With all due respect, I'm with Al. I'd prefer not to die while doing any of the things that I love, particularly diving.
Missing Diver - Yukon
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Scot M:
Also, it makes little different to his family whether he died doing something he loved, or just on the way to the post office - and they're the ones who are suffering more in the long term, not the victim.
I think "at least he died doing something he loved" is kind of up there with "at least he's' someplace good now," or "at least he went quickly." People feel the need to say SOMETHING that might cheer up the bereaved in some way, but I think that urge is misplaced. I mean, what can any of us say? Even if there are ways it could have been worse for the victim, there's not really any way it can be worse for those left behind.
It just sucks. Period.
You don't see many sympathy cards with that on the cover, though...saf_25
Contributor
Along those lines, I once remember reading a post from someone on here (don't remember who, sorry!) that they hope people don't say that about them if they should happen to dive while diving. The quote that stuck with me was "I love diving, that's true. But, don't let anyone say that I love drowning....." It went on to get more graphic with what one would actually experience while drowning, but I don't think you need me to retype all that. Reading did a good job of ensuring that I would never say that about someone ("at least they were doing what they loved") again!
Too bad there's not a sympathy card that reads, "It just sucks and I'm really sorry." I guess you don't really need Hallmark to help you say that.
Scot M:
When you get old enough all of us experience this sort of thing, friends and loved ones keep dropping like flies.
What I've discovered for myself that words don't mean much of anything. What counts most is that other loved ones are near by. Just being there counts.
Al Mialkovsky:
On that note: There'll be a get together at La Jolla Shores, on the grass, tomorrow night (Wed) at 6 p.m. Everyone is welcome and if you knew Steve it's requested that you write down a remembrance of him to share.
Best,
Bill Powers
Lexy
Guest
Video Diver:
Additional info from another list I'm on:
"The family says that Wednesday evening at 6 pm at La Jolla Shores
(grassy area) is definitely on. It is not the official family
memorial, but family will be there and they welcome any and all to
come.
Vicky (Steve's longtime girlfriend) says that instead of flowers,
please either get an airfill and go have a nice dive or go to
Starbucks, get an expresso double shot, and sit by the ocean and enjoy
the view..."
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If I should die beneath the sea --
What e'er the circumstance may be --
I only ask that you not cry
For such a lucky one as I.
But, rather, weep for those alive
Who know not what it is to dive
Into the planet's liquid heart
And of God's ocean be a part.
For even Christ must envy all
Who stroll along the ocean's wall;
Though wind and sea His will obeys,
He only walked upon the waves.
And may I ask for one thing more?
A simple cross beside the shore.
Below my name inscribe for me:
Lost to the earth, but found at sea.
Carson Ray... 1989
What e'er the circumstance may be --
I only ask that you not cry
For such a lucky one as I.
But, rather, weep for those alive
Who know not what it is to dive
Into the planet's liquid heart
And of God's ocean be a part.
For even Christ must envy all
Who stroll along the ocean's wall;
Though wind and sea His will obeys,
He only walked upon the waves.
And may I ask for one thing more?
A simple cross beside the shore.
Below my name inscribe for me:
Lost to the earth, but found at sea.
Carson Ray... 1989
ShakaZulu
Contributor
Here is the latest news for everybody else:
Autopsy shows diving teacher drowned on sunken ship
By Terry Rodgers
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
June 30, 2005
A scuba diver who died Saturday while exploring a sunken battleship off
Mission Beach was found in the ship's boiler room, a compartment that had
been sealed off to divers.
An autopsy completed yesterday on the body of scuba instructor Steven O.
Donathan, 50, of Point Loma concluded that he drowned while in the Yukon, a
366-foot-long warship scuttled five years ago in 100 feet of water to create
a world-class diving attraction.
Divers who recovered Donathan's body Tuesday found him pinned against a wall
and entangled inside the boiler room on the sixth deck in the bottom of the
ship, said lifeguard Lt. Nick Lerma.
Although the entrance to the boiler room had been welded shut, someone
apparently had pried it open.
"It was a hazardous place," Lerma said. "Why he was there, we are not sure."
Donathan's air tanks were empty and there was no safety line in place to
lead him out of the ship, Lerma said. In addition, Donathan entered the
bowels of the ship with his diving student but became separated from him,
Lerma said.
A cardinal rule of scuba diving is to immediately surface if you can't
quickly find your diving partner.
"There are risks associated with diving, and when you push the limits for
whatever reason, the consequences tend to be more severe," Lerma said.
Many divers have an "explorer attitude" that motivates them to "see what's
around the corner," said Bill Reals, a friend of Donathan's.
