cave story on TV

I watched it as well, and as usual, I wondered why I stayed up so late.

There will always be those amoung us who have to push the envelope. That is to some extent why we learn. Unfortunately, too often at the cost of life.

The one thing I did pull away from the documentary was that no matter how trivial it may seem, any change in gear configuration mandates a test/dry run. Though they did parctice the body recovery, they did so without the lines and the dangling light, both of which seemed to have contributed to the task loading on the final dive.

Dale

The one hour story from the S. African news was MUCH better.... The one last night gave very little information - I wonder why they decided to pick up on an old 1994 story and run with it now....

Quote:

Originally Posted by dgschott

The one hour story from the S. African news was MUCH better.... The one last night gave very little information - I wonder why they decided to pick up on an old 1994 story and run with it now....

sorry but this happened in January 2005

Deon died in 94, shaw in 2005, right?

Fatal Dive Dates

Quote:

Originally Posted by dgschott

Deon died in 94, shaw in 2005, right?

Yes, you are correct on the dates of the deaths, but the story was about David Shaw's attempt to recover the body of Deon Dreyer on Saturday, January 8th, 2005.

Deon Dreyer's fatal dive was on Saturday, December 17th, 1994
David Shaw's fatal dive was on Saturday, January 8th, 2005
http://www.technicaldivingafrica.com/home.html
http://www.deepcave.com/images/Boesm...h_Oct_2004.pdf

The video footage was 40 minutes long and the other 20 minutes was commercials.

I am pleased to say that Don Shirley of the Boesmansgat Expedition will be speaking at the 2008 NSS-CDS Workshop and will be signing autographs on a newly published book that will be out May 2008. Also, I am pleased to say that Tom Mount, Wes Skiles, Dr. Thomas Illife, German Yandez, and Jill Heinerth will be there.

From: Don Shirley Date: Sep 2005 Article Nitrox Diver: Living, Dying & Diving in South Africa: The David Shaw Story
The question on planning a serious dive you might ask yourself would be "what do you need to do to survive?” Only you can breath for yourself, only you can think for yourself! Words of advice: Over-learn your skills. How many times have you said this or have it say to you? On 8 Jan 05, I had the opportunity to put all my training into serious practice.

This was our third trip to Boesmansgat within a year; we had done some staggering dives in this time. Each time David and I explored deeper in this amazing expanse of cave. Crystal clear water but so large that 18-watt Hid cannot see the sides.These dives alone could make a story that would fill a book. They were world class exploring and pushing limits dives.

In October 2004 our expedition included Verna Van Schak where she broke the woman's world records diving OC to 221m in cave at altitude. David and I supported her and met her at 150m. A couple of days later David carried out his first 270 m dive. He reached the bottom of the cave at 260m, laid line for approximately 20m taking him to 270m. Here he caught the remains of Deon's body in his light beam (Deon was missing for 10 years). He tied his reel on the body after a brief attempt to lift him. The fact that David had done a world record dive and laid line at that depth got lost in the publicity that arose because of the discovery of the body.

After the dive David spoke to Deon's parents who were still grieving for their son, he said he would bring back their son. This started my planning the logistics for the dive.

We had on site a recompression chamber, a mine rescue rope work team for pulling out an injured diver, a doctor, paramedics, the police, 7 Inspiration divers, David with his MK15.5 and myself with the Inspiration and Hammerhead.

The team carried out dives in the 100 to 120m ranges before the main expedition took place. David arrived at Komati Springs (South Africa) on 2 Jan. We carried out a dive and then met the rest of the team at Boesmansgat on the 4th. By the 7th everything was in place and we were ready for the dive. Everyone had practiced their role; target depths and timings were set. Gasses in the water were: O2, 50%, 29/30, 18/44, 10/70. All divers carried OC gas for their target depths. David and I were carrying both on and off board 4/80.

The night prior to the big day, I had a problem with the hammerhead controller. In the process of rectifying it I lost a small quantity of oil - this left a small air pocket in the controller.

Saturday morning the 8th, everything went like clockwork. As planned, David left the surface just after 6am and I awaited the countdown to follow.

At first every thing was going fine, the water was crystal clear but the only thing
you could see was the rope as it dropped below you. The events that followed were unexpected, and were in the worst-case scenario; little did I know that I would be the person that would fully utilize the whole emergency system that I had setup!

As I passed the last of the cylinders on the line at 150m I knew there was a problem. I could see no ascent bubbles from David; I would have expected them at this stage, as I was to meet him at 220m. Still descending I looked into the darkness. I could see a single light on the bottom - it was approximately where I would have calculated Deon's body to be and it was not moving. As per plan B I resolved to carry on down to David to try and help. My gasses were 4/80.

I passed my plan A depth of 220m to approximately 250m. The intension was to move along the bottom line straight to David. I then heard a click ... and a familiar thud... The controller had imploded (air space). Strangely this did not worry me as I had plenty of backups in place. Sadly I had to terminate the dive. The secondary controller worked well. I added Oxygen to begin the manual control but overshot my PO2 to 2 bar. I went OC (scubapro X650 - breathed like a dream) and began the assent. The spg needle dropped very quickly. I came back onto the unit again and flushed the PO2, stabilized the readings and carried on the ascent. At the same time shuffling through the dive slates for a profile and time that fitted my new profile. The rest of the dive I was adding O2 manually.

