GEPN: Summary of 2013 - report

On the 14th of December, the Exploring Podwarszawskie Diving Group invited all interested parties to sum up this year. I was pleased that this time, the excellent conductor of the group, Kamil “Jakuza” Jaczyński invited me to do and lead a short lecture that would neatly summarize this year with GEPN. It was my first year with GEPN, starting somewhere around April, and here I was, about to sum up this year of the group’s activity on the Mazovian scene.

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So I prepared for the task as best I could. I collected all the relevant information, photos, videos and reports that appeared on the Facebook fanpage and the official website gepn.pl. I counted, added, subtracted, multiplied and divided and it came out that GEPN is unique in Poland, if not Europe, and maybe even worldwide.

The group was very active this year, it was very active in various environmental actions, it made a lot of noise about diving in the Mazovia region, and contributed to the general buzz around diving. I am very fond of these activities, because some time ago I gave myself a task – a mission (quest!), that will bravely and strongly promote diving in Poland, and this is what GEPN does – it shows that in Poland you can dive, that it is cool diving, not always extreme. In addition, it is possible to dive in the Mazovia region, which for many may come as a serious shock.

So let’s close out this 2013 year with GEPN in some numbers:

In total, more than 20 dives under the GEPN banner:

– 2 major environmental events with the support of local authorities and communities
– 8 events not only for divers (including some of international rank)
– 21 organised joint dives
– up to 31 divers participating in one event
– up to 55 registered non-divers participating in a GEPN event

And where we dived:

– at least 10 dives in Zielonka
– at least 3 visits to Fort Zbarż (I finally have to visit this reservoir, my friends at the meeting told me a lot of good things about it)
– at least 3 visits to Mammoth Lake (this year, the lake did not impress with its viscosity, and I was told that it was better, we will see next year)
– 2 dives in Glinianka Cietrzewia (not a great pleasure, because the visibility there is rather poor, but diving practically in the centre of the capital is something!)
– In total, up to 9 sites visited (including the last one in Moczydło Park)

It really is a solid piece of work. Let’s remember that the group is informal, it’s just a spontaneous initiative not aiming at any profit or advertising. Of course, thanks to Kamil, GEPN is quite well known. Kamil, a man with a lot of experience in public relations, knows how to make the right noise, where to call and who to talk to. GEPN has been featured on several radio stations, on local and national television, not to mention on the Internet.

This is what I told the audience that filled the hall at the Faculty of Archaeology at the University of Warsaw. I showed them the whole calendar of GEPN events for this year with a short commentary and at the end I showed them a video summary of the year. I was delighted with the reaction of the gathered people, especially Kamil, who was genuinely touched. There was, there wasn’t, the daddy of the whole affair. Maybe not the only daddy, because there are said to have been several daddies of GEPN, but nowadays you can see in GEPN’s activities mainly his capable hand.

So thank you Kamil for this fantastic year, for joint dives, for joint events to which you invited me not only as a participant but also as organizer support. Next year ahead of us, I hope it will be equally intense and interesting. Anyone who still does not believe in successful diving in Poland, and even more so in the vicinity of the capital, I warmly invite to contact us. It is possible and it can be done with great pleasure.

Source: diverskolog.pl