Reals said he can't imagine that Donathan removed the barrier blocking entry
to the boiler room.
"We're all concerned. We want to understand what happened," Reals said. "I
think we're all scratching our heads."
Donathan is the first diver to die inside the Yukon, a decommissioned
Canadian warship purchased by the nonprofit Oceans Foundation and brought to
San Diego to entertain divers and become an artificial reef.
After the ship was scuttled 1.85 miles offshore from Mission Beach, Navy
divers cut three rectangular access panels from the vessel's
three-eighths-inch thick steel hull to make it safer for recreational
divers.
Besides working as a diving instructor, Donathan was among the area's elite
technical divers, who are capable of diving in deep water using a special
mix of gases.
His friends said he had completed 40 to 50 dives on the Yukon.
"He knew that vessel inside and out," said Lerma, the lifeguard. "He was a
very experienced diver and he was familiar with that wreck."
The Divers Alert Network at Duke University, which keeps track of diving
accidents in the United States and Canada, reported 89 diving fatalities
throughout North America in 2002, the most recent year for which statistics
are available.
The leading cause of death, accounting for 47 percent of the cases, was
drowning. The next leading cause, 24 percent, was divers running out of air.
Equipment failures are extremely rare, and 1 percent or less of the victims
die from decompression sickness.
"Nearly every diving fatality is preventable," said Laurie Gowen, a dive
medic with the network.
Lerma said a special underwater investigative team consisting of lifeguards
and police divers will examine the events leading to Donathan's death and
issue a report.
Autopsy shows diving teacher drowned on sunken ship
By Terry Rodgers
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
June 30, 2005
A scuba diver who died Saturday while exploring a sunken battleship off
Mission Beach was found in the ship's boiler room, a compartment that had
been sealed off to divers.
An autopsy completed yesterday on the body of scuba instructor Steven O.
Donathan, 50, of Point Loma concluded that he drowned while in the Yukon, a
366-foot-long warship scuttled five years ago in 100 feet of water to create
a world-class diving attraction.
Divers who recovered Donathan's body Tuesday found him pinned against a wall
and entangled inside the boiler room on the sixth deck in the bottom of the
ship, said lifeguard Lt. Nick Lerma.
Although the entrance to the boiler room had been welded shut, someone
apparently had pried it open.
"It was a hazardous place," Lerma said. "Why he was there, we are not sure."
Donathan's air tanks were empty and there was no safety line in place to
lead him out of the ship, Lerma said. In addition, Donathan entered the
bowels of the ship with his diving student but became separated from him,
Lerma said.
A cardinal rule of scuba diving is to immediately surface if you can't
quickly find your diving partner.
"There are risks associated with diving, and when you push the limits for
whatever reason, the consequences tend to be more severe," Lerma said.
Many divers have an "explorer attitude" that motivates them to "see what's
around the corner," said Bill Reals, a friend of Donathan's.
Reals said he can't imagine that Donathan removed the barrier blocking entry
to the boiler room.
"We're all concerned. We want to understand what happened," Reals said. "I
think we're all scratching our heads."
Donathan is the first diver to die inside the Yukon, a decommissioned
Canadian warship purchased by the nonprofit Oceans Foundation and brought to
San Diego to entertain divers and become an artificial reef.
After the ship was scuttled 1.85 miles offshore from Mission Beach, Navy
divers cut three rectangular access panels from the vessel's
three-eighths-inch thick steel hull to make it safer for recreational
divers.
Besides working as a diving instructor, Donathan was among the area's elite
technical divers, who are capable of diving in deep water using a special
mix of gases.
His friends said he had completed 40 to 50 dives on the Yukon.
"He knew that vessel inside and out," said Lerma, the lifeguard. "He was a
very experienced diver and he was familiar with that wreck."
The Divers Alert Network at Duke University, which keeps track of diving
accidents in the United States and Canada, reported 89 diving fatalities
throughout North America in 2002, the most recent year for which statistics
are available.
The leading cause of death, accounting for 47 percent of the cases, was
drowning. The next leading cause, 24 percent, was divers running out of air.
Equipment failures are extremely rare, and 1 percent or less of the victims
die from decompression sickness.
"Nearly every diving fatality is preventable," said Laurie Gowen, a dive
medic with the network.
Lerma said a special underwater investigative team consisting of lifeguards
and police divers will examine the events leading to Donathan's death and
issue a report.
mrjones
Registered
The article mentions percentages for divers drowning vs. running out of air. How do they make that distinction? Unless I'm missing something, don't divers who run out of air ultimately drown?
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