V Madeira Underwater Open and 2026 CMAS World Cup in Underwater Photography and Video
There is a particular kind of light that exists only underwater. It shifts and scatters differently than anything above the surface, filtering through the Atlantic in rays that turn schools of fish into living stained glass and reef walls into geological paintings that no studio could reproduce. The photographers and videographers who dedicate their careers to capturing that light are among the most technically skilled and artistically ambitious visual artists working anywhere, and from June 22 to 28, 2026, the world's best of them are coming to Madeira Island, Portugal, for the most prestigious competition in their discipline.
The V Madeira Underwater Open and the 2026 CMAS World Cup in Underwater Photography and Video run simultaneously as a single seven-day event on Madeira, organized by the Portuguese Underwater Activities Federation (FPAS) and the Regional Swimming Association of Madeira (ANM) under the supervision of the CMAS Sports Committee and Visual Commission. It is the fifth edition of the Madeira Underwater Open and the continuation of a relationship between this Atlantic island and competitive underwater visual arts that has made Madeira what the CMAS jury president described at the 2025 closing ceremony as "one of the most vibrant and inspiring destinations in the Atlantic for sea lovers."
The choice of Madeira as the host island for a CMAS World Cup is not a promotional convenience. It is a direct acknowledgment of what the waters around this archipelago actually contain and what they allow an underwater photographer or videographer to do with a camera.
What CMAS is and Why This World Cup Matters
The Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques (CMAS), founded in 1959 in Monaco with the involvement of Jacques-Yves Cousteau himself as its first president, is the world governing body for underwater activities across all disciplines: diving, freediving, underwater hockey, underwater rugby, finswimming, spearfishing, and underwater photography and video.
The CMAS World Cup in Underwater Photography and Video is the governing body's premier competitive event for underwater visual arts, bringing together the world's finest underwater photographers and videographers in an annual competition that tests technical skill, artistic vision, and the ability to capture world-class images under the specific conditions of a designated competition environment. Winning or placing in a CMAS World Cup represents the highest formal recognition available in competitive underwater photography and video, comparable in significance for professionals in the field to a world championship in any other sport.
The 2025 World Cup, held on Porto Santo and Madeira from October 26 to November 2, 2025, drew participants from multiple countries and closed with a ceremony at the Savoy Palace Hotel in Funchal that the organization described as confirming "Madeira's role as an international benchmark" for diving and underwater visual arts. The winning photographs in the Fish category went to Luís Campos and Patrícia Araújo, while the Macro category was won by Davide Lombroso and Elena Piccoli (Italy), both results reflecting the international caliber of the competition field.
The 2026 edition, designated the V Madeira Underwater Open, brings the competition back to Madeira within the island's summer season, in conditions that offer maximum visibility and the warmest Atlantic water temperatures of the year.
The Full Seven-Day Program: Confirmed Schedule
The official CMAS program document confirms every day of the 2026 event in detail:
Day 1: Monday June 22 (Registration and Opening)
- 16:00 to 18:00: Accreditation at Iate Clube Santa Cruz
- 19:00: Technical Meeting at Hotel Vila Galé Santa Cruz
The Technical Meeting is the essential orientation event for all competitors, covering competition procedures, dive site details, camera control protocols, jury structure, and the full logistical framework for the competition week.
Days 2, 3, and 4: Competition Diving (Tuesday June 23, Wednesday June 24, Thursday June 25)
Each competition day follows the same structured schedule:
- 07:00: Breakfast at Hotel Vila Galé Santa Cruz
- 08:00: Camera and mobile device control at Iate Clube Santa Cruz (a formal check ensuring all equipment is cleared before diving)
- 09:00: Departure to competition zones
- 09:30: First dive
- 13:00: Lunch
- 14:30: Departure to competition zones
- 15:30: Second dive
- 18:00: Memory cards submitted to the organization
- 18:30: Return to hotel
- 19:30: Memory cards returned to participants
This structured protocol ensures competitive integrity: cameras are checked before each dive, and all captured images are submitted on memory cards to the organizing committee immediately after the afternoon dive session. The cards are held overnight and returned to participants the following evening, ensuring that no post-competition editing changes the submitted work.
Video teams use the third competition day to complete their editing, giving videographers additional creative time that the photograph submission protocol does not require.
The four competition dive sites are announced at the Technical Meeting rather than in advance, a standard CMAS practice that ensures all competitors encounter the same underwater environment under the same conditions regardless of local knowledge or prior familiarity with specific sites.
Day 5: Friday June 26 (Jury Day)
The jury convenes on Friday to evaluate all submitted photographs and videos across all competition categories. Competitors have a free day while the jury completes its deliberations, providing an opportunity to explore Madeira Island outside the competitive context.
Day 6: Saturday June 27 (Medal Ceremony and Closing)
- 18:00: Award Ceremony for the 2026 CMAS World Cup Underwater Photo and Video
- 19:30: Gala Dinner for the V Madeira Underwater Open
The Saturday ceremony is the public and celebratory culmination of the competition week, bringing together competitors, officials, local partners, and the broader diving community in a formal recognition of the week's finest underwater visual work.
Day 7: Sunday June 28 (Departure)
The official departure day closes the seven-day event.
The Competition Categories
The 2026 CMAS World Cup competition spans both photography and video disciplines, with photography categories including:
- Fish: Images where fish are the primary or dominant subject, requiring both technical precision in tracking fast-moving subjects and artistic judgment in composition and light.
- Macro: Close-up photography of small subjects, typically invertebrates, nudibranchs, small reef creatures, and fine detail work that demands exceptional camera control and optical quality.
- Wide Angle / Grand Angle: Landscape-scale underwater imagery capturing the sweep of reef environments, large animal subjects, and the interaction between divers and the underwater world.
- Video: Teams rather than individuals compete in the video category, with the editing day built into the competition schedule to allow teams to assemble their final submission from competition dive footage.
Detailed category rules are governed by the CMAS Photo Video Category B Rules 2025, available through the official CMAS portal at portal.cmas.org.
Why Madeira is the Right Ocean for This Competition
The Events Madeira description of the competition environment requires quoting directly, because it is both accurate and precise: "With crystal-clear waters, exceptional visibility, breathtaking underwater landscapes and a rich, vibrant marine life, Madeira stands out as a true paradise for sport diving, attracting athletes, photographers and ocean enthusiasts from all corners of the globe."
The specific physical properties of the waters around Madeira that make them exceptional for underwater photography are well documented:
- Visibility: Madeira's Atlantic waters offer underwater visibility of up to 30 meters in optimal conditions, far exceeding the murky, limited-visibility conditions that most European coastal diving locations provide. Clear water is not merely aesthetically desirable for photography: it is technically essential for wide-angle work and any image that requires light to travel significant distances underwater without scattering.
- Water temperature: In summer, Madeira's surface waters reach 20 to 23 degrees Celsius, warm enough for comfortable extended diving with a 5mm wetsuit. The June competition dates are chosen specifically to capture the warming of the water that comes with the summer season.
- Marine biodiversity: The volcanic underwater topography of Madeira, shaped by the same geological forces that created the island's dramatic surface landscape, produces a complex reef environment of lava tubes, caverns, pinnacles, and vertical walls that creates habitat for an extraordinary range of species. Competition photographers can expect to encounter torpedo rays, moray eels, Atlantic spotted dolphins, barracuda schools, Atlantic chub mackerel, trumpetfish, parrotfish, and if conditions allow, loggerhead sea turtles and pelagic visitors including blue sharks.
The Santa Cruz area specifically: The Iate Clube Santa Cruz and Hotel Vila Galé Santa Cruz, both serving as the event's logistical headquarters, are located on the eastern coast of Madeira near the island's airport. The dive sites accessible from Santa Cruz include a variety of rock reef, wall, and sandy bottom environments that collectively offer photographers subjects across every competition category.
Madeira Island: Above the Surface
For competitors and their accompanying families or friends, the days between competition dives and the free day on June 26 provide ample opportunity to explore an island that is as visually remarkable above water as it is below.
Funchal, the island capital located approximately 15 kilometers west of Santa Cruz, is accessible in 20 minutes and offers the Mercado dos Lavradores (the covered market of flowers, fruit, and local produce), the Zona Velha (Old Town) with its famous painted door art project and seafront restaurants, the Jardim Botânico da Madeira (Botanical Garden) with panoramic bay views, and the cable car to Monte with its hilltop gardens and the thrilling downhill toboggan basket sleds.
