The Amazing Karen van den Oever - world's deepest diving woman - Diving Talks 2023 speakers

Before we meet in Lisbon in October at Diving Talks 2023, it is worth getting to know better the invited speakers, so today we are introducing you to the figure of the world’s deepest diving woman Karen Van Den Oever!

Deepest diving female

Originally from Johannesburg, South Africa, Karen Van Den Oever is a cave and trimix diver and diving instructor. She holds a degree in science from the University of the Witwatersrand. Together with her husband, Francois Bain, they founded and run the company Somewhere Out There Diving. They focus on unusual, expedition diving and exploration dives as part of their operations.

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Karen’s great passion is advanced technical and cave diving. On March 26, 2021, her love for this type of diving turned into a magnificent result – she set a new women’s world record for the deepest cave dive. In South Africa’s legendary Boesmansgat cave, Karen Van Den Oever descended to a depth of 236.04 meters, breaking the 17-year-old record held by her compatriot Verna van Schaik. She became the deepest diving female and she also sets womens deep cave diving record. However, this was not the last of her achievements on this field, because just a year and a half later, on October 27, 2022. Karen broke her own record, reaching a depth of 246.56 meters.

This was a dive that I have been working towards for a long time. It was a challenging dive. You train not for the dives that go well but for when things don’t go well. I decided to turn at 236 meters/774 feet, as my intuition told me that this was where I needed to stop – said Karen Van Den Oever.

In addition to her great passion for complex technical diving, she is very enthusiastic about sharing her knowledge. The best proof of this is her attendance on October 6-8 in Lisbon during Diving Talks 2023, where she will give her lecture.

Diving Talks 2023

If you’re passionate about technical diving and dives to extreme depths, then it’s definitely worth learning from Karen van den Oever. The Diving Talks 2023 diving congress will be a great opportunity to do so, so book your tickets and plan your stay in Lisbon today!

The organizers have announced that they expect 8 to 10 panels, talks and debates that will cover the most exciting topics. So it should come as no surprise that they expect more than 300 attendees from around the world and 25,000 online participants.

Diving talks 2023 is the international diving show, that will bring to Portugal the world’s leading divers, showing their best of the best recent achievements. It is definitely a unique opportunity to take part in one of the most important diving events of the year, and at the same time get to know beautiful Lisbon and dive in Portuguese waters.