Canadian dies in Hawaii

[DandyDon]

From Okotoks man dies while scuba diving in Hawaii

CALGARY — An Okotoks man has died while scuba diving in “rough surf” off the coast of Hawaii’s Big Island.
Police say William Savage, 59, was with a scuba diving tour north of Honokhau when he ran into some trouble.
“He was diving and a large surge pushed him into an underwater tunnel,” said Chris Loos, a spokeswoman for the Hawaii Police Department.
“He managed to get out of the tunnel and climb out onto some rocks when a second surge came up and hit him,” she said Wednesday.
“He was knocked into the water and he didn’t come back up.”
When Savage failed to surface, other members of the tour pulled him onto the boat and began CPR, before emergency responders rushed him to hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
An autopsy has been ordered to determine the exact cause of death, which will take about a week, Loos said.
Savage’s death is the third drowning in the area in the past week, said Loos. Two of the victims were tourists while the third was a local.

 

[bleeb]

Okotoks man drowns on Hawaii scuba trip
[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation/Canadian Press]

No major additional details.

 

[DandyDon]

Okotoks man drowns on Hawaii scuba trip
[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation/Canadian Press]

No major additional details.

From the limited info given, it sounds like he got caught in rough waters close to shore, pushed into a submerged lava tube, made it out, then sought safety on a rock - from there knocked off, perhaps with out his reg in place, perhaps hitting another rock? Sad that he could not make it to the boat.

 

[cuddlefish]

We here in Kona are very saddened by this tragedy.

 

[Thalassamania]

From West Hawaii Today:

Autopsy confirms man drowned

An autopsy on Thursday confirmed a 49-year-old Canadian man drowned while diving Wednesday in waters off North Kona, according to the Hawaii Police Department.

William Savage of Okotoks, Alberta, was scuba diving with a chartered tour when he got caught in a reef area north of Honokohau Small Boat Harbor in Kona. A large surge reportedly rolled in and Savage did not surface, according to police. He was brought to shore and transported to Kona Community Hospital where he died.

 

[DandyDon]

The part that gets me is that he escaped the tube, crawled out of the water onto a rock, probably had his reg out of his mouth on the rock, then got hit by the wave and drowned. He might have got slammed onto another rock and injured or knocked out - I dunno, but I've read of too many who did drown after spitting their regs out on surface - then hit by a wave.

Rough waters and rocks are always a bad mix tho. I still have a small scar on my chest from a snorkeling incident 12 or more years ago that I got that way.

 

[frontiernurse]

I dove in Kona last year and there is a site they called "suck em up" where if its gentle enough, you can go into little water penninsulas by the shoreline. We were instructed to stay low, as it was always surgy, to avoid having the surge pull us to the surface and risk being swept onto/into the rocks. It wasn't scary or dramatic but I was leery. I stayed back from the parts closest to the shore and really hugged the bottom. I don't know if this was the scenario here, but what would folks do if they suddenly found themselves "sucked up" by surge near a rocky shoreline? Obviously keep reg in mouth, all air out of BCD (if manageable what with getting tossed around in surf) and try to get back down... what else? Again, I'm TOTALLY speculating on a possible scenario and I don't know if this is what happened in this case. Probably not as I don't recall there being tubes there...