The levada walking trails that cross the island through its UNESCO-listed laurisilva ancient forest provide daytime hiking options ranging from gentle 1-hour waterside walks to challenging full-day mountain traverses. Pico Ruivo at 1,861 meters, the island's highest peak, is accessible on foot from the Achada do Teixeira parking area in approximately 1.5 hours and rewards the climb with views across the entire archipelago on clear days.
June on Madeira brings 22 to 25 degrees Celsius with reliable sunshine, long evenings, and the island in full summer bloom.
Registration, Logistics, and Practical Information
CMAS Registration Deadline
Friday May 1, 2026 is the deadline for CMAS competition registration through the official portal at portal.cmas.org. This is the primary deadline for competitors seeking to participate in the World Cup component of the event.
Official Headquarters Hotel
Hotel Vila Galé Santa Cruz, Madeira is the official competition hotel for the 2026 event, with all daily briefings, breakfasts, and the camera control protocol based there throughout the competition week. Accommodation inquiries for participants are handled directly through the LOC.
Getting to Madeira
Madeira Airport / Cristiano Ronaldo International Airport (FNC) is located immediately adjacent to Santa Cruz, placing it within minutes of the competition headquarters. Direct flights connect Madeira to Lisbon, London, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Madrid, Dublin, and many other European cities.
For Spectators and Supporters
The Award Ceremony on Saturday June 27 at 18:00 is the public-facing highlight of the competition week, offering dive enthusiasts, photography fans, and island visitors the opportunity to see the 2026 World Cup winners and their submitted images presented in a formal ceremony context. The competition dive sites themselves are not public spectator areas, but the ceremony and the broader Madeira Underwater Open cultural program around the event are accessible.
Verified Information at a Glance
Item: Confirmed details
- Event name: V Madeira Underwater Open / 2026 CMAS World Cup Underwater Photography and Video
- Event category: International competitive underwater photography and video championship; CMAS World Cup
- Full event dates: Monday June 22 to Sunday June 28, 2026
- Competition diving days: Tuesday June 23, Wednesday June 24, Thursday June 25, 2026 (2 dives per day)
- Jury day: Friday June 26, 2026
- Award Ceremony: Saturday June 27, 2026 at 18:00
- Gala Dinner: Saturday June 27, 2026 at 19:30 (V Madeira Underwater Open)
- Departure: Sunday June 28, 2026
- Venue / HQ hotel: Hotel Vila Galé Santa Cruz, Madeira, Portugal
- Accreditation venue: Iate Clube Santa Cruz
- Competition dive sites: 4 sites (details announced at Technical Meeting June 22)
- Organizer (LOC): Portuguese Underwater Activities Federation (FPAS) and Regional Swimming Association of Madeira (ANM), supervised by CMAS Sports Committee and Visual Commission
- Governing body: CMAS (Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques), founded Monaco 1959, first president Jacques-Yves Cousteau
- Competition categories: Fish, Macro, Wide Angle (photography); Video (teams)
- CMAS registration deadline: Friday May 1, 2026 via portal.cmas.org
- 2025 Photo winners: Fish: Luís Campos and Patrícia Araújo; Macro: Davide Lombroso and Elena Piccoli (Italy)
- Nearest airport: Madeira Airport (FNC) / Cristiano Ronaldo International Airport, adjacent to Santa Cruz
- Underwater visibility: Up to 30 meters
- Water temperature (June): 20 to 23°C
- Official event page: eventsmadeira.com and cmas.org/visual-events
From June 22 to 28, the waters off the coast of Santa Cruz will be host to the world's finest underwater photographers and videographers, diving the same Atlantic whose light and clarity and marine life have made Madeira one of the most sought-after underwater destinations in the world. The images they bring back from the four competition dive sites will go before the CMAS jury on Friday, the awards will be presented on Saturday evening, and the V Madeira Underwater Open will close with a Gala Dinner that celebrates another year of the island proving that what lives beneath its surface is every bit as extraordinary as what rises above it. If you are an underwater photographer, the CMAS registration portal closes on May 1 and your competition begins on June 23. If you are a diver, a photography enthusiast, or simply someone who wants to spend a June week on one of the Atlantic's most beautiful islands while the world's best underwater artists are working in the sea beside you, Madeira in the last week of June 2026 is where you need to be.
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