Patrick Widmann
Patrick Widmann is originally from a small town in the Austrian Alps. There, at an early age, he discovered a passion for diving during a demo dive with the local search and rescue team. Joining his father, he became part of the search and rescue team and took advantage of the free equipment and easy access to the lake near his home to learn to dive.
On a family vacation in 1998 he finally got certified as a Padi Open Water Diver. Except for some family vacations to warm water destinations, the bulk of his early diving was in the cold and dark lakes of western Austria at high altitude. Patrick's early diving career was defined by his training with the search and rescue team which comprised: supervision, river rescue, body recovery, maintenance work and many other things among its duties.
In the summer of 2002, he went to Croatia to work as a dive guide. In the fall of 2002, he moved to Egypt to turn his passion into his full time occupation. While living on the Red Sea, he taught recreational diving in big factory style diving centers. He spent almost all his free time diving and pursuing his career goals, constantly learning new skills and doing ever more challenging dives. Led by his mentor, Luigi Iannone, he completed his IDC Staff Instructor training in 2003 and started teaching Padi courses up to IDC (Instructor Development Course).
At this point, he started technical diving, first only as recreation soon also teaching it to people who share the interest. After a year of focusing all his time on this pursuit and training weekly, he started to perform solo deep mixed gas dives in open water, deep wreck penetration dives and to participate in a collection of exploration projects. Some of his exploration projects include:
- Black Canyon Mapping Project (120MSW / 400FSW) Hurghada, Egypt
- Reef Formation Study on Gorgonian Reef (100MSW to 85MSW / 328FSW to 279FSW) Hurghada, Egypt
- Mapping the Interiors of the Wreck Hebat Allah (45MSW / 150FSW), Hurghada Egypt
In March of 2007, he decided to move to Playa Del Carmen, Mexico, to pursue his career as a cave instructor at Protec and to engage in cave exploration. Since arriving on the Yucatan he has participated in cave exploration in Akumal and south of Playa Del Carmen. He assisted Dr. Patricia Beddows in hydrological research and helped Olmo Torres from the University in Mexico City to discover a new cave species. He served as a safety diver on a National Geographic video documentary production and an AIDA sponsored international free diving competition.
Patrick dives the Megalodon closed circuit rebreather. He is also trained on the KISS Classic and the AP Inspiration. He has accumulated more than 200 hours diving CCR.
Patrick has executed nearly 2800 dives in warm and cold water. Those dives include:
- 150 plus technical dives utilizing multiple stages and both Air and Trimix as bottom gas.
- 350 plus cave dives using backmount and sidemount configuration, closed circuit rebreathers and DPVs.
- 50 plus technical wreck penetrations.
- Cave dives to 105MFW / 350FFW.
- Ocean dives to 120MSW/400FSW
- He has certified more then 400 divers various levels.
In addition to Patrick's diving experience, he was a member of the H2O Magazine Editorial Staff and has published in German and English. While living in Austria, he actively pursued other sports, such as rock climbing (competitive) and was a sponsored freestyle snowboarder.
Today, Patrick can be found teaching at Protec or one the many Cenotes on the Riviera Maya. He is devoted to furthering his knowledge, exchanging experiences, discussing protocols and procedures. When he has some time off, you can find him in the jungle with his dive buddy Hans, enjoying a leisurely cave dive or pushing the caves of the Yucatan.
Patrick holds the following instructor ratings:
IANTD Instructor for: Open Water through Divemaster, Nitrox Diver, Advanced Nitrox Diver, Deep Diver, Technical Diver, Normoxic Trimix Diver, Cavern Diver through Cave Diver, Technical Cave Diver
PADI Instructor for: Open Water through Assistant Instructor, Deep Diver, Nitrox Diver, U/W Photographer, Digital U/W Photography, Cavern Diver, Night Diver, Wreck Diver, Dry Suit, Drift Diver, EFR Instructor, PADI Master Instructor
DSAT Instructor for: Tec Deep Diver
Patrick is available as an instructor or guide through Protec and you can contact him at any time at patrick_widmann@gmx.net
