nowacki, a 30-year-old forestry officer and newbie to scuba diving, said: “For the first time, we went down 5 meters, but you can see all the way to the bottom, the wreckage, the caves, it’s magnificent!”

Braszczynski said the pool “will also be used by firefighters and the army. There are many scenarios for training and we can also try different equipment.”

About 5,000 cubic meters of concrete were used during the two-year construction of the pool and cost around 40 million zloty ($ 10.6 million).