Recent News New Photos
Off the Deep End
Jun 01 2008
by Thayer Walker - Outside Magazine
In Too Deep
May 30 2008
by Jonathan Green - Daily Mail
A Sinking Feeling
Feb 01 2008
by Paul Kvinta - Outside's Go
Trust me...
Mar 01 2007
by Ethan Gordon - Fathoms Magazine

Roatan's deep diving submersible Idabel, designed and built by Karl Stanley, is the most exciting underwater expedition you will find anyplace in the world. Idabel will take you deeper into the Western Caribbean's unexplored abyss than most people have ever ventured— illuminating depths up to 2,000 feet (610 meters) below the surface. Through our large plexiglass viewing bubble you will see a wide variety of underwater life rarely encountered by humans. Idabel docks on Roatan, in the Bay Islands of Honduras, at Half Moon Bay in West End Village.

On our website you will find detailed information about Idabel's safety and comfort features, the captain's background and experience, the location and terrain where we explore, and the animal life the populates the depths. You will also learn about our exciting underwater expeditions, including how to contact us, and our prices, which are as low as $600 per person.

Our Mission

To be the premier location in the world for the public to have cost-effective, direct access to the deep water environment.

Less than 1 percent of the world's deep waters have been explored. Considering that nearly all deep sea research has been conducted by small group of developed nations in their own waters (USA, USSR, New Zealand, Japan, UK, and France), the deep waters of less developed regions are truly unknown— in our case, the coasts of Central America.

It is this Unknown you are now able to personally explore. On every dive the submarine illiminates places that have never know any light at all— places no human eyes have ever seen.

In the United States, a country that led the exploration of outer space with NASA, the government agency responsible for "inner space" exploration is NOAA. Unfortunately, they are poorly funded and have not managed an increase of human presence in the deep sea since the 1960's. Honduras does not even have an equivalent organization. Therefore, if mankind is to explore Earth's last undiscovered realm, it is up to the private sector to lead the way.

This is why the Roatan Institute for Deepsea Exploration (RIDE) has a two-fold mission: to explore deep waters, and to do so without relying upon grant money. Presently, RIDE is one of only two deep diving submersible operations in the world to be offering trips to the public.

In pursuit of this goal I have kept overhead as low as possible. For example, while other equally-capable submarines would usually cost $1-2 million US dollars, I acquired my machine at a mere fraction by doing most of the construction in-house. I personally tested the submersible extensively in open water, risking both life and reputation to prove that reliable deep sea exploration can be done affordably.

My choice of locations assist in keeping a low overhead. The trench wall in front of Half Moon Bay on Roatan is very unique in how steeply it plummits into the Cayman Trench. Even the world Honduras means "deep water," named after Christopher Columbus's amazement at how close the deep sea broches the shore. On a majority of dives the submarine acutally travels a greater distance down than it does out from the Half Moon Bay dock. In this end, this unique underwater terrain allows the submarine to operate from a dock rather than a ship at sea, resulting in great savings to my customers.

Explore the Unknown. Go Deeper.