Yet another golf ball diver dead - Naples, Florida

[boulderjohn]

Now tonight, I took one of the golf balls and, after washing dishes, put it into the water. It was negative, but barely. I dropped it from the surface to the bottom, where it bounced about three times in 3 inches of water. Golf balls, in my experience, do not weigh much in water. Just enough to sink and make golfers angry.

Some golf courses have driving ranges that use range balls that are slightly lighter than normal. The react much the same as regular golf balls and fly a reasonably similar distance. They use these balls because the driving range is a lake, and the balls float.

 

[SlugLife]

I was aware of the bolded part you quoted; I was contesting it. I still doubt it. Here are some reasons.

• He was at least somewhat experienced as a golf ball diver and should have been aware of the effect of the weight of a bag of balls and been prepared for it.
• He had enough buoyancy to reach the surface.
• Once on the surface, he struggled to remove his BCD, which does not seem to be the act of a man who is sinking because his BCD is not sufficiently buoyant. It would make some sense if the golf balls in weights were attached to the BCD, but the story said he had a weight belt, and the golf balls were attached to that. In that case, removing your only source of buoyancy because your weight belt is pulling you down would be a curious decision.

The main problem with the above, is it assumes a person is appropriately practiced, experienced, and response appropriately.

Diver deaths aren't "common" especially when weighed against number of dives, so the uncommon and unexpected during a normal dive or diver, can become far more common when looking at an accident.

I'm slightly more inclined to think something didn't go smoothly. I experience this frequently myself. I dive sidemount, which tends to involve more clipping and unclipping than normal, including clip/unclip behind me. Far more frequently than I'd prefer, I have some difficulty finding, clipping, or unclipping something which takes far more time than expected. And I do practice or make equipment adjustments to help resolve that. (This is one of the reasons why I always dive with redundant air).

I'm not saying the above is right or wrong, but rather I don't think these are safe assumptions to make.

Thank you for an excellent post. I had imagined that this would be, as you say, shallow, simple, and easy, but from your description, this is very hazardous indeed. I tend to think that having a buddy would make things even more hazardous, because in zero visibility and high entanglement risk situations, having multiple people flailing around in a panic would just make things worse. I wonder if there isn't some better way of dredging these water hazards, especially if, as you say, the balls are concentrated around the edges. Something like this: New device harvests submerged golf balls from shore

My dive-buddy and I often talk about dredging a certain area we frequently dive for sunglasses. The place is ZERO visibility, but lots of party-boats hang out there, and I find lots of sunglasses by feel alone.

I have pretty much given up on the diving industry pursuing this concept, but if anyone wants to pursue it, please message me. The patent is expired, and this concept has significant applications for handicapped divers too. I used to have two Para-Sea BCD prototypes, and now it is down to one that I continue to dive after 3 decades of use. I have tried all sorts of them, including the Dacor Nautilus Constant Volume System (CVS) and newer tank-mounted BCDs, but still prefer my design.

SeaRat

Interesting concept. That reminds me of sidemount a little with the wraparound aspect, and detachable scuba-tank.

 

[JW59]

Many (professional) golf ball divers don't wear BC's.
A diver might collect 600 -700 balls on a dive .. about 60-70 lbs.
60 lbs of balls is pretty negative and the bag can easily be snagged on something, plus some mud and debris and leaves etc. get into the bag during the ball stuffing process.
All the golf ball divers I have seen, do not wear fins. Instead, they wear heavy boots (over top of normal dive boots), with ankle weights around them and they also wear enough lead on the BC/harness and weight belt(s) to be able to walk/run/crawl on the bottom. This is around 12-15 lbs negative (before the balls) in order to be heavy enough to run over the bottom in a bent over position with their arms outstretched and hands spread over the bottom. If the diver is not at least that negative, then they can not effectively "run" on the bottom.

Often the visibility precludes seeing the spg, but generally there is time to move up slope to make an exit. It is not a big deal to run 20 ft up slope, stick your head out of the water, see where you are relative to the golf shot and check the air pressure. Generally balls will accumulate along the banks and generally concentrate at the bottom of slopes, where the edge meets the flat bottom. So that is where the search effort is concentrated. Even with bad visibility, the experienced golfball diver can detect this sloping feature and knows which way to turn in order to run up slope and make an exit. Often this edge is close maybe, 10-30 feet from the edge of the pond surface. Obviously this is a gross generalization and some lakes have vertical walls of rock which were cut mechanically when the lake was excavated during the construction of the golf course.

However, sometimes it is worthwhile to work "the middles" which is much more difficult and dangerous. The diver may not be able to read the pressure gauge, may not be able to read a compass (doubtful they have one actually) and there are zero topographic features to provide reference. In addition, it is extremely hard to run a straight course while running blindly over a flat muck bottom and there is very little ability to judge depth changes with any accuracy. The inability to run a straight course is also hindered by the drag and weight of hundreds of balls in a big mesh bag that is clipped off on one side of the diver, always pulling and dragging them to the side.

