South Carolina Instructor drowns free diving - Malaysia

[DandyDon]

Friends remember local diving instructor after drowning death

Murrells Inlet, S.C. (WPDE) — A diving instructor with Express Watersports in Murrells Inlet, Christopher Chong, reportedly drowned during an accident while free diving.

One of the captains at Express Watersports says Chong was in Malaysia for a family member’s wedding when it happened.

ABC 15’s spoke with some of Chong's friends. They had nothing but good things to say about him and they all agree on one thing-- the community has lost someone very special.

Some knew him as Captain Christopher Chong, some called him Chris, but many just called him Chong.

“Chong was like the warmest dude that I ever met,” said Jon Stell who met Chong through a mutual friend.

When he wasn’t doing what he loved at work, he was doing more things he loved with people he loved.

“Going our through those seas with his tiny boat was probably the most terrifying thing I’ve ever done, but we made it out and caught more fish that day that we had ever caught going out of the inlet!” said Patrick "Packy" Ferro. They met at Coastal Carolina University four years ago.

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[Wah]

He's a local kid that grew up in my town in NJ. So young... sad.