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FYI The local Morehead City, NC, newspaper reported on June 7, the death of Doug Summerhill, described as a deep water diver from Maryland. According to the published account "Mr. Summerhill, 32, blacked out while ascending from a deep water, mixed gas technical dive". He was reported to have been diving on the Panamanian tanker, Pan Am, sunk in 1943, in 470 feet of water by a German U-boat. Apparently he was an experienced deep diver who had made several dives over 400 feet. The dive in question was made by two divers with three support divers. The dive plan was 10 minutes to decend, seven minutes on the bottom, and two hours to ascend. Ascent bubbles were seen - then the captain noticed that there were not enough bubbles for two divers. He got in the water, went to 130 feet and saw Mr. Summerhill's dive buddy only. The Coast Guard and other nearby charter boats joined in a search but no body was located. An interesting quote from the captain was ". . . there was nothing the other dive [sic] or the support divers could do. At this depth with this type dive, you are self contained and self supporting," he said. "Unfortunately, if there's a problem at a depth you can't help the other person, both would end up as casualties. The one thing about this type diving is that your own". I'am sure that all of us, as divers, feel a great deal of empathy for the friends and family of Mr. Summerhill. At least he died a painless death doing something he loved. Hopefully this incident, or similar incidents, will not be the impetus for Government and/or self imposed regulation of sport diving by "do gooders". It would be nice if, in the long run, our society maintains a level of level of freedom whereby we as individuals can make our own risk management decisions. The trend seems to be going in the other direction. A memorial sevice in MD and an offshore memorial are planned. No specifics, e.g., time, date, etc. were mentioned.
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