From: Croatia
Profession: business owner (Dragor Lux)
Speciality: underwater photographer & explorer
Dražen Gorički is underwater photographer, instructor and diver from Croatia, one of the country’s leading technical diving instructors and underwater explorers. He is also owner of Dragor Lux – a company for producing and distributing diving equipment and for the past 20 years he has been working full time in diving industry.
One of Dražen’s great accomplishments was starting the project ”Underwater Croatia” for exploring deep wrecks and caves in Croatia and filming and photographing them all along. Underwater photography has become one of his big passions and he tries to record the state of every wreck and cave he explores and shares the photos with the diving and non-diving community and thus popularizes diving as an amazing and interesting sport.
The Underwater Croatia project resulted in many admirable and widely significant discoveries, such as, for example, the discovery and identification of the Giuseppe Garibaldi wreck – the deepest wreck in Croatia (-123 m), famous Italian armoured cruiser sunk during the First World War.
Dražen also started the project “Battle of Lissa” three years ago which finally resulted in the discovery of the wreck of Palestro at -120m in the sea territory of the island of Vis.
Last year, 150 years after the Battle of Lisa, Dražen organized an expedition to another wreck of the Battle of Lissa – Re d’Italia which was the first time that divers have ever dived on it, filming and photographing this magnificent piece of history. The expedition helped gather all the pieces of the puzzle of the most important battle in Adriatic sea together.
Dražen often participates in scientific projects trying to contribute to revealing new facts about underwater life and environment including international expeditions on deep wrecks and caves. He uses every available opportunity to dive and explore new caves or wrecks be it in Croatia or anywhere in the world.
This is a diver dedicated to pushing his own limits, exploring new places around the world and improving diving education.
Presentations
2019
| Battle of Lissa Wrecks in the Adriatic Sea |
| The Battle of Lissa (1866) forever marked the history of warship – it was the greatest battle ever fought on the Adriatic Sea and the first battle where two armoured fleets clashed at open sea. It was also the last battle where naval ram was used to destroy other ships. The significance of the Battle is such that it has been studied on all military schools worldwide and the famous victory of the Austrian admiral Wilhelm von Tegetthoff and Croatian officers and sailors is one of the most glorious victories in the maritime history. One entire museum hall in the History Museum of Vienna is dedicated to the famous Battle of Lissa which involved 61 warships and 19000 soldiers. The mighty Italian fleet which lost its two armoured ships – Re d’Italia and Palestro was overruled by exceptional tactics of a much weaker Austrian Fleet. Dražen Gorički led an expedition to the two remaining wrecks of the Battle and will tell the story of their discovery, identification and exploration. |
2013
| The guiseppe Garibaldi wreck |
