David Shaw, what happened? Who was he?

[DaleC]

I also don't find solace in the old "he died doing something he loved" quip either but I guess I look at it as "he lived doing something he loved". It sounds like word semantics but it isn't.

 

[Huck BB62]

May I ask what you do for a living Huck?

Power plant/pipeline operations and maintenance from A-Z!

I haven't checked on this post for awhile. Thanks for the kind words folks. I guess after reading the book, I had to get it out.

On the bright side, this did get me thinking how nice it would be to have a reasonably priced communications set-up. I think I'll look into it.

I do believe a lot of us look at safety, at least in the US, very differently these days. It's so much more a part of our culture than it used to be. I've seen guys get hurt so badly and so many near misses over the years. Some could be avoided, some maybe not. All events have one thing in common, we can learn from them or not. It's hard to get Monday morning quarterbacked after an event. I can say that I've never been hurt on the job.

By the way, right about now, I do so miss the water!!! I'm going bonkers waiting for my next trip. You folks who live close to the warm and blue are luuuuuuucky!

 

[Herk_Man]

Horrible tragedy. Very sad. But this cave is extremely intriguing. Does it have a name? I'd like to do some reading on it just out of curiosity. Does anyone actually know how deep it goes? Is it just a vertical hole? What kind of temperature issues are involved? etc.

 

[idocsteve]

Horrible tragedy. Very sad. But this cave is extremely intriguing. Does it have a name? I'd like to do some reading on it just out of curiosity. Does anyone actually know how deep it goes? Is it just a vertical hole? What kind of temperature issues are involved? etc.

It's filled with water.

That's all I got

 

[Reg Braithwaite]

Horrible tragedy. Very sad. But this cave is extremely intriguing. Does it have a name? I'd like to do some reading on it just out of curiosity. Does anyone actually know how deep it goes? Is it just a vertical hole? What kind of temperature issues are involved? etc.

Boesmansgat

 

[Herk_Man]

Wow, did a little poking around on this. This link is to Dave's website. Very eerie as it is still in format as if nothing ever happened with the day by day schedule of events leading up to and past the fatal incident. No memoriam page or indication anywhere that anything bad ever happened.

http://www.deepcave.com/pages/3/index.htm

And the cave is called Bushman's Hole in South Africa if anyone wants to research the cave itself. Another very sad thing is that according to Wikipedia, the day after the incident, BOTH bodies surfaced on their own.

 

[Herk_Man]

A very good short version of the story from ABCNews.

Underwater Adventure: Cave Divers Face Death - ABC News

 

[Herk_Man]

A more extensive account of the event. And to answer a previous question, the headless body was not Dave Shaw, it was Deon Dreyer, the diver who had died in the hole 10 years prior and whom Dave Shaw was attempting to recover. Dave had managed to dislodge the body from the silt and mud at the bottom but died when his light became entangled in some lines. A day or so after the accident, both bodies rose on their own to about 70' and were recovered by Dave's support crew.

Bushmans Hole | News - BIG BLUE TECH - Technical Diving Thailand

 

[webjr]

ABC Primetime "The Outsiders" did a documentary that was very good. I have it broken into 8 50meg mpg files. I haven't posted it online because I'm not sure of copyright restrictions and 50meg files are too big to email. I would be glad to share if someone has an idea how best to do it? Most of my dive friends localy have borrowed my DVD at one time or another.

 

[Herk_Man]

And what is really amazing is when you put this vertical story in horizontal perspective. Imagine placing three football fields (not including end zones) end to end. That's really not that far. And that's all the water above these guys that it took to make this so dangerous. Now imagine just one of those football fields. It takes a good runner about 10 seconds to cover it sprinting. For most of us, that is 2 and possibly 3 times deeper than we will ever dive. And it's considered deep. Water is very very powerful stuff.

Sorry for getting so "deep." I guess this story just affected me and I needed to get a grip on it in terms I could understand... and I felt like sharing.