My Instructor died

[Jamesmb]

on a dive right before we did our third OW checkout dive. I remember at Vortex Spring back on March 19, 1989. Him and his dive buddy both drowned. Here is a link I put up on the website find a grave with a news clipping of that.

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg...owCemPhotos=Y&

[ScubaToys Larry]

That is both very sad and strange...

[3rdEye]

very strange that they barely used any of their air, sorry to read that.

[meesier42]

there is something wrong with this article, I don't know what but there is something wrong. a pair of expirienced divers don't drown in 40 ft of water with only 200PSI out of their tanks unless there is something going on. If that is actually right, I would highly suspect CO poinsoning

[cummings66]

It's sad to hear of a death, and puzzling how they ended up with the bruises and scratches on a mask.

I know once when diving I was along side a wall and a big rock came down and hit me, they move faster than you'd think. It turned out a diver above me was rototilling and kicked the rock off a ledge. Luckily it hit my body on a glancing blow. That experience makes me wonder if that happened to them because it sure is odd both divers had problems like that at once.

Did they ever resolve it or are we left with only the clippings here?

[freediver]

Very unfortunate indeed. It said they were found near the entrance to the cave so it seems they may have panicked from the silt out conditions and hit their face and head (causing the wounds) in an effort to exit the silt. Unfortunately, panic has a way of determining your decisions underwater, such as not utilizing the air remaining in a cylinder.

[WV Diver]

It would seem something was overlooked by investigators here. Very sad.

[Dive Master]

I was certified and have done all of my advanced training at the Scuba Center of Inman,SC.I know both Jan (Dale's wife) and her daughter.I have dove with both of them at Lake Jocassee. Donnie (now the owner of the shop) and Jan both discussed the accident with me during my training.It is their belief that both diviers died due to carbon monixide poisoning.They were known to surface into air pockets, take the regs out of their mouths,and have a short conversation.This is something I would have never thought of and I am glad Donnie and Jan warned me about this danger. The other theory is they could have bumped thier heads into the rock in silty conditions but it is unlikely both divers would have done this.No one will ever know what really happened.

[RoadRacer1978]

Very strange story. I would have to say that there were alot of unanswered questions left. Who really knows what happened and since it does not appear to have been any further investigated I guess we never will.

[ianr33]

Did either of these guys have any cave training?