Posted by Max Bottomtime on February 06, 2001 at 21:03:47:
In Reply to: Re: Buddy/solo posted by MHK on February 06, 2001 at 15:49:40:
"I guess you could make the case that the kid at the rigs was in a team, but when he signaleed he wasn't ok they let him ascend solo"
This is the report from one of his buddies that day;
Scott's nickname was Skittles, always had black fingernail polish. Real nice guy, normal other than the fingers. He was diving from the Pacific Dream out of Huntington on the Eureka Oil Platform. He told his buddies he didn't feel well all morning and wasn't going to do the first dive. Well they got there and he felt a little better so he dove. He and 2 buddies descended to about 110' and after a couple minutes he signaled he didn't feel well. His 2 buddies ascended with him and at about 40' he motioned to them to go back down and finish that he was fine. So they stayed at 40' watched him surface and then they went back down to finish their dive. Well from the boat they saw him surface signaling for help (even the guys on the oil platform heard him) but with no reg or mask and then he spasmed a couple of times. All the while there were Sea Lions around him (no one has said if the sea lions were fucking with him or just there) After the spasm he just sunk below the surface and was never found. That whole spasm thing lasted like 15 seconds and the divemaster was after him before he went under, but to no avail. Supposedly they kept an eye on him from the platform till he was at about 40' but by the time the DM got there he was long gone. Needless to say by the time his 2 buddies returned to the boat, they had been searching for him for about 20 minutes already and they completely freaked out. Skittles was an avid diver, our age, in good shape, you wouldn't look at him and go "Maybe he'll make it back, maybe he won't" Who knows what happened?
So I asked Sean: