About Us

The author and the adventurer

Claus-Peter Stoll passed away. So now I'm sitting here mulling over his obituary. Finding the right words is a tough task. But maybe it goes like this: it was just strange to write the name the way I wrote it: Claus-Peter Stoll. This may be because I've known this chap for ages, since the early days of underwater in the mid-90s. For all those who knew him, Claus-Peter Stoll was rarely called Claus-Peter Stoll, instead he was known simply as "Stolli".

Let's start again. Stolli has died. He wasn't just an old hand at the game, but a true veteran, a pioneer and a genuine original, who has remained true to himself to the last despite all the recent trends in diving. Stolli had been diving since 1972 and only four years later devoted himself to diving and travel journalism. From 1972 Stolli was already diving and four years later he devoted himself to diving and travel journalism. The experienced diving instructor was regarded in the scene as a top expert for wrecks and the research of their history.

And rightly so: when it came to lost ships and their past lives, no-one could outsmart Stolli when it came to research and exploration. I don't know anyone who has been as passionate about archives and museums as he has been. And I also don't want to hide the fact that as an editor one would sometimes ask oneself how one should place all the knowledge in the magazine. It was particularly in the Red Sea that Stolli was the first to discover the true identity of some wrecks. Of course, he preferred to descend to the "sleeping ships" himself - to date there have been over 150 wrecks around the globe. It was not with one dive per wreck, but with many.

Together with his alter ego, the underwater photographer Udo Kefrig, the author explored the oceans and most dive destinations on this planet - which was documented in countless publications in unterwasser, its predecessor magazine UWF, other national and international magazines as well as in his own dive travel guides and interactive CDs. The work of the congenial team focused on the Indian Ocean, but also on the Indo-Pacific, the Pacific, the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, the Caribbean and the Atlantic. It is remarkable that they never lost their love for the native Freshwater. The professionalism of the two is documented by various photography and press awards, including the "Golden Igel", a German Armed Forces press award, which they received in 1996 for their report " Gestatten, Hartmann" about the navy mine divers.

Stolli was only 67 years old. He died a natural death after a long illness. However, the aforementioned words, indicate that the veteran had experienced more in his relatively short life than most of us will manage in 100 years. It was an adventurous, fulfilling life that has now come to an end. What's left for me to say? Definitely this: Rest in Peace.

Lars Brinkmann - Editor unterwasser