A couple of years ago, I wanted to learn how to scuba dive. Imagine… breathing under water. So I went over to Indy MPH Watersports and asked around about the certification process. Most certified scuba divers are PADI certified. At the time, I didn’t know the difference, so I signed up for an SDI certification. From what I can tell, the SDI certification is better, and will force me to dive more often. I remember the instructor telling me that to hold my SDI certification, I had to record at least one dive every 365 days. Guess that means I have to travel! (Not much diving here in the desert.)
During our training, we spent a lot of time in the pool. There was a pool at a high school just north of Indianapolis. The pool was deep, and we were able to practice treading water, going down, equalizing our ears, and more. The time spent in the pool is nothing like jumping in the middle of the ocean, but it did give me a chance to see what it was like breathing under water.
The pool was only sixteen feet deep, but if you think about it, that’s pretty deep. That isn’t anything compared to how deep I have gone in the ocean, but still. The deepst dive that I have done was aout 110 foot. It was a shelf dive in the Bahamas. From giant Grouper to reef sharks, we saw it all. I am actually only certified to 100 foot, but at that point, 10 feet won’t make a big difference.
Anyway, the other day I was surfing the web, and found a pool that pool to shame. This pool is located in Brussles, Belgium and holds the record the deepest pool in the world. The Nemo 33 is 108 foot deep.
The pool was designed by John Beernaerts, who is also a scuba diver. Go figure! Also, I find it funny that “beer” is in his last name. I mean, the pool is in Belgium. Of course beer is in his lat name. When we were in Belgium, that is pretty much all we did! That is actually why we went to Belgium. We lucked out with he Belgian Beer Weekend starting the weekend we were there.
Back to the pool. Now… that’s a LOT of water!!!
So how much water does this pool hold? A lot. I mean, the pool, at it’s deepest point, is 108 feet deep. It holds, when full, 660,000 gallons of water. Next time you order a pint of beer, think about this staggering stat… 660,000 gallons of water is 4.4 million pints. That might be a lot of water, but that is definitely a LOT of beer!
The pool opened in 2004 has been used for dive training as well as research. They also use the pool for shooting video and several movies have been filmed here. With all that open/controlled space, it makes sense they would use it for stuff like that. The pool is also warm. Almost hot. The water is kept at a steady temperature of 91° Fahrenheit. That’s 33 degrees Celsius for my foreign readers! When I did my open water certification dives, the water temperature was below 40° Fahrenheit, and the surface temperature was below freezing. Needless to say, I never want to dive in cold water again.
If the depths of the pool aren’t enough, there are also some underwater caves for you to explore. I mean, a pool this big, you have to have caves! The next time we are in Belgium, you can rest assure that I am going to at least see the Nemo 33. I would love to spend a morning and dive to the bottom. Maybe I will throw my keys in and see what happens!
You can learn more about the pool at www.nemo33.com. Let’s get wet!
