Dave Shaw–Perspectives: Technical diver Dave Shaw’s death at the bottom of Boesmansgat as he tried to recover the skeletal remains of Deon Dreyer has touched off an outpouring of emotion, grief and introspection. Here is some of what’s happening.

First off, here are a few more details from Shaw’s last dive. The full article is here:

“At 6.33am, Shaw was meant to deliver the bodybag to Shirley waiting at 220m.

“Don will be the first person I smile at when I hand him the body,” Shaw had joked at a dive briefing on Friday.

Shirley would have continued to the surface with the bodybag passed to divers waiting for him at 150m. The bodybag would have been passed from diver to diver to emerge at the surface about 7.30am.

After Shaw had handed Dreyer’s body to Shirley, he would have begun his slow ascent to the surface. He had planned to be in the water for 12 hours to allow for decompression. If all had gone according to plan, Shaw would have eventually been helped out at 6pm.

But all did not go according to plan.

Shaw got to the bottom but never came up – and while there will be much speculation about equipment failure and deep-water blackout – the reason why he didn’t surface will probably remain a mystery.

Peter Herbst, one of the technical divers, said Shirley was waiting for Shaw at 220m, but after five minutes there was no sign of Shaw [At 220m, Shirley saw no sign of Shaw, nor did he see bubbles – which would have been a sign that Shaw was ascending. He saw a light in the distance, but the light wasn’t moving. He knew something was wrong.] “A second group of divers were at 120m and went to 150m. They were supposed to be there for two minutes to accept the bodybag. But after seven minutes there was no sign of Don or Dave. They came up.

“I met the divers at 90m. I looked at the bottom and I only saw one light. I proceeded to 120m and that’s when I saw Don. He wrote on a slate. ‘Dave’s not coming back’.”

And here is some more insight into Shaw’s motivations. Full article here.

“Dave Shaw, 50, wanted to “do a dive that nobody has ever done”, said his friend and colleague Dave Hughes, a member of the 14-strong team that supported Mr Shaw at the Boesmansgat cave in South Africa’s Northern Cape province.

Mr Hughes, a Johannesburg businessman and diver, also supported Mr Shaw in his October 2004 world record-breaking dive, in which he had discovered the skeletal remains of 20-year-old Deon Dreyer 271 metres below the surface.

“He would have gone there even if there was nothing to fetch … He wanted to explore and investigate, that was what was driving him,” Mr Hughes said…

In a recent interview, Mr Shaw said: “Life has been full in various ways – I choose to make it so, I guess. I am very lucky to have a wife who, even though she does not understand my desire to do these things, allows me to do them, as she knows it is part of my make-up.”

Mr Hughes said: “I think he was also happy that if Boesmansgat was going to be his grave that would be as good a grave as any. He would be at peace.”

Deon Dreyer’s parents are devastated, of course. First their son dies in Boesmansgat, and then another life is lost in the attempt to retrieve the body. Full story here:

“Dave assured me beforehand he would bring Deon’s remains to the surface, come what may”, said Theo Dreyer.

“We prayed for him the previous night.

“The extremely traumatic events really hit me and my wife, Marie.

“First it was Deon’s drowning 10 years ago in Boesmansgat.

“The little flame of hope after Dave Shaw found the remains two months ago on the floor [of the cave], and now – all has been in vain and old wounds have been reopened.

“Above all, there is new uncertainty.

“Did Dave perhaps finish the task before he himself died? We’ll never know. “The father of two young people gave his life for Deon.

“What deed could be more selfless?”

Finally, even though Dave said that he did not want anyone to risk their lives to recover his body if anything went wrong, the South African police are seriously contemplating an effort to go get him. I’d say the only problem is that Dave Shaw is the only diver who has ever been to that depth, so they’ll only be risking more lives. Boesmansgat is already a grave. Perhaps it’s time to stop filling it up.

If you want to see more photos of Dave Shaw doing what he loved, check out this photo gallery. It’s nice to remember him in action…

Update, Update: Just received this comment from reader Brett Hawton:

Just spoke to Don Shirleys best friend and Don raced down to 250m (from 220m) as he saw Daves light stop moving below (vis was very good) then his oil filled Hamerhead unit imploded on his rebreather (Dave had the same unit so it may have gone too) and he had to bail out leaving his friend just 20m below. Don then got into serious diffulculty on the way back up as he manually drove the unit for hour after hour. At some point he also breathed some wrong gas too. He started with DCI problems by 40m. Anyway by the time he arrived on his shallowest stops his legs and arms were already totally paralysed with DCI. As I write now, he is still undergoing recompression treatment 3 days after the event and has so far recovered well. We all pray for his speedy recovery and for Dave’s family too…

Dave Shaw Decompressing: “Okay, it’s a bit chilly after 11 hours. But it’s quiet, and beautiful…”