Tragedy comes true
40-minute dive ends in man's death at Gonzales Bay
Louise Dickson, Times Colonist
Published: Sunday, October 15, 2006
Ian Indridson had a premonition of disaster as he looked at the thick fog rolling into Gonzales Bay yesterday.
"I heard a foghorn and I thought, 'I hope I never witness a maritime disaster down here,'" said Indridson, who dismissed the thought immediately.
But about 2:30 p.m., the resident of Hollywood Crescent heard screams coming from the water, called 911, then ran to help two scuba divers bring a third diver onto the rocks outside his house.
Stephen Peter Radlein, 39, who lived in James Bay with his parents, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Victoria police Const. Lori Beauvais said that Radlein was a very experienced diver. "He'd been diving for more than 20 years," she said.
Radlein went diving about 12:15 p.m. off Gonzales Beach with a man and a woman he had met for the first time yesterday, said Beauvais.
The three decided to go out together with the promise to keep an eye on each other.
"They were out about 40 minutes, giving each other the thumbs up every so often. After 42 minutes, they couldn't see him, so they were concerned and swam over to try and find him. They found him floating tank-up on the surface," she said.
Screaming for help, they floated the unconscious diver to shore. Indridson helped them lift Radlein by his neoprene suit.
"We got him onto the rocks and they started CPR," he recalled last evening.
"I looked down and I thought, 'This man's gone, but God, don't let him be gone.' You just want to cry your eyes out. You don't know the guy, but geez, he's your own age and you just think he could have been a buddy you could go have a beer with."
Indridson ran back to the road to flag the ambulance. Paramedics tried unsuccessfully to bring Radlein back to life.
"I went into shock when I saw the six paramedics, like pallbearers, lifting him into the back of the ambulance," said Indridson.
"It just hits you. You think, 'No, keep working.'"
Coroner Heather Page is investigating the death and will determine whether there will be an autopsy. An expert from the Saanich police dive team was at the scene, assisting Victoria police, inspecting the dive equipment.
In August 1985, Indridson was standing on a dock near Horseshoe Bay when he saw a boating accident in which three members of the Kwok family died. Kim Kwok, 45, and her sons, Michael, 3, and Martin, 12, were killed with their pleasure boat collided with the Queen of Cowichan.
© Times Colonist (Victoria) 2006
