Mission Ostrava - Techmeeting 2018 - photo report

Last weekend , from 23-25 March 2018, the 20th anniversary technical diving conference Techmeeting was held in Ostrava, Czech Republic. The event has been organised for years by the technical diving organisation ASTD. This year, the conference venue was the Clarion Congress Hotel Ostrava.

The organisers have secured accommodation for the visitors, and for the stressed and tired they have provided swimming pools, saunas and water jets. Integration was fostered by common meals, also provided by the organisers for all conference participants.

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On Friday evening, after registration and dinner, there were film screenings and discussions about diving until late at night. Saturday was a day of presentations and lectures. During this year’s edition 370 people went through the lecture hall! Perfectly selected speakers ensured a full house throughout the day.

In the introduction, David Skoumal took us through the history of 20 years of the conference. David was followed by his Federation colleague David Cani. He gave the audience a behind-the-scenes look at the excavation of the ROV robot, or rather two robots entangled nearly 200 metres deep in the Hranicka Propast cave.

Frederic Swierczynski narrated and presented a film from his latest project “RedLake 300m” in a Croatian cave. Pedro Balordi, Xavier Meniscus, Phil Short, Radomir Teichmann successively introduced the audience to the amazing world of underwater caves. Multi-siphon explorations, improbable depths, kilometres of dry, often ropey parts were breathtaking.

Once again the Techmeeting was honoured by Prof. MUDr. Frantisek Novomesky, who presented to the audience his knowledge gained during the investigation of diving accidents. The photo show that he prepared often shocked and left the audience in reflection. As every year, there was a Polish accent. Wojtek A. Filip in a very accessible and humorous way presented the problems arising from the carelessly fitted diving equipment.

At the same time, presentations of diving equipment were held in the next room. Among others XCCR, Rebel, Tres Presidentes, Agama, DiveSoft and FinnSub presented their products. Equipment-wise, Poland was represented by SeaCraft – Polish producer of excellent diving scooters, and Santi – the leader in diving suits.

The Saturday block of lectures and presentations ended with a prize draw. Breathing machines, dry suits, Divesoft analyser and dozens of other prizes went to many lucky winners.

Amazing atmosphere, excellent organisation, the character of Czechs makes me put this event in the forefront of this type of meetings. Congratulations and thanks to the organisers, speakers and all participants for creating such an atmosphere and I invite everyone to come next year.

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