South African woman breaks deep cave diving record

South Africa’s Karen van den Oever has made history this week after she broke the women’s deep cave diving record at Bushmansgat Cave – a popular deep submerged freshwater cave in the Northern Cape province of South Africa.

The diving spot is well-known around the world and is believed to be the third-deepest submerged freshwater cave in the world.

According to Deeper Blue, Karen van den Oever made history after diving an impressive 236.04 metres. This smashes the record previously held by fellow South African Verna van Schaik, who dove 221 metres deep back in 2004.

Van den Oever’s dive lasted seven hours and 18 minutes, which saw her adjusting to Bushmansgat’s altitude of 1550 metres and is equivalent to a sea-level dive of 283 metres.

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“This was a dive that I have been working towards for a long time. It was a challenging dive,” she says in an interview. “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.”

The diver admits that she was anxious before attempting the feat, but once she got in the water, her focus was solely on the dive. “You are truly present only in that moment with complete focus on the task at hand,” she continues.

Nuno Gomes currently holds the record for the greatest depth ever attained at Bushmansgat Cave, which saw him diving to a depth of 282.6 metres in 1996.

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Van den Oever has been passionate about diving since she was a little girl and is thrilled to have attained such an incredible feat. She says she started diving back in 2001 while she and her family were on holiday in the Eastern Cape. She later joined the Wits Underwater Club, where she became a committee member.

“It was here that I had the opportunity to meet Nuno Gomes and Verna van Schaik. Listening to the encounters of their expeditions and their journeys to become world record holders inspired me to move into technical diving; it was then that the seed was planted – maybe I too could one day attempt the women’s world record,” she says. “Getting to the point where I felt ready to attempt the record has been a very long journey to make sure my skills and knowledge where were they needed to be to ensure I came back alive.”

Image courtesy: Pexels