Live vicariously through underwater brand photographer, Alfred Minaar, his ice-diving team and the DELMA Blue Shark III –
as they descend into the bone-numbingly icy depths of Siberia’s Lake Baikal, the Worlds’ largest, oldest and probably coldest lake.
Lake Baikal is also the World’s deepest lake with a depth of 1,642 m (5,387 ft) – not a problem if a Blue Shark III found its way to the bottom but certainly a challenge to retrieve it.
It is considered among the world's clearest lakes, too with a stunningly clear ice-sheet of cracks and trapped bubbles beneath its surface.
Alfred Minaar AKA Alfie, who as well as being a dive instructor based in Indonesia’s Gili Islands is a brand photog for both Delma Swiss watches –
and the famous Swedish scuba-gear manufacture, Poseidon had the opportunity to seriously test his mettle in the frigid waters of Lake Baikal.
Delma were also able to put their new flagship über diver, the Blue Shark III with its 4000 meters of water-resistance to the ultimate test as it accompanied Alfie & co on their Siberian ice-diving adventure.
Lake Baikal is no stranger to diver’s watches; Oris only recently released a special
LAKE BAIKAL edition of their Aquis;
however this particular ice-diving expedition would read its dive-time via Delma and their Blue Shark III.
The expedition btw came to be when Alfie attended the dive show, BOOT where he discussed his plan with Jonas Brandt, CEO of Swedish dive gear brand, Poseidon.
Poseidon who are well known for their dry suits, re-breathers and regulators, have previously supported excursions in the North Sea oil rigs and complex Arctic Search and Rescue missions.
Meanwhile, Alfie soon discovered that Jonas is also friends with a former Soviet military diver, Andrey Dimitrevich, who agreed to join the expedition as long as they went on a rigorous ice-diving course.
The final piece of the team’s ice-diving puzzle fell into place when German adventure videographer, Nicolai Deutsch who was also present at BOOT agreed to come along and film the expedition.
10 days later the whole team took off for Moscow followed by an additional 5,000 km flight to Siberia. You can read how they got on Delma’s official website.
Meanwhile you can check out all the watches that were worn on the expedition such as the Shell Star which Delma has recently released in
BRONZE and of course the
BLUE SHARK III, here.
Thoughts?
HERE’s a link to the full Lake Baikal Ice-Diving Expedition article – well worth a read especially if you like reading about such exploits form the comfort of a warm chair.
The Blue Shark III comes in six different dial and bezel configurations but which one would you choose to accompany you for an ice-dive or better still a whiskey and ice?
