Man, 20, Dies Free Diving Off San Clemente Island

[smclean]

Condolences to his family and friends..

LOS ANGELES The body of a 20-year-old man who died Sunday while free diving off San Clemente Island, about 75 miles northwest of San Diego, arrived at Los Angeles Harbor Sunday night, authorities said.

A Los Angeles-based charter boat reported about 2:50 p.m. that a free diver had been missing for about 30 minutes, said Petty Officer 1st Class Anastasia Devlin of the U.S. Coast Guard.

The Coast Guard launched a search boat, but before it arrived, the charter vessel's crew radioed to say they had found the man's body in the water and were recovering it, Devlin said.

The vessel carrying the recovered body arrived at the 22nd Street Pier about 8:30 p.m.

An emergency dive team and officials from the Los Angeles County coroner's office will try to determine the exact cause of death and whether it was an accident, officials said.

 

[Codyjp]

any more details? I never like hearing this news. Seems to be a lot of SoCal accidents this year.

 

[mweitz]

Very active and young freediver from San Jose, CA.

More info is here:

http://spearboard.com/showthread.php?t=35820&page=1

Condolences to his friends and family. Everyone is deeply saddened to hear of this.

Mark

 

[Robert Phillips]

any more details? I never like hearing this news. Seems to be a lot of SoCal accidents this year.

Most of these can be attributed to Lobster. Happens in Florida too.

 

[REII]

Most of these can be attributed to Lobster. Happens in Florida too.

My condolences to the family.

Unfortunately that happens a lot here in Florida. Many people only dive a few times a year at the beginning of Lobster season. Many inexperienced divers and boaters on the water at that time.

TOM

 

[tomboytoo]

Well, he was an experienced free diver and an awesome one at that. He was an incredible young man. I will miss him, and I know there are a lot of people out there who didn't post anything because we were all so shocked and saddened by his passing. It doesn't feel good seeing people speculate before really knowing what happened. I cannot seem to get the picture of his dimpled smile out of my mind. I also cannot say enough good things about him. He loved the sport, and he brought such enthusiasm to the sport! He was warm and thoughtful and he was an awesome cook. I have a son his age, I cannot imagine what his family is going through, so please be kind in what you post. I am sending my warm thoughts and prayers out to his family and to all of his diving friends.

He will be sorely missed~

Tessa

 

[Codyjp]

my wishes for the family.

To avoid any unnecissary speculations does anybody have an factual information about what happened?

 

[Jorbar1551]

so sad. you never think its going to happen.

 

[tomboytoo]

Correction, he was in his 30's, not 20 like the earlier report. I've heard his services will be down south where his family lives. There are some great photos posted of him on the website http://spearboard.com/showthread.php?t=35820&page=1 listed up above.