800 feet? Or the Moon?

[Gdaaym8z]

I realize this is an old thread but just read through it from a link in the current "Everest" thread. I didn't see anyone else mention this but Dave Shaw's website is still up and viewable. It obviously hasn't been updated since his death. It has some of his journal/dive log entries. Interesting stuff.

DEEP CAVE

Gday.

 

[neuro]

I was just doing some reading around on this, and I noticed that Mark Ellyatt's dive in Thailand is not on this list. Was Ellyatt's dive regarded as "disqualified" for some reason?

Actually, this list is wrong. Not only Mark Ellyatt is missing, but also polish diver Dariusz Wilamowski, who hit 246m in the Garda lake (IT). Yes, in COLD water ;]

Cheers,
p.

 

[Tortuga68]

That would probably be because the thread was started before Daruisz made the dive

And there was some controversy surrounding the actual depth of Ellyat's dive

 

[Dr Wu]

Actually, this list is wrong. Not only Mark Ellyatt is missing, but also polish diver Dariusz Wilamowski, who hit 246m in the Garda lake (IT). Yes, in COLD water ;]

Cheers,
p.

It also does not include any of the bodies on the bottom of the ocean that at some point hit 800 feet on the way down.

 

[Thalassamania]

I've been to way more than 800 feet (in a submersible) but I've never been to the moon, once upon a time I did hope to be able to go there.

Back in the mid 1980s I went to dinner with Alan Shepard after a conference, it was a few of early astronauts (Mercury and Gemini) and a bunch of underwater types. The underwater folks were giving Shepard a hard time about the money that went into the space program and how little was being spent on undersea work. He turned to us and said, "I know what's really going on here, on the last moon shot I got to go and none of you did."

 

[Hammerhead]

On a serious note, I spent the last two days researching David Shaw, his world record breaking dive, his last dive, and his life in general. He was a remarkable man and a remarkable diver.

I live in Hong Kong and knew Dave socially. Never dived with him, but talked a bit of tech and rebreathers a couple of times (another friend of mine was John Bennet), so we had a bit in common.

Not sure if my memory is 100% on this, but I know it's close; Dave died before he had completed 350 dives, which seems a very low number to what he was trying to achieve on his final dive.

From others I spoke to after the event, it became obvious that nothing was going to get in his way.

John was similarly driven, although in his case, his death has the feel of a freak accident.

In either case, both men left a partner and children behind, which saddens me.

 

[Tortuga68]

IIRC Shaw had 333 logged dives

Clearly he was a talented diver, but it's possible that if he'd had more experience he may have survived what turned out to be his final dive

He did his certification training in Puerto Galera, but I don't know if he knew JB

 

[Rhone Man]

Don't want to be disrespectful to the dead, but I am told that when more experienced cave divers watch the video of Shaw's death, they can just feel it going wrong as "little" bad decisions continue to mount up. I think Philip Finch wrote something to that effect in his book.

Just saying.

 

[Dr Wu]

?.. "little" bad decisions continue to mount up.

The entire dive was a bad decision.

Unless it's primary goal was a grab for attention. In that case it worked well.

People are still talking about it.

Which is something.

 

[Rhone Man]

The entire dive was a bad decision.

I'd probably agree with that. I should probably have said "little errors of execution".