TEKDiveUSA.2018 will feature this presentation by Beatrice Rivoira. The mountain rivers are places where you can find divers looking for unconventional sites to dive. During the summer the streams shores are crowded with people sunbathing and sometimes getting into the water. But what looks like a paradisiacal place can easily turn your day into a nightmare.

People usually underestimate river swimming, and diving, because of the crystal waters and the shallow depths but a lot of stuff can go wrong and these places are not always easy to reach for the rescuers.  

We will talk about the hidden risks that such activity has due to the environmental conditions you find yourself in (cold, difficult spots to reach…), how to deal with the dive features (currents, visibility, siphons…) and the preparation of the dive spot.  Another factor that needs to be taken into account is the altitude and how it affects the diving profiles and our physiology. 

Many divers, even with great open water experience, had underestimated these places during the years and a lot of deadly accidents had happened. We will analyse some of them and talk about the chains of events and choices that had lead to the fatal end.