At the risk of "speaking out of turn" I would like to offer some speculation. The purpose is to encourage an open dialogue rather than asssign blame or create hard feelings. I have spoken to and heard from any number of sources ranging from "scientific divers" affiliated with the Sea Life center to friends of the family and am nothing but sympathetic to this whole incident. Above all, my heart goes out to the family and my prayers are with them. I would like to propose the following speculation for considerstion. WHAT IF... as the divers descend, it begins to occur to a diver that maybe that new undergarment didn't REALLY require the extra 8 lbs of weight he was wearing. Oh well he thought, I can handle it because I really dont want to come across as unsure or less than confident. As the divers reached depth, (115 ft) the breathing gas, now some 4 1/2 times more dense began to flow with a marked decrease in efficiency. The turbulence in the airways (first stage, hose, 2nd stage, trachea, bronchioles, and alveoli) meant there was an inefficiency in complete gas exchange. As the dive progressed, the diver retained more CO2 which then triggered the respiratory system to breathe even faster. More volume demand through the regulator and associated airways created even more turbulence (see reynolds number) and therefore increased CO2 retention (hypercapnia) and subsequently increased anxiety and CO2 norcosis. Finally, the diver knowing that he was not 100%, signalled the need to ascend. As the ascent begins, a sense of urgency sets in, and workload increases. Finally, upon reaching the safety stop depth the diver has so much air in his BCD to offset the extra weight that every little fluctuation in depth creates such a change in bouyancy that he has difficulty in "holding" his stop depth. At some point, the additional workload and subsequent hypercapnia presents such a demand on the regulator that he thinks it is not supplying him with gas and signals "out-of-air" to his buddy and swims toward the surface. Upon surfacing, he has become so exhausted that the swim to the shore is difficult. Coupled with the belief that he was out of gas, there is no other option than "ditching" is weight belt. ( An action that 85% of all drowned diver DO NOT do) It is a real credit to the diver that he attempted to do so, but in the belief that an unintentially lost weight belt at depth would present problems, he might have chose to secure the belt UNDER his harness therefore rendering it non-ditchable. (A VERY credible reason). Alas, in a fight for his life he acts as some would call "panic" he went in to an auto-pilot mode of survival which unfortunately in this divers case...was lost. Again, I am NOT saying that any of these speculations are fact or even possibilities, but rather trying to spark some thought about what divers need to consider EVEN at an "advanced" status. The fact is, I dove 1 mile from the location of this incident today, and because I switched from a 200 gram thinsulate undergarment to a 400 gram undergarment, I added 12 lbs. It turned out to be slightly less than I ultimately needed, there was some uncertainty and speculation involved. NONE of us are immune no matter how confident we may be.....**** happens. Please evaluate how you dive, seek a lifetime of training and experience, and learn from others mistakes. God bless Matthew Myers family, and god bless you that your family will never know the heart ache of a diving accident.