Kolosy 2018 was handed out - photo report

If you are wondering how big the Kolosy Awards event is, we would like to quickly give you an answer: there were as many people at one presentation as there were people who went to the Podwodna Przygoda (Underwater Adventure) fair in total… Last weekend thousands of people from all over Poland went to Gdynia for the 20th round Kolosy.

A very rich and interesting programme, characters of travellers and a sea of stories caused long queues in front of the Arena, and those who arrived only around 2 p.m. in many cases left empty-handed or did not have the patience to stand for more than 2 hours.

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Admission to all presentations both in the Gdynia Arena and in the building of the Pomeranian Science and Technology Park was free.

The Colossus Jubilee event ended on Sunday and the honourees included:

1) Anna Czerwińska – Super Kolos, for her achievements as the first Polish woman to win the Crown of the Earth
2) Aleksander Doba, known to us, for the achievement of the Year, that is the third (and according to Aleksander the last) solo crossing of the Atlantic Ocean by kayak.
3) Romuald Koperski, for crossing the Atlantic Ocean solo in a rowboat
4) Kamila Kielar, for crossing the Pacific Crest Trial
5) Michał Kiełbasiński, for the Yukon Trail and the Alaska Sled Dog Trail

Full list of winners

I spent almost the whole Saturday at the Colossus, choosing the presentations that were more interesting to me, the ones that could hook into the diving theme. Among others, I attended the lecture “Andamans. Tropical winter of the forest people”.

Tom Ramczykowski talked about “heavenly beaches” and the tropical forest of paradise islands. He also explained (and showed) why wooden gazebos have corrugated metal roofs. They protect against coconuts!

The author mentioned the turquoise-blue waters surrounding the archipelago, the abundance of fish, and said that these places are ideal for diving. Later, after the presentation, when we had talked for a while, he admitted that he had been scuba diving several times and that the life under the water was unbelievably rich.

The only diving accent was the screening of the film Krzysztof Starnawski. The subject matter? You know what Starnawski likes: “Mexico – an eldorado for cave divers”.

The audience awarded Piotr Strzeżysz’s presentation entitled “Breaking away from the earth. The audience awarded the presentation by Piotr Strzeżysz titled “To break away from the earth. By bike from Patagonia to Alsaka”. Piotr tells a good and concise story and chooses his photos and footage in such a way that he often evokes peals of laughter, which the participants liked.

Mountaineering, sailing, cycling. These fields dominate at Kolosy. I really missed the diving presentations. I myself travel by diving and I’m sure that we have in our diving circle a few people who could easily cope with such a colossal lecture (and stage fright), and could also amaze many participants with an interesting story, great photos and the level of difficulty.

Travel festivals are the perfect place to promote diving as such. Thousands of people eager and open to new inspiration, because Kolosy inspires, that’s for sure.

At one time there were 4,500 people in the Arena. In total, it is estimated that a minimum of 20,000 came through Colossi.