Over the past two decades, British caver John Volanthen has been a prominent figure in cave exploration. With incredible expertise in caving and diving, John has explored places including Pozo Azul, Wookey Hole and Emergence du Ressel. Such a passion has allowed John to accumulate invaluable life lessons, from which he is able to draw knowledge of managing stress, solving complex problems and high-pressure situations to deliver as a motivational speaker.
Highly regarded as one of the best cave divers in the world, John has been at the forefront of some impressive cave rescues. His most notable rescue to date happened in Thailand, the Tham Luang incident. Accompanied by his trusted dive partner Rick Stanton, John navigated two and a half-mile long flooded caves on the hunt for the trapped children. The pair incredibly completed a mission that even the special forces could not accomplish, locating and successfully extracting the survivors from the caves. Their heroic feat went viral and John was awarded both and the Pride of Britain Award and a George Medal for his incredible bravery.
John has travelled worldwide, completing impressive feats of endurance and breaking world records. John first set a world record at Wookey Hole in Somerset, claiming the British cave diving depth record after diving over 90m. The record-setting didn’t stop there, John later went on to achieve the longest cave penetration dive in the Pozo Azul cave system, reaching an impressive 8880m.
Throughout his time spent diving John has strived to push limits, developing new equipment that has allowed him to progress where others deemed it impossible. Innovative by nature, John has developed modified rebreather systems and sump mapping devices, technology that has defied the capabilities of traditional equipment. His talents have been pivotal to numerous cave rescue missions with the Cave Rescue Organisation, including the Eric Estable for which John was awarded the Royal Humane Society Bronze Medal. His cave diving has earned several other awards, such as the Scout Associations Bronze Cross in 2018.
John has worked alongside a diverse range of multicultural groups, experiencing things that some of us may only dream to experience. His skills gained as a diver has been transferable into everyday life, with John now delivering motivational speeches and workshops on teamwork, pioneering, resilience, and being a leader.
