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JIM BOWDEN  —  TEAM LEADER

Jim Bowden is a full time explorer, firmly committed to the underground. As founder and leader of the Proyecto de Buceo Espeleologico México y América Central, he has led expeditionary teams in México, Belize, and Guatemala, to explore, survey, and map water filled caves. One of his current project sites, Zacatón, is the location of the world's deepest known water filled pit measured at over 1080 feet [329 meters]. In April 1994, Bowden successfully dove beyond 925 feet [282 meters] in this system and established a new men's world depth record. During the twelve months of training prior to this dive, he became the first man to make multiple sub-500 foot [sub-152 meter] cave dives in one year. At present, he has made more sub-500 foot [sub-152 meter] dives than any man on record. He has logged mixed gas dives of 744 feet [227 meters] and 800+ feet [244+ meters], and has dove on air as deep as 411 feet [125 meters]. His future plans include the continued exploration of this world class system and the extensive exploration of México's deep river caves. Bowden and his work have been the focus of numerous articles in national and international publications. He has also written and published his own articles in multiple technical journals on cave diving, technical, especially deep diving, and wilderness cave exploration. He was the outfitter for a biological collection expedition to México for the Smithsonian Institute's Museum of Natural History. Bowden has been the featured speaker at a myriad of national and international conferences on technical diving, including the first International Tek conference in Birmingham, England, the Festival de Plongée Souterraine D'Ile-De-France in Paris, France, and the Italian Dive Show and Technical Conference in Bologna, Italy. During the tropical rainy season, when wilderness exploration is difficult or impossible, Bowden is involved in scuba education at all levels of training - from the beginning open water classes to the most technical specialties.