Diver Missing Off La Jolla Shores

[tracydr]

FTR, what was reported (and what I've been told separately) is that he was joining a Meetup group. The group apparently was there and dove. (Not sure how many in the group.) According to people in the group, they never saw him. What's not been reported is whether or not the spot where his car was found was near the meeting place or entry point for the Meetup dive. I'd be curious to know that detail, since it might shed light on whether he was in the wrong spot or whether he arrived late (or early or on the wrong date) or whether someone's not telling the truth about him showing up and entering with them.



I certainly have no problem with qualified divers choosing to dive solo. However, personally, I will never do a solo dive from the beach. Boats??? No problem.

The reason is that I'm relatively certain that if something were to go wrong, I will be able to cause myself to end up at the surface, whether conscious or unconscious. (And I reaslize not everyone wil agree with the merits of my underlying assumption but I'd rather not get into a debate about those.) On a boat, we've got people (DMs) who are looking at the water and constantly scanning for problems so I'm comfortable that I'll be spotted and that if I've got a chance to survive, the DM response will give that to me.

On a beach, howver, that's usually not the case. Many beaches here in SoCal are ungaurded. And even at the ones that are, the lifeguards are more likely paying attention to a relatively small area that's relatively close to shore. This is not a knock against the lifeguards, just the nature of the beast. They may not be watching a couple of hundred yards offshore where a diver in trouble might surface.

So personally for me, I'm not at all a fan of solo beach diving and I try to discourage people who ask me about it from doing that for the reasons cited above.

- Ken

On the rare occasions that my husband dives solo, I'm on the shore to spot/provide support. Or, we're on a boat, in a group. He gives me his dive plan and sticks to it.

 

[Power Scuba]

Don,

Partially incorrect. I was in contact with lifeguards from the evening he went missing onward, but Jeff was never "scheduled" to meet up with us as he hadn't RSVPed on the event page nor contacted anyone in the group. He told his wife he was going to meet a new dive group at the Shores... and she found our group in the browsing history of his PC. That's how she and the lifeguards made the connection.

As I said before it's likely he intended to "just show up" at our meeting place, but there are other diving meetup groups, so it's not certain he was looking for PS.

Bill

It was mentioned in post #1 news story quoted...

Unless that was incorrect, or perhaps it was someone in your group contacted?

 

[Power Scuba]

I hate like hell to do this, but in the interests of accuracy I must share: Though many people originally thought (including myself) the missing diver, Jeff May, was a member of my group, no evidence now exists of that.

My Organizers and I DID find a Power Scuba profile of a man who strongly resembled Jeff May. (The resemblance between our member's profile pic and the missing diver's "missing persons" pic was uncanny.) This member had the first name of "Jeff" on said profile, came from the North West and curently lived in Oceanside (like the missing diver), was experienced (like, supposedly, the missing diver), and had joined the group just a few days before the incident on Memorial Day... but THAT Jeff attended an event we held last week. Was talked to by other members and was quite alive.

The detective in charge of the case, the lifeguards, and I all thought we had found the profile, on my group, of the missing diver.

At any rate, it matters not very much at this point, but I wanted to set the record as straight as possible. It now appears the missing diver was either intending to 1)meet up with another group entirely or 2)totally crash our event, not even being a member. In reality he did neither and, in all liklihood, went in diving by himself.

Cheers,

 

[DandyDon]

THAT Jeff attended an event we held last week. Was talked to by other members and was quite alive.

That could have been startling.

 

[Kaymay84]

Hello Everyone, I am the wife of Jeffrey May, the diver that was missing on Memorial Day at LaJolla Shores, San Diego County CA - and then found by Capt. Shane Thompson on June 3, 2012. I wanted to inform everyone of the REAL details known by his family. Jeff was supposed to meet a group from Meet up.com to introduce himself for a dive that day. He was neither a member or had ever met with the group in the past. Jeff was looking for new divers to buddy with and thought that was a good place to start. Jeff called the house that morning at 7:45am and left a message on my phone that he made from a strangers phone. He was informing me that he misplaced his cell phone at either home or Starbucks. He never mentioned anything about going on a dive alone or missing his dive group. I started to get worried about Jeff around 1pm. I did not have a phone to contact him with. I thought he was stuck in traffic on Memorial Day. I never thought he was still in the water because he was supposed to be on a buddy dive and nobody called me. We called hospitals, traffic police and other officials before someone finally suggested to talk to the Lifeguard Station. It was a rough day. Well, the search for him was admirable, and we thank all of the professionals and volunteers that searched for Jeff. Jeff was a great man, husband, and father. It has taken 4 months (just this week) for us to get any information from the county officials on his autopsy. The report came back as an accidental drowning, although Jeff had significant heart disease including an enlarged heart and blockages in his right coronary artery. As you may all know, being in that water for 6 days made if very difficult to determine the exact cause. His heart was very diseased and we never knew it. Bottom line, he most likely had a heart attack or some natural cardiac event which caused him to not surface. He did not have any releasable weights on him, although he did have 8 pounds of waits intergrated into his vest (which he most likely could not remove). He tried to save himself. Also, I would NEVER had let Jeff go out alone in those waters (which I come to find out he has done many times solo). I certainly would not have waited hours to contact officials if I knew he was in those waters alone. This is a grave lesson for all - NEVER DIVE ALONE. In this case, even a buddy may not have been able to save Jeff. His heart was too week and we never knew. He was only 45 and appeared healthy and active. He loved that water and I hope it was as quick and painless as possible. Here are the facts.

 

[DandyDon]

Thanks for posting that info, Kaymay. I know this is hard for you and wish there was some way we could be more supportive.