Hello Everyone:
This is Stacy Kaliszewski, Dans neice in-law. My mother in-law is Dan's sister, Janet.
I am writing to first of all thank everyone for all that they have done for Uncle Danny. He was obviously a very loved and admired person by so many people. His family here in the states had no idea how he touched so many people all over the world. We knew how great he was, but it is very consoling to know that so many others were able to share that amazing love.
The second reason that I am writing is to ask any of you who have pictures or video of uncle Dan and his family (as is mentioned in the message from ScubaTom); it would be greatly appreciated if you could somehow get me copies of them. We have some pictures, but since we only saw him once a year or so breifly, we don't have many. It would be nice for his family to have some pictures to remember him by. If anyone has any digital pictures that they could send me I would be so greatful. My email address is
skaliszewski@comcast.net. I should be able to recieve quite a few photos at that address. If you can't email them, you can mail a CD of them to: Stacy Kaliszewski, P.O. Box 107, Hartland, MI 48353. I really appreciate any response I get to this request. Janet and her children would be so greatful.
Thank you again for all of your thoughts and prayers during this very difficult time for all of us. We also appreciate those who have offered their time, money and experise in the dive world. Before we learned of this forum we knew nothing about diving other than that was what Uncle Danny did.
THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!
Stacy Kaliszewski
QUOTE=ScubaTom34]At this point, I think we are all realizing there is not going to be a good ending to this accident. I hope everyone involved in the search will share all possible information on the events so that we can learn from this terrible loss of our good friend.
Thanks, Mary Muir, for filling in lots of the details on Danielle's gear and the swimsuit that wasn't her's. I also agree totally with your assessment of the Dive Alert horn in the conditions there.
Last December we dove Pure Magic in similar conditions. I spent the dive doing video of Dan and Cory. Dan was practicing buddy breathing with him, shutting his air off a couple times to make sure he reacted right, which he did. Then they played with a bunch of cleaner shrimp on Magic Mountian, Dan had them crawling into his mouth, then Cory tried it too. The dive plan was to end the dive with a safety stop hanging on the mooring line atop Magic Mountain in the current, then surface and be picked up by the boat. The problem came when the mooring line was missing. You could hide from the current at about 20 feet at the top of the mountain, but once above that, the current was too much to hold your position against, at least with a big video system. I stayed at 20 feet as long as I could, then went to ten and was trying to hold my position when I saw the boat come back after picking up other divers from down current. At that point, I decided to stop fighting the current, relax and go with the flow. Even though I cut that stop short at three minutes, when I surfaced, the boat was 200-300 yards away in 4-5 foot seas. My first move was to blast on my Dive Alert horn every time I was on a crest and could see the boat. As Mary points out, when the wind is wrong and the water rough, they can't hear it. Next, I started fumbling around trying to get my sausage out while hanging on to my video system, very hard to do. Fortunately, Alisi was on top of the cabin scaning the water and looked my way while I was on a crest and saw me wave.
Ever since Dan and Danielle went missing, I've gone over and over this dive in my mind. What they were in was probably much more extreme both in regards to current and surface conditions. Knowing how fast I was moved away from the boat that I was directly under three minutes earlier, I can easily understand how they could have been totally out of reach before they surfaced.
So what to do in the future? Two things have been foremost in my mind. Early on, George Taylor mentioned that never again will he buy black gear for rental equipment. I had never thought of it, but bright colored BC's and wetsuits are a great idea in a search situation. I know Dan, just like me, always had a black one. Hell, 30 some years ago when we started diving, that is all there was, and I never gave it a thought. The bright colors looked great on the pretty girls.
The other thing I have thought of, is a review I read a year or two ago of a safety sausage developed by photographer Stephen Frink, stephenfrink.com. This is a 6 foot tall, BC mounted giant sausage. He developed it to be a hands-free system for people with their hands full of camera gear. Inflate your BC, pull the ripcord, and it's up there. At the time, I decided a six foot sausage was overkill, and it was a bit pricey too. Now, the advantage of that giant, that is permanently errect as long as your BC is inflated, appears priceless. You would be visible at a much longer range to search vessels and planes, plus, how long could you hold up that hand-held version we all carry? Think of the boat that is looking for you, that is just out of your sight. I'm not sure if that sausage can be retrofitted to my Zeagle Ranger BC, but I intend to have one before my next trip into similar waters.
I still hope my good friend is found. My hat is off to all the family members of both Dan and Danielle who have posted to this list, you have handled this extremely well, and have my deepest sympathy.
Tom Reese[/QUOTE]