I kept looking down but could still see no movement below. I still had hopes that David would be on his way back. As I was below longer than anticipated, the first deep support, Dusan and Mark, had to leave the 150m after their 6min wait. Their initial task was to take David's deep cylinders.

At 150m I left one of my deep stages and flushed with the 10/70. I left the gas there, just in case David was coming back. At 124m I met Peter, I wrote on a slate that "David was not coming back" and advised him of my new profile. The assent carried on and the cylinders on the line came and went - at each one I flushed, and carried on manually with O2 addition. All the time I left the cylinders behind. Just in case. Lo met me at 80m. His task was to remove the cylinders below the divers down to 150m. I told him to leave them. Similarly I gave Steve at 70m then Gerhard at 50m the same message.

After Gerhard left me I started to pass out. I had just clipped off and was at the 45m cylinders (29/30). I immediately went OC again. The whole cave began to spin. I started working on instinct alone; I was close to the roof now and was aware only of spinning. I literally span up the line hand over hand past rope obstructions in the roof. At 35m I was away from the roof and holding onto the rope for dear life. At this point I could think clearly enough to look at my VR3 (color with the back lights on – marvelous invention). It said I should be at 45m, so I went back down. All the while fighting vertigo and vomiting with every move I made.

I had no sensation of direction. I only knew that I was going down was because of my computer’s depth. I was in full survival mode now. My only thought was what did I need to do to survive; survival was priority - no other option was open to me. I clipped on all the 29/30's that I had planned in case of emergency. Everything I did made me throw up.

The next diver down was Truwin. I wrote on a slate that "I having a bad time and had vertigo and nausea". He stayed with me for a while and then went to alert the surface. In the meanwhile I worked my way hand over hand back past the obstruction. Soon after that, I had someone with me all the time. This in itself was a major task for the divers, as they had all dived to great depths and done their maximum times waiting for David and myself to return. Their support would not have been possible if they were on OC.

Time was non-existent; I concentrated on the next breath, the next task: Breath, check computer, throw up, breath, switch gas, throw up, breath, focus, write note, and throw up. On and on it went.

I drank water from the cave, and from bottles brought down, trying to hydrate, but losing same liquids quite quickly. At one stage Dr Jack Meintjies sent down a syringe with medicine to make me stop vomiting, but as soon as I drank it I vomited it back out straight away! At 22m I tried to clip off a 50% but dropped it. There were plenty more! I soon had another one clipped on.

The guys were doing a great job looking after me. I wrote on my slate "bring my legs up". I wanted to be horizontal, but could not do it myself. I was having difficulty breathing. Every time they moved my legs up, I literally span. I remember one time when they did this I was at 9m and ended up upside down at 12m. Only you can breathe for you...Everything was an effort. By the time I got to 6m I had to purge the regulator to breathe otherwise I could not get the gas in my lungs. To write messages I had to hold my breath, and somehow hold the slate and my lifeline in one hand to write. And of course throw up. At 6m Jack sent me a message. "The chamber is ready - I want you to come out now". I wrote back "I have 23min left at 6m and 106 min left at 3m, let me stay at least until 3m". They said they would take me out at 7.30pm but I had no concept of time. It happened to be at the end of the 6m stop - just over 13 hours after the start of the dive. Eventually I made my way up to 3m. I could feel a pain develop in my left leg below the knee. I decided to get out then; breathing was now very difficult. I unclipped all my gear assisted by Steve and Gerhard. As we surfaced, the pain in my leg went up exponentially. They pulled me out, cut the webbing from my rebreather and I pulled off my cuff and neck seal and disconnected the p-valve. I was still able to think, but found it difficult to lift my head.

A drip was put in my right arm; my temperature was 34.5 deg C (thank you DUI). I had not felt cold during the dive. Within 22min of surfacing my gear was removed, I had been pulled up the cliff in a stretcher and was in the chamber. I was flushed down to 30m on a Comex 50/50 table. I was still in my thermal underwear, the CF200 thinsulate with a space blanket and sleeping bag. Dr Jack was in shorts and sweating. It was about 3 hours before I started to feel warm enough to start removing clothing.

My leg felt better straight away. After the 7hour treatment I felt good but could not walk due to balance problems. I had a further 10 oxygen treatments and got progressively better, with balance improving almost visibly.

David Shaw's body came to the surface when Peter and Petrus pulled up
the line; the body of Deon Dryer was also attached to the line. The video on David’s head showed the events that lead to his death. After running out of time with the
body, he started his ascent but became tangled in the line; He worked to the end to free himself and never once gave up.

My problem turned out to be an inner ear DCI. I am well on the path of recovery, and should be diving soon. My team performed exceptionally well, this includes the divers and the surface support, medics, doctors, rescue rope team and police. I thank them all for an exceptional effort!

Talk about support divers !!!! Wow !!!! Thanks for posting Bill.