Fatality Horseshoe Bay May 21/10

[DaleC]

Todd, Hunter, Kyle, Stuart and I heard about it at the tradeshow yesterday. Sad. I wonder if Sintax (Scott) knows if it was someone from his Thursday night diving group (hope not).

 

[Julian55]

not that I have heard.

 

[Sintax604]

Todd, Hunter, Kyle, Stuart and I heard about it at the tradeshow yesterday. Sad. I wonder if Sintax (Scott) knows if it was someone from his Thursday night diving group (hope not).

Nope, we moved our dive up to Wednesday in light of the long weekend... everyone is fine.

Man, what a way to kick off fair weather diving season. Poor guy.

 

[retireddiver]

I know both these divers very well as a matter the survivor is my bro, the deceased, my key employee of 6 years, as a very experienced diver myself I have a lot of unanswered questions of what happened here, if anyone can help i would like to know alittle more about the dive site itself, depth and currents.

 

[TheWetRookie]

I know both these divers very well as a matter the survivor is my bro, the deceased, my key employee of 6 years, as a very experienced diver myself I have a lot of unanswered questions of what happened here, if anyone can help i would like to know alittle more about the dive site itself, depth and currents.

Hi Retireddiver, Thanks for coming and posting. I am sorry for your loss but glad that you brother is still alive.

You might be hard pressed to find information on this dive site as it is restricted access there. Other than your brother and friend I don't know anyone that has dove there.

The closest site Ansell, just north of there is wall dive which I have dove a number of times has moderate-steep sandy slopes and then lots of vertical rock. We are diving on the side of a mountain so that type of terrain would be what your brother would be diving on. I have only explored down to about 130' but I am sure that it does go deeper. Vis varies with the time of year. I dove there last week and the top 30 was pretty bad. You could lose your buddy very easily if you were not paying attention.

Sorry I can't be of more help.

 

[bighiller]

The tides weren't that strong on Friday at the time of the accident, according to X the tidal change was about 2.8M over about 6hrs and was flooding. (tides)

The weather wasn't that bad either (Weather)

According to charts, the depth can reach 150M pretty quickly as Ansell Point is a wall dive.

Hard to see how one could go from Ansell to Pasco Rd. with the current heading north on a flood. Granted the current would be pretty weak, but it's still a heck of a distance to cover.

 

[BradnerBoy]

I know both these divers very well as a matter the survivor is my bro, the deceased, my key employee of 6 years, as a very experienced diver myself I have a lot of unanswered questions of what happened here, if anyone can help i would like to know alittle more about the dive site itself, depth and currents.

Retireddiver,

My condolences on the loss of your friend/employee.

Have you had the opportunity to speak with your brother yet to get any additional information? In time, you or he may wish to consider posting the details of the accident here: Accidents and Incidents - ScubaBoard

Perhaps the details of what lead up to his accident could be of use to divers in the future and possibly prevent something similar from happening to someone else.

 

[sschlesi]

I know both these divers very well as a matter the survivor is my bro, the deceased, my key employee of 6 years, as a very experienced diver myself I have a lot of unanswered questions of what happened here, if anyone can help i would like to know alittle more about the dive site itself, depth and currents.

Retireddiver, I offer my condolences to you and your brother.

I'm assuming that the two divers started their dive at the site known as Ansell Place. Getting down the hill, and over the rocks to reach the water can be a challenge, but once in the water this is a relatively easy wall dive. The main section of the wall is south toward Pasco Road. There are a couple of shallow benches before the main wall drops to around 120' deep. Venturing further from shore the water gets plenty deep, but SCUBA divers normally wouldn't leave the wall. I know that free divers use this area to practice dives to 300' deep. I have dove here on large ebbs and floods and never experienced significant current. I recall reading a post in this forum about a group encountering a significant down welling at Ansell a few years ago, that is rare but not impossible. There is often a mild surge above about 25'.

Heading south the wall ends well before Pasco Road and gives way to mostly steep sand/scree slopes. Divers usually turn back and continue to dive on the wall. The surface topography suggests there may be another wall near the houses on Pasco Road, I was there one day when a group decided to check for more walls to the south, they surfaced at their furthest point which was past the first two or three houses on Pasco Road, they said the sandy slopes continue as far as they went. Pasco Road is further south than most divers venture, but well within reasonable swimming range.

 

[bighiller]

Are there any more updates on this accident? I've had a few people at work ask me about it (resident diver_, but I've had nothing to offer and news.google.ca doesn't seem to have much.

 

[retireddiver]

I was at the sene, saw where they entered and surfaced, 1200-1300ft swim seems like a long way to go, you tell me? He surfaced cried for help, then drowned while waiting for assistance.