Pat Vanstraelen has led numerous expeditions worldwide and has over 30 years of professional experience in outdoor sports and diving.
During the 80s, cave explorer and director of the « Belgium National School of Speleology », he explore most of the largest caves in the world in Pierre Saint-Martin, in Caucasus, in Papua New Guinea and in the main karsts of Europe. Meanwhile, he organizes and participates in numerous raids, including the famous Raid Gauloises ®️, particularly in the jungle of Borneo, in Oman, in Patagonia and in Tibet-Nepal. During the same period, he creates, develops and manages during several years the “International Exhibition of Sports, Adventure and Travel”, the “International Meeting of Speleology” and the “International Film Festival of Exploration and Adventure”.
Pat started diving in 1983 and quickly he was interested in caves and wrecks exploring, rebreather diving and deep dives.
With over 30 years of experience and more than 15.000 dives over the world, Pat is one of the pioneers of technical diving in Europe. He was the owner or the manager of several diving centers in Türkiye, Egypt, Belgium and France. Instructor Trainer at all levels, he had an noteworthy experience in the field of training with over 4.000 certifications to his credit in the major certification agencies (IANTD, TDI, PADI Tec Rec, PADI, CMAS and DIR Rebreather).
Founder and Trainings Director of “Abyss Underwater World Explorers”, a network of diving centers specialized in technical diving which offers all levels of training for divers and instructors since 25 years, Pat is a full time professional CCR and OC Advanced Trimix and a Technical Cave Instructor Trainer for IANTD, TDI and PADI Tec Rec.
Based in Nice in the south of France, Pat teaches technical diving and regularly organizes explorations in France, Egypt, Italy, Mexico, Russia and around the world.