News

Our top news today is the launch of the new website www.baikaldiving.ru. We hope it is going to be as important to you as it is to us

One can quickly lose the skills. The habit to dive from a boat makes you relax. During the last three years, we haven’t had any deep trimix in Listvyanka. Time to catch up! (Gennadi’s comment: “That’s true. All the deep dives in the last three years were made from the safari boats”). And now, it is December again, the freest time to dive “for yourself”. Be it Covid or not, there is a lot of work in summer, as usual. So, the intensive preparation has begun! (Gennadi’s comment: “The idea is to dive VERY deep!”)

The two weeklong “coronavirus” diving safaris in June were technical ones. So, technical diving is always there. BaikalTek is a technical dive center, with Trimix facility TDI & IANTD. However, it does not mean that there is no place for recreation, photography, filming and other kinds of divers. The other way round: we pay attention to everyone’s need and interests, and are ready to accompany you in your diving any time.

We planned to finish mounting a new engine and generator on our safari boat Valeriya. The testing was complete, State Ship Register seriously examined all equipment and approved of its operation, so in the third decade of May we started our first safari. This safari was only for BaikalTek members, as no matter how State Ship Register is strict, our BaikalTek testing is still more importan

I always wanted to see an iceberg. I thought an iceberg is as beautiful underwater as it is above the water… So, I went to Antarctica. I made a dive and I was disappointed – there was just some indistinct wall to see.

A few days ago, the Baikal Ice Jeep & Diving Safari finished.  April. “Barguzin program». I have seen my ‘dream iceberg’ in Lake Baikal!  The picture was a 100% match!!!  I have never seen anything like this before, in no safari

Week 1 - It must have been the coldest safari in our history. We started safari season in the beginning of February for the first time. We used to make them in the beginning of March, then shifted to the middle of February and now we are starting in the beginning of February. During this safari we experienced as low temperatures as -35 Celsius at night and -23-30 Celsius in the day. This made us recollect our previous trips (when it was -22 Celsuis, wind and no sun) with a feeling that those seemingly harsh weather conditions were a laughable absurdity if compared to what we faced this year. However, despite the objectively reasonably lower temperatures we subjectively did not feel really cold.

November 1. A frosty morning. Out of the cafe window I can see the Baikal slowly chilling down with a gentle fog over its waters. Listvyanka shores are deserted, a few cars parked on the road along the shore, almost no people to be seen. Just a few leaves on the trees and bushes, very few needles on the larch trees, almost no needles, in fact - one can see spots of snow between the trees in the distance.

An unusual divesite - Methane Volcano - was explored. 4 km away from the mouth of the Selenga River, at the depth of 40 metres in the dull clay bottom (what else can be expected from a place next to the mouth of a big muddy river?) there is a huge methane volcano and a small volcanic crater.

No matter how strange it might sound, Siberian winter is short. This can be accounted for the fact that we live in southern Siberia and the Baikal is in close proximity - by many factors it is a sea and it accumulates warmth very well. This is the first fact to be mentioned. Secondly, we have to clear up the terminology ...

Gennady Misan set a personal record having reached the depth of 160 metres (his previous record depth was 155 metres). Tatiana Oparina also beat her previous record of 156 metres, which was, moreover, Lake Baikal record deep dive and, possibly, world record of diving deep in very cold water. Thus, her new dive to 170 metres, which Tatiana made, is a new Lake Baikal record and, possibly, a new world record of diving deep in very cold water

In the beginning of September we went on a river part of the tours. A small special group of Tatiana Oparina, Olga Kamenskaya, Dmitriy Melamed with the support of "Zapovednoye Pribaikalye" nature reserve explored the upper reaches of the great Lena River with the aim of taking photos and filming underwater flora and fauna.

On June 21-25, 2017 Listvyanka settlement (Irkutsk region, Lake Baikal) hosted Open Championship of Underwater Photography Lake Baikal Cup. Suchlike competitions were last held in the Baikal in 1980th (1985, 1987 and 1989), so the event served as a sort of revival of a forgotten tradition.