Young Idaho Golf Ball Diver Dead

[DandyDon]

Lake Coeur d'Alene - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

from Diver found dead near Floating Green - Spokesman.com - July 27, 2010

A diver died near the Coeur d’Alene Resort Golf Course’s Floating Green on Lake Coeur d’Alene on Tuesday afternoon.

Golf course employees saw Mike McCullough of Rexburg floating face down in the water around 3:55 p.m., said Maj. Ben Wolfinger of the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Department. They hauled him out of the water and started CPR, but were unable to revive him. McCullough was taken to Kootenai Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

McCullough was a contract worker for the Coeur d’Alene Resort, hired to collect golf balls and clean trash off of the lake bottom, Wolfinger said. McCullough was not wearing his diving gear when he was retrieved from the lake.

“We don’t know if he had equipment issues or if there was a medical problem,” Wolfinger said.

Members of the sheriff department’s dive team were trying to retrieve McCullough’s gear from the lake in hopes of answering questions about how the accident occurred. McCullough was in his mid-20s.

 

[RikRaeder]

Lake Coeur d'Alene is a lake in the Idaho Panhandle, located in the vicinity of the city of the same name. It spans 25 miles (40 km) long, ranges from 1 to 3 miles (4.8 km) wide and has over 109 miles (175 km) of shoreline for boaters and vacationers to explore and enjoy...There are a number of model T's sitting on the bottom of the lake...Also, there are some steamboats on the bottom that had been burned when they were no longer used to ferry people around on the lake. Divers frequently visit these ruins on the bottom.

max depth 220' (67m) from Wikipedia Lake Coeur d'Alene - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For those not familiar with the lake.

I might abandon my gear if somehow entangled in something (fishing line, model T or wreck).

 

[muddiver]

He might have been working on the surface, slipped, smacked his head and fell in.

 

[bsee65]

That's a serious island green. I took a look on google maps and you actually have to take a boat to get to it - no peninsula or bridge. Looking at the map, the area between shore and the green appears relatively shallow, but a chart of nearby waters I found has it maybe getting into the vicinity of 30 meters around the back side. It certainly doesn't look like your typical golf ball hunt in a 10-15' deep lake.

 

[RikRaeder]

I imagine the authorities would have found his scuba unit on the shore, so not be searching the lake for it if he fell in. Still, an intriguing possibility few would think of.

 

[Stoy D Dabbs]

No Air in tank of diver found dead in Lake Coeur d'Alene, Had not been diving since 2007.


No air in tank of diver found dead in Lake Coeur d'Alene | KREM 2 News | KREM.com | When it Matters Most | Local News

 

[DandyDon]

No Air in tank of diver found dead in Lake Coeur d'Alene, Had not been diving since 2007.


No air in tank of diver found dead in Lake Coeur d'Alene | KREM 2 News | KREM.com | When it Matters Most | Local News

Damn! Major screw-up. I get rusty if I don't dive for 3 months. Seems like he was hired for work more challenging than recreational diving, to solo dive at that, but no testing...?

 

[SeahorseDeb]

Hi Stoy, sounds like he wasn't using a lift bag. Several mistakes made from what I've seen so far. Tragic and sad. Take care, Deb

 

[Pubcrawler]

The floating 'island' green at the Coeur d'Alene Resort Golf Course is actually constructed on a barge that is tethered to the lakebed in such a way that its distance from the shore can be mechanically altered day by day. According to the local paper when the diver was found floating he was wearing all of his gear, which was cut away by the rescuers to remove him from the water. According to the paper the diver was wearing a dry-suit, a BC and a weight-belt. A bag of golf balls was tied to his gear. There was no air in the tank. The water is cold, but not dry-suit cold at this time of year at the depth this diver was working. He may well have been pulling at his seals to let water into his suit to keep cool. Between the distractions of overheating, the poor vis once the bottom is churned up, avoiding the mechanism for moving the green in and out, and trying to adjust bouyancy to stay within arm's reach of the the bottom without bellying into it, I can visualize an uncomfortable diver working and breathing hard.

Lake Coeur d'Alene is beautiful on the surface and butt ugly at depth. Thousands of years of dust blowing in from central Washington coupled with a natural shallow dam on the outflowing Spokane River created by Glacial Lake Missoula outburst floods, years of log floats and mining activities up the lake's feeding rivers have turned the flat portions of the lake bottom to pure deep brown muck with sunken logs strewn about like pick-up sticks. It makes for interesting diving. Movement on the flat areas of the lake bottom quickly churns up the muck taking the vis to near zero instantly. Lake surface elevation is 2,128 feet.

As mentioned in other posts, there are a couple of steam boats in fairly pristine condition right off the downtown Coeur d'Alene area. One, a former lake cruise boat, was intentionally sunk in the 1980s as a dive attraction. There are several small planes, and reportedly a B-17 on the lake bottom somewhere. The steamboat graveyard (nothing but burned out hulls) makes for a fun night boat dive. A link to the most recent article from the local paper is attached.

Coeur d'Alene Press: Local News - Autopsy: Death likely a drowning : Local News - Autopsy: Death likely a drowning

 

[TekISBest]

The visibility is pretty good right now in the lake. If i was to take an educated guess at what happen it might look like this. Rusty at diving will decrease awareness skills that may have allow the diver to not pay attention to his air supply. He probable took his last breath and panic set in. He was most likely heavy trying to stay on the bottom while collecting balls. With no air in his tank he is not able to add air to the BC to get to the surface. He probably kicked his last trying to reach the surface but passed out before getting there. Having gained some distance towards the surface would create some bouyance and eventually he would come to the surface.