Posted by . on October 16, 2000 at 17:41:01:
In Reply to: Another solo death posted by Jon on October 16, 2000 at 09:37:25:
Diver gets caught in kelp, dies at 24
By By Zerline A. Hughes
Ventura County Star writer
Monday October 16, 2000
A 24-year-old Ventura man drowned off Silver Strand Beach Sunday evening after he got tangled in kelp while scuba diving for lobsters.
Enrique Vasquez had dived from the breakwater known as the Lajenelle around 5:30 p.m. to find lobsters for dinner when he got tangled in kelp and could no longer swim, a longtime
friend said.
He was pronounced dead at St. John's Regional Medical Center in Oxnard at 6:30 p.m. Sunday.
"He wanted to get a lobster for dinner instead of watching the (San Francisco) 49ers game," Marshall Head of Ventura said as he fought tears. "He went down, he came up E the last
time he came up, he looked kind of funny. He was gasping for air."
According to witnesses, Vasquez was still near the breakwater, in only about 3 feet of water, but there was no visibility because of all the kelp. He was diving alone.
Head, 56, was sitting in Vasquez's truck parked near the breakwater. When Head heard Vasquez yell for help, he took a cable from the back of the truck and threw one end into the
water for him to grab, Head said. The cable was too short, so another bystander got into the water with the cable to pull the victim to shore.
"He was starting to get in trouble himself, so he got out and called us," said Capt. Tom Law of the Ventura County Fire Department.
The Harbor Patrol, U.S. Coast Guard, and county, Oxnard and U.S. Navy firefighters responded to the call immediately and pulled Vasquez to shore by 6 p.m.
More than 100 onlookers watched as a Ventura County sheriff's helicopter landed on the beach to take the victim to the hospital.
Randy Goldberg of Silver Strand said he often dives in the same waters to catch lobsters, and earlier he surveyed the spot and noticed the poor visibility.
"I'm the last one to see him alive," Goldberg said. "I told him not to go in, but he said, 'I gotta go out there and get wet.' What got him was he was diving in the kelp without a buddy."
-- Zerline A. Hughes' e-mail address is zhughes@insidevc.com.