Sad to hear this. I no longer live in La Jolla but I must have done at least 150 dives at the Marine Room over the years. Perhaps he had a medical emergency brought on by the stress of the situation? It appears the dive ended near high tide. High tide can make this entry/exit tricky because even small swells pound against the seawall, then reflect northwards, meaning you're getting hit by swells from two directions. Tide was 3.9 feet, which isn't particularly high if memory serves me correctly. High tides in the 6 foot range were enough to make me cancel dive plans there. It seemed to me that the higher the tide, the more force the waves had when hitting the seawall, even when the swells were very small.
I do recall one year doing a night dive on July 4th at high tide. It was a bad idea but I was fixated on the idea of swimming out, watching fireworks from the water, then doing a dive. On my way in I passed a group of kayakers exiting via the stairs. The water was high but the swell wasn't bad. I watched the fireworks as planned. But when I surfaced after my dive I could see the waves had gotten much bigger, and spray from the waves pounding the seawall must have been shooting 25 feet in the air! I did not even attempt to exit by the stairs. Instead I swam north to the boat launch area, exited, dropped my weights and walked 10-15 minutes back to my car. I bumped into the kayakers again, who said they were relieved to see me because they were afraid for my safety. I was embarrassed because I clearly should have scratched diving that night but I did make a safe exit.
Like Hatul said, it makes sense to surface early enough to confirm your location and evaluate the exit. If you're still seeing rocks then you're too far south to be thinking about exiting. The area in front of the restaurant/stairs is pure sand all the way to the canyon. Other than that one night dive I never had an anxious moment at Marine Room. I was more worried about my car getting broken into.
If it's still being offered, I would recommend the 3Rs program (Rocks, Rips and Reefs) that was being offered when I lived in the area. Retired lifeguards take groups into the water and teach them all about how to safely navigate shore entry/exits, avoid hazards, and what to do if you end up pinned against rocks. Just the sort of things you need to know for diving La Jolla's rocky reef sites. Stay safe.
