SNIPPETS

SNIPPETS

- 

World's deepest diving pool opens in Poland

A 45.5-metre deep diving pool with artificial underwater caves and Mayan ruins, the world's deepest such structure, opened near Warsaw this weekend. The complex, named Deepspot, even includes a small wreck for scuba and free divers to explore. It has 8,000 cubic metres of water more than 20 times the amount in an ordinary 25-metre pool. Unlike regular swimming pools, Deepspot can open despite coronavirus restrictions in Poland because it is a training centre that offers courses.

A hotel with rooms from which guests will be able to watch divers at a depth of five metres is also planned. It's the world's deepest pool, Deepspot director Michal Braszczynski, a 47yearold diving enthusiast, said at the opening day. The current holder of the Guinness world record is in Montegrotto Terme in Italy and is 42 metres deep. The Blue Abyss pool planned to open in Britain in 2021 will be 50 metres deep. Around a dozen customers came on the first day, including eight seasoned divers who hoped to pass an exam to become instructors.

There are no magnificent fish or coral reefs here so it is no substitute for the sea, but it is definitely a good place to learn and to train in order to dive safely in open water, said Przemyslaw Kacprzak, a 39-year-old diving instructor.