Treefeller
Guest
Must have been one hell of a swim!
A sea-urchin diver surprised searchers Tuesday morning, a day after he was reported missing off Digby Neck.
Tod Tudball, 38, was diving in Tiverton near the wharf Monday afternoon. When he came up from his dive, a strong current swept him out to St. Mary's Bay, about a kilometre away.
Tudball managed to swim to shore about three hours later. He then kicked off most of his gear and got ready to spend the night in the woods.
"When I realized I wasn't going to make it [home] that night I decided to make a little camp, and laid down for a little while and got up and did some exercises to stay warm," he said.
"I knew I was going to make. What was going through my mind was everyone looking for me."
Tudball could see the boats combing the water and the Hercules aircraft circling overhead. When it was light enough Tuesday, he set out to find the main road. Shortly before 8 a.m. one of the searchers picked him up.
"I've had a lot of searches where we've been successful in finding people, but rarely a missing diver," said RCMP Cpl. Paul Coughlin, with ground search and rescue.
"It's a pretty unforgiving business; if you make a mistake there's not a lot of room to recover. So it's quite surprising that he walked out this morning."
Coughlin says it's unlikely Tudball would have survived without his dry suit, which kept him warm both in the water and in the woods overnight.
Tudball is doing fine, but he's tired. "It's a long swim and a long walk," he said.
A sea-urchin diver surprised searchers Tuesday morning, a day after he was reported missing off Digby Neck.
Tod Tudball, 38, was diving in Tiverton near the wharf Monday afternoon. When he came up from his dive, a strong current swept him out to St. Mary's Bay, about a kilometre away.
Tudball managed to swim to shore about three hours later. He then kicked off most of his gear and got ready to spend the night in the woods.
"When I realized I wasn't going to make it [home] that night I decided to make a little camp, and laid down for a little while and got up and did some exercises to stay warm," he said.
"I knew I was going to make. What was going through my mind was everyone looking for me."
Tudball could see the boats combing the water and the Hercules aircraft circling overhead. When it was light enough Tuesday, he set out to find the main road. Shortly before 8 a.m. one of the searchers picked him up.
"I've had a lot of searches where we've been successful in finding people, but rarely a missing diver," said RCMP Cpl. Paul Coughlin, with ground search and rescue.
"It's a pretty unforgiving business; if you make a mistake there's not a lot of room to recover. So it's quite surprising that he walked out this morning."
Coughlin says it's unlikely Tudball would have survived without his dry suit, which kept him warm both in the water and in the woods overnight.
Tudball is doing fine, but he's tired. "It's a long swim and a long walk," he said.
