[donmoore]

This is such terrible news! “He would know his own limits” line of thinking just isn't good enough. Not that I am not guilty of it too from time to time.

I was in a tournament this weekend in the Gulf of Mexico and we dove oil rigs is 150 to 350 feet of water. My buddy and I dove together most of the time. On one of his dives he hit the end of his 85’ float line trying to get close enough to an AJ to take a shot. He turn and came up about 20 feet when he saw a cobia following him so he turned back swam toward it and shot it. It wasn’t a kill shot and his breakaway didn’t release easy so he struggled hard for about 10 seconds trying to keep the fish from pulling him down while he tried to get the breakaway to come lose (the reason I would rather tie the float line to the gun and drop the whole thing when diving deep).

He gave me the “I need help signal” on the way up. I could see his eyes where glazed. At the surface he was close to a samba. I held him from behind for about 20 seconds and asked him to say something so I knew he was conscious.

I made one deep dive alone when he was taking a break on the boat that day and I received some blurred vision toward the surface. I was really mad I did that. It was foolish and also tired me out so when he was rested and ready to dive – I needed rest.

I know it’s not common in spearfishing tournaments to dive this way, but it’s the way we choose too. We are also more productive with several fish species such as cobia and AJ, because they are more likely to come check us out and one of is usually ready when they do.
don