Blue Sink spring free diving fatality - Palm Harbor, Florida

[DandyDon]

Diver drowns in Palm Harbor spring

PALM HARBOR, Fla. - An experienced diver apparently drowned while diving in a Palm Harbor spring Thursday afternoon.

Pinellas County deputies say they were called to the natural spring known as the "Blue Sink" off Rolling Oaks Drive just before 2 p.m. Witnesses told them that Trevor Harris had been free diving in the spring with a snorkel and never resurfaced.

Clearwater Fire & Rescue and Palm Harbor Fire Rescue divers tried to find Harris but were unable due to the depth and visibility of the water, deputies said. The sheriff's office dive team was also unsuccessful.

The spring is about 145 feet deep and is around 600 feet by 800 feet at the bottom.

Deputies say Harris, 30, had swam there over 50 times.

Impairment does not appear to be a factor, they noted, and foul play is not suspected.

They were still working to recover his body Thursday evening.

 

[Manatee Diver]

They need to call IUCRR before one of their divers also ends up dead.

 

[boulderjohn]

Divers recover body of man who drowned in Palm Harbor spring Thanksgiving day

IUCRR was involved--is there a cave associated with that spring?

 

[Manatee Diver]

Divers recover body of man who drowned in Palm Harbor spring Thanksgiving day

IUCRR was involved--is there a cave associated with that spring?

Not much information on the sink. But based on one divers description it is a classic sink hole with a couple of small cave tunnels. And very silty.

 

[helodriver87]

If it's really 600x800 feet at the bottom, it hourglasses out pretty significantly. It looks like it's maybe 100x100 up top. If the viz wasn't good, it would be super easy to accidentally get into enough overhead to prevent surfacing on a breath hold. I'm never going to understand the appeal of ******* around in overhead areas while freediving.

 

[Satrekker]

Very sad. Not many details. Did he have a dive buddy? When I read free diving the first 2 things that came to mind were 1. Did he have a buddy? 2. Shallow water blackout.

 

[Shasta_man]

If silty, I'd speculate that Helodriver's speculation about not being able to figure out where the surface is is a strong possibility.

 

[JahJahwarrior]

Meanwhile, the freedivers who post pictures of themselves free diving into state parks that don't allow entry without cavern/cave certification, get insulted when they are told to knock it off in the North Florida Springs Alliance facebook page.

I don't ever want to stop someone from being enthusiastic about Florida's springs and sinkholes. I'm so happy to see people enjoying these amazing resources. I absolutely want to stop them from freediving or exceeding their certifications when diving in Florida's springs and sinkholes. I'm so angry to see people foolishly risking their lives, and risking our access as well.

On the other hand, normalization of deviance is real. How many of us have done a visual jump 49 times without anything bad happening?

 

[DeepSea]

I'm never going to understand the appeal of ******* around in overhead areas while freediving.

I would expect there are many that don't understand diving in caves to begin with.

 

[boulderjohn]

I would expect there are many that don't understand diving in caves to begin with.

I really don't want to speculate on this particular case, but I don't think anyone can fully understand how disorienting it can be until they have done it. Years ago we had a thread in which a non-cave diver talked about entering one entrance at Ginnie Springs (Devil's Eye) and making a quick trip over to the other entrance a relative few feet away (Devil's Ear). How hard could that be? Under water, that "quick trip" is very different. I did a few dives there in my early cave training before I looked at a map to to see how the other opening a few feet to my left on the surface ended up so far away and to my right inside the cave.

But we don't know if there is a cave here. Let's say it is just a sinkhole, as helodriver describes. I have dived frequently in such a sinkhole for many years. In one of my early training dives there, we came to the end of a dive, and I was supposed to shoot a bag. We were near the wall, and we knew it had an overhang. We swam out toward the middle of the lake quite a way out, at which point I shot my bag. It hit the ceiling about 50 feet above me. Now that I instruct in that sinkhole, I have learned the places where my students can count on getting their bags all the way up and not trapped in a ledge above.