So.. if a diver were to get lost in the middle it is a challenge. They might have to resort to hand swimming and BC filling to fight like heck to make it to the surface in a negative condition, spin around, see which way shore is and then rapidly and uncontrollable sink back to the bottom (remember wearing ankle weights and snow boots) and try to "remember" which way shore was and then try (once again) to run the proper direction (blindly) to reach the shore before the air runs out.

If a problem develops, it might be essential to be able to ditch the large bag of balls. If the bag is attached with a barrel clip or something, it is not unusual for it to be jammed with sand and debris since it is constantly being drug on the bottom. If it is attached to the harness rather than a weight belt (which should have a quick release buckle), it could go downhill fast.

It is not a trivial endeavor and is done solo.

It is not unusual for construction debris and other dangerous materials to have been disposed of in these ponds. There are lots of things that can go wrong and the divers do not carry a secondary independent air source and I have never seen an octopus being used either, it would be filled with mud and debris anyway after half an hour.

It's not a good recreational activity, even though it superficially sounds like it is shallow, simple and easy. I'm not sure if I understand if he was trespassing (and doing it for fun) or was working as a "professional"?

Gee whiz, and I thought that diving the Cooper River for meg teeth was dangerous!

 

[Norwegian Cave Diver]

Could he have been wearing a drysuit? Punctured it and had a bad leak. Removed his BCD and now sank because of a flooded drysuit?

 

[DandyDon]

Could he have been wearing a drysuit? Punctured it and had a bad leak. Removed his BCD and now sank because of a flooded drysuit?

I would be surprised to see a dry suit in July in Florida, altho I used to know one woman who wore hers in Cozumel as she always got cold anywhere, anytime.

 

[Norwegian Cave Diver]

Was thinking more for protection that warmth

 

[NW Dive Dawg]

RIP for the diver....he/she was just doing a job.

From my experience, millfoil can be an issue in golf course ponds. Plus, the runoff from all of the fertilizers can make them a hazmat dive. My only similar experience was diving in 10-15 ft of water at the Berkeley, CA, Aquatic Park to retrieve Disc Golf discs for my own and friends personal use!

PS..... my experience and opinion as a diver..... AND a golfer is that the Kirkland balls for $1 each vs the Titleist Pro V 1's that cost $4......all sink in the water at the exact same rate.......and otherwise perform pretty much the same on the golf course for us duffers.

 

[Divetech$1]

There has to be more than a bag of golf balls pulling him down as a factor.

I was once swimming along the top deck of the Hydro Atlantic wreck in Florida, a favorite site for fishing. There were plenty of fishing mishaps in the form of lead weights, including 2-pounders, scattered around the wreck. I don't know how many I stuck in my pockets before it occurred to me that I was becoming seriously overweighted. It turned out not to be a problem. I surfaced easily. I don't know what I had in weights, but it had to be a heck of a lot more than even a big bag of golf balls.

If you need to inflate your BCD because you are carrying extra weight, and you are able to do so enough to reach the surface, then you really should not be in too much trouble once you get there. Even if he were seriously overweighted to begin with (which is doubtful if he was experienced with bringing up bags of balls in the past), he should have been able to deal with the extra weight. There has to be something more going on.

Yes and no I am a golf ball diver and one time my compressor shut off because I run Hookah and by the time I realize I was out of here I was I took my last breath in I’m 10 foot from the surface no big deal I took my last breath and I head up golf balls attached to my harness in front of me. Once I hit the surface, I pulled my full face mask off and I went to take a breath, and even though I brought golfballs up several several times before I forgot about the golf balls so when I took a breath, the golf balls pulled me back down and I got a breath of water, luckily when I went back down, I was close enough to the bank that I bounced on over to the bank and got to where I could touch before I start throwing water up everywhere he’s came up his forgot about the golfballs. He took them what to take a breath because he’s probably had an air. , luckily when I went back down, I was close enough to the bank that I bounced on over to the bank and got to where I could touch before I start throwing water up everywhere he’s came up his forgot about the golf balls. He went to take a breath because he’s probably was out of air when he went to take a breath golfballs pull him back down and it drowned him I guarantee it. I would put money on that because I almost suffered from the same fate in my earlier Golfball dive in days.

 

[Still Kicking]

I did a lot of golf course diving (dredging for irrigation maintenance etc. not golf balls).

It's really nasty zero vis diving in toxic soup (chemicals/bacteria) and even though it's generally less than 20' it can be dangerous. I was on hookah in a full face mask and had a few close calls. I would strongly recommend against it.

 

[NW Dive Dawg]

I'm not a golf ball diver......although I do consistently contribute from the topside to the thousands of balls found in a water hazard. Whether on hooka or scuba....I'm thinking that a back mount bailout bottle with 2nd on a neckless is a must for this type of activity.

I'm also thinking that for these shallow depths, that once I had a full "load", I'd attach a lift bag and put it on the surface......then just pull it......or them.... to shore once done with my dives.