Ivica Ćukušić

Introduction
Croatia, as a typically karst country has a large amount of underground objects some of which are partially or completely submerged. Among those which are particularly interesting is still unexplored Crveno jezero (Red Lake) near Imotski, 281 meters deep. This depth has been measured by ROV (remotely operated underwater vehicle). Crveno jezero is the fifth deepest underground object in the world. Also, we should mention the deepest spring in East Europe in which cavedivers managed to descend, the spring of Una with its depth 205 m which is at the moment the 14th deepest underground object in the world. Except the lake and the spring, the Croatian karst is abundant in deep pits and caves containing submerged channels. The deepest channel of this kind which has been dived through is located at the bottom of the deepest pit in Croatia, Lukina jama, at the depth of 1392 meters and 57 meters long. In the 1994, when the diving expedition took place, it was the deepest dive in the underground object in the world. Only recently there has been diving in larger depths, in the Voronja Cave, Arabika Massif.

Cetina - Glavaš. Photo: Zvonimir Švrljuga

Except inland underground objects, there are underground object at sea. Submerged caves and pits are attracting increasingly more number of recreational divers visiting Adriatic coast. One of the most interesting is “Vruja“near Brela 125 meters deep. This is the deepest active submarine spring in the world.
Diving depths in the recent years are becoming increasingly larger owing to the progress of the diving techniques and the use of diving gas mixtures at depths over 40 meters. As a response to this, the members of the Croatian Mountain Rescue Service started to consider the possible solutions to all potential rescue situations in the underground submerged objects.

Beginning
In the assembly of the Cave-Rescue Commission of the Croatian Mountain Rescue Service, in the year 2004, the preparations for the schooling of the rescuers who were engaged in speleodiving begun in order to further improve the existing knowledge and skills and to obtain specialisation in the field of cavediving-rescue.
Initial funds were obtained via tendering invitation of the Ministry of the Sea, Tourism, Transport and Development which were then used to finance expensive courses of deep dive and speleodiving. Up till that point there was not even one real cavediving course in Croatia. All cavers who were engaged in the underground diving activities, including the members of the Croatian Mountain Rescue Service, were self thought, learning from the literature which was difficult to obtain.

Schooling
The biggest task in the schooling of the Cavediving Rescue group of the Croatian Mountain Rescue Service was carried out by instructor Damir Podnar, from the unit for the technical diving of the Civil Protection of the Republic of Slovenia. At that time, he was the only licensed instructor of cavediving and technical diving in the area of the whole Southeast Europe.
Courses attended by the members of this group are the following: basic and advanced NITROX course, decompression course, quick decompression course, TRIMIX 60, 80 and 100, Intro the cave, Cave and Full cave.

Kamačnik. Photo: Ivica Ćukušić

Group assembly
At this moment there are six trained rescuers of the Croatian Mountain Rescue Service in the Cavediving Rescue Group. Divers with high ranks are chosen for the schooling, diving conductors and diving instructors all obtaining previous cavediving experience. Considering that the Croatian Mountain Rescue Service chooses only the best members of the mountaineering organisations, most of the best and the most active cavedivers entered in the assembly of this Group. The basic precondition was the experience in cavediving for the purpose of less difficult schooling process and because of the specific conditions which exist in caves. Experienced cavers which are also divers are able to socialise more easily with these special conditions of cavediving than the very experienced divers which have no experience in cave explorations.

On Photo: Tomislav Rataj (camera), Cavedivers-rescuers: Robert Erhardt, Maksimilijan Babić,
Ivica Ćukušić, Damir Podnar, Petronije Tasić and Igor Markanjević. Photo: dr. Marko Ljubković

Damir Podnar-instructor of Cavediving. Photo: Maksimilijan Babić

Members of the Cavediving Rescue Group are no different from the rest of the Croatian Mountain Rescue Service’s members, except in one specialised skill which makes them more versatile and able to help in various rescue situations. They are functioning in their central Stations in Makarska, Split, Rijeka and in Zagreb.

Quality of equipment
All six members of the Group are trained and equipped for diving up to 100 meters of depth in open waters and caves. Diving is performed with the open circle techniques with various gas mixtures, depending on the diving depth.
Development of cavediving rescue is focused to transition from closed circle to open circle of breading which would in fact increase the autonomy and depth of diving and simplify the logistics comprised of large amount of mixture gases. Considering that the closed circle still does not comply with the requirements of security standards of the Croatian Mountain Rescue Service, it is certain that this transition will not be made in the near future.

Training. Photo: Damir Podnar

 Kamačnik. Photo: Igor Markanjević