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You don't search for the diver at 400 feet, you already know where he is
because you are with him. Somebody emailed me a message that said the guy
who was lost stopped before he reached the wreck and Clayton went on
without him to touch the wreck and say that he made it. Though diving with
Clayton is the exception, it is a myth that it is every man for himself.
You certainly want to be able to save yourself without help, but there are
times when you need help. Why did two divers make the dive? If two of them
attempted the dive then they both should have made the dive. That one
diver stopped before he reached the wreck meant the other should have
stopped. What kind of agreement is it on a very deep dive that says both
of us plan the dive together, both of us gear up together, both of us
enter the water together, both of us go down the anchor line together, but
when one of us has a problem on the dive, it is every man for himself.
What kind of fucked warped logic is that?  Look at the results of that
kind of logic. You have a DEAD diver.  Exploration at any cost is not the
name of the game. If something goes wrong for someone on the team, you
have a responsibility to try and make it right and then punt the dive. 
Come back another day. Clayton is not an explorer, he's a dickwad whose
total self-esteem is wrapped up in telling other divers that he made a ten
minute dive to touch a wreck in 450 feet of water while breathing neon. I,
unfortunately, took this fuck brain on deeper dives early in his career
and witnessed the beginning of his obsession with depth as the sole factor
for his interest in diving. 

There is a true story about a DIVER diving on the Osfreisland (deep dive)
a few years ago. Three divers, one of which was this DIVER, were on the
hull in low vis. There was a current and the anchor started slipping and
began to drag off the hull. All three divers were up current from the
anchor but not that far away. Our DIVER being nearest the anchor and not
that far away from the other two divers saw the anchor moving. Rather than
alert the other two members of the team nearby, he bailed and scrambled
for the anchorline. One of the other two divers happened to turn and see
our DIVER bailing, alerted his buddy and swimming with the current caught
up with the anchorline. By the time they reached it, our DIVER was long
gone up the anchorline and out of sight. They never saw DIVER again until
later in deco. Who was DIVER? 

On Thu, 13 Jun 1996, Jim Cobb wrote:

> I just talked briefly to Dave Bowden at Lynnhaven Dive, so this is all I 
> know. I would imagine though, on dives such as this, it is pretty much 
> every man for himself should certain problems arise. I mean how much time 
> do you have to search for a diver at 400' when the plan calls time and 
> all your stage gas is on your back? As I don't do dives like this, 
> forgive me if this is stupid question.
> 
> 
> >Ken Clayton- what a pro. The stories that come back after dives with him 
> >are- if you ever get your ass in a crack, he's the first to split. I'd be 
> >willing to bet there is more to this story than the paragraph below.
> 

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