Bodies Recovered in School Sink aka Wayne's World, Hudson, FL

[Rick Murchison]

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A ScubaBoard Staff Message...

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[Rick Murchison]

This just in from Mike Edmondson

Joe and Yessic were my friends. They were intelligent, good fathers, and loved their families very much. Between the 2 of them they left 7 kids behind. 2 of which I know read these boards.

When I heard the news on Wed about 2 divers missing at Wayne's world, my heart sank. I knew it was them, I don't know how, but I just knew it. My friends are dead.

As I said in an earlier post, there is information that I would like to share about Joe and Yessic, that hopefully will help someone avoid making the same mistakes that they did.

I met Joe last year in Hudson, after his mother passed away. She left him a sizable inheritance, and since he was well off anyway, he decided to use the money to help upcoming cave divers and public safety dive teams with needed equipment and training. Hence the Divers Chance Foundation (DCF) came to be. Due to geographical distances and logistics, Yessic was to provide open water training for the candidates, and I would provide the gear. We had many a dinner together discussing proper attitude and motivation for DCF candidates. Some of the requirements that I insisted on were volunteer work by the candidates with either the NACD, or NSS-CDS or both. These were to include spring cleanups etc... The DCF was not a freebie gear organization, but for Joe, it was a way to share his love of diving and caves with young souls that really wanted to pursue in this activity.

I am glad that the DCF helped a few divers realize their dreams.

Once word of his inheritance got out, his ex wife sued for half of the inheritance money. She had lawyers block all his accounts, and Joe was left without a cent while lawyers tried to figure all this out. This prompted the "Ex-wife sale" in which Joe got rid of all his equipment on line. He was extremely distraught about this matter, and I explained to him that he should take a break from diving for a while, until he could get himself together.

A few weeks ago, Joe calls me from the hospital, telling me he got bent at the nest! I promptly said ***!!! He told me that HE READ THE INFORMATION ON LINE, and that since he didn't have a trimix cert, he and Yessic dove air. They planned on decoing on 32% and "cleaning up" on 80% as he put it. He did not use a plan, and was diving off Yessic's VR3 (they were sharing). He also told me that Yessic called the dive early because of a catastrophic gas failure, in which they were forced to isolate. Due to the loss of gas, they were not able to complete their deco plan.

I was at a loss for words. I pleaded with him to never ever do this again. That they got VERY lucky to make it out, and that they had no business being in there.

Not long after that, Joe contacted me about getting advanced Nitrox certified so that he could get his o2 filled. That seemed to be the inherent problem, shops refused to fill their tanks with Trimix or 100% o2 without certs. Knowing that he had only been diving a short while, I asked him why he wanted this class, specially without decompression procedures. He told me he wanted to dive the Nest and Wayne's world! I just about jumped through the phone and told him to never ever go into that system, as he won't make it out. He repeatedly told me that Yessic was confident as a CAVE DIVER and that he trusted Yessic to get him out if a problem happened. I asked him if he was Cave certified, and he told me he had finished Cavern and was working on Intro with Rich Courtney. I contacted Rich Tuesday night, and he told me that Joe never finished cavern due to a strained back. The last time I talked with Joe, was about 1 week or so ago. He wanted me to take him through Cave 1. I asked him why he didn't continue with Rich, he told me that it was going too slow, and that he NEEDED to get certified. I refused. I told Joe that I did not believe he had the proper mindset or attitude to do these dives, with everything going on in his life right now. He told me that Yessic needed a buddy, and he was going to dive with him. I pleaded with him to come dive a wreck with us, it was free, we have a boat, just show up and let's dive just to dive.

...that was the last time I heard my friend's voice...

In a nutshell, these were 2 good guys that got in way over their heads. They knew better. They were told not to do these things. They didn't listen, they thought that the rules didn't apply. It was inevitable...

Now... We are left picking up the pieces.

To the new diver that "doesn't think this applies to you". Take a look, take a very hard look at yourself, your family and your friends. When you die, you hurt all of us.. ALOT..!

Joe and Yessic died because they made a SERIES OF BAD DECISIONS!

Unfortunately, cave diving is not forgiving. Please, please keep this in mind. I have a student that asked me last week, "Do you teach a cave rescue class?", I answered "There are no cave rescues, only body recoveries"

I really want to thank Chris, Heather, Bert, Bobby, Steve, Willem, Andre and everyone that was there for me yesterday. Your words meant allot to me, and I thank you.

I also want to thank Brett and Paul for going into that cave, knowing what they would find, and getting my friends out of their tomb. I am eternally grateful to you 2, for doing a thankless job. You are akin to the firefighters that risk their lives to bring someone out, even when you know the grim outcome beforehand. You are true professionals in actions as well as words.

I hope this post helps make some sense of all this

Farewell my friends.

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Mike Edmonston - NAUI Technical / Trimix / Cave Instructor
Oxycheq Experimental Dive Team Test Pilot