From: adb@herboid.uucp (Anthony DeBoer)
Subject: Re: Lake Ontario claims third diver
Organization: Linda's Dragon Memorial Society
Date: Fri, 24 Jul 1992 05:46:25 GMT

In article <1992Jul20.220214.3643@bmerh85.bnr.ca> scribler@bnr.ca writes:
>Now that I was faxed a copy of the article from a
>friend in Toronto...here's the news...
>
>"A diving expert warned a man and his Metro-area pals
>to avoid a Kingston-area shipwreck where two divers died
>this summer.
>But Zbigniew Syderko ignored Dave Baylis' advice - and became
>the third diving fatablity in the "Lake Ontario Traiangle" in
>six weeks.

I've received a bit more information since my earlier posting concerning
these events.  What I've been told is that this third fatality was an
American (not that that should make any difference), and that apparently
both the dive shop and the boat captain advised him not to go diving, but
took his money anyway.

>Provincial police in Napanee told the Sun yesterday that Syderko,
>a 43-year-old.....died after telling his pals his air had run
>low exploring the George A. Marsh, a..... (basically an 85' deep dive).

(Ah, so it was the Sun [a tabloid with huge headlines and as much
sex-related content as they can find, for those of you outside the area]. 
The last diving-related piece they ran [on bottle-collecting] included a
colour photo of the president of our dive club, with her wetsuit [top
only] unzipped down to her navel and a fair bit of cleavage showing).

>Anyway seems his heart stopped (though they don't go into
>details as to why). Interesting to note that "Baylis told
>the Sun he was worried by the group's apparent "lack of
>experience and attitude." "They tended to be a little arrogant,
>macho," Baylis said."

>Another person, Dr. Patricia Ryan, 50, a city physician and veteran
>diver, died Tuesday after "surfacing with an air embolism - "the
>bends" - while diving near where Syderko was found. Peter Freifelds,
>43, of Picton, died June 7 after diving near the George A. Marsh."

Reports heard here indicate that Ryan had had a prior coronary two years
previously, although there was no indication if this problem was a
contributing factor.  If the newspaper simultaneously attributed the death
to two different causes, telling readers they're the same thing, I
wouldn't count on them having their other facts right either.

Another report indicated that these two were diving off the same boat.

There have been conflicting reports about the June 7th fatality.  The
early report was that his buddy had had a problem and that he had refused
to abort the dive with him, but the later report indicates that he was the
one who had the problem, a freeflow, signalled ascent, and the two lost
sight of each other on the way up, the victim never surfacing and being
found with an empty tank, no air in his BC, and his weight belt still on. 
An acquaintance who runs another boat out there was involved in the body
search, although I haven't had a chance to talk to him recently.

>Bermuda Triangle HA. We've got the dreaded "Lake Ontario Triangle"!!!
>(The devil must be visiting eh? :-)

They were saying the same thing about ice diving a few years ago
when two buddy pairs came to grief the same winter (three fatalities),
and about the wreck of the Arabia before that, when a number of divers
died there.  Just because two or three fatalities had something in
common doesn't suddenly make that the #1 killer of SCUBA divers, much
as saying so helps sell newspapers (and helps scare responsible people
away from diving and attract the kind of macho thrill-seekers we really
don't need).  The main causes still mostly involve ignoring fundamental
things from the OW-I course, like not using the buddy system, using drugs
or alcohol, not watching pressure and planning ahead, doing dives you're
not ready for, or even not being certified in the first place.  Consider
this a flame against newspapers, I suppose.

>So my question is...why are they warning people not to dive there?
>Has anybody dove there recently now? Or all they all DEAD?!!!!!!

As I understand it, the diver warned not to dive there was warned entirely
for reasons related to himself.  I hope nobody is trying to stop people
in general from diving out there.

I've done the Marsh myself, and I'm not posting from the great beyond :-)

>Stay tuned for the next adventure in the "Lake Ontario Triangle"!!!

I hope to be out there myself in a few weeks, although I hope and trust
that it'll be just good diving (and the diving out there is very good)
without any uncalled-for adventure.
-- 
Anthony DeBoer   NAUI # Z8800, D5482 | Why watch TV, when Netnews provides
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