How many people disappear?

[kevinl4270]

I had a DM in the Philippines a few years back tell me that occasionally divers from Korea will "go missing" there.
He said most people suspect they use it as a cover to disappear back to Korea after burning people on bad business deals in the Philippines. Sounds plausible, but seems unlikely.

 

[blue steal]

Our DM is Cuban and the joke is when diving Baracuda reef that with the strong drift if you get separated, the next stop is Cuba.

 

[vladimir]

.....

 

[ggunn]

Our DM is Cuban and the joke is when diving Baracuda reef that with the strong drift if you get separated, the next stop is Cuba.

Jorge, right?

 

[fishi]

Jorge, right?

That's the DM I had the conversation with.

He took us to a spot that day that he knows of but they don't usually dive on. It turned out to be a really good dive. I enjoyed diving with Jorge. He's very good to dive with.

 

[MMM]

Jorge is an amazing DM. One of my very favourites. Interestingly, he's never had any interest in getting his instructor cert. He just likes leading dives. A few years ago, I was on a boat with him and the guy who first instructed/certified him. That was fun!

 

[DandyDon]

Sounds like its about 10% truth, and about 90% ghost story.

We've had at last two divers go missing around here -- both drowned, both not recovered. Happens everywhere. Don't run out of gas, don't blow your lungs with a rapid ascent.

Don't get on a boat without signaling devices,* don't fight a down current - there are two ways to escape, don't overweight, don't forget to dump weights on surface if needed...

*A couple I knew got swept away for a while from a Bonaire boat. I asked if they had safety sausage? "We took those, but left them on the boat." :shocked2:

DandyDon believes that they were "pulling my leg". I don't.

Ya think?

I'm assuming someone looking for a missing person or
persons would contact the police on Cozumel at
some point. Maybe try them.

American Consulate: Plaza Villa Mar en El Centro, Plaza Principal, (Parque Juárez between Melgar and 5th Ave.) 2nd floor, Locales #8 and 9; telephone (011)(52)(987) 872-4574.

You may find some answers here.

Accidents and Incidents - ScubaBoard

But in general most accidents are not publicized much. As for the bodies ending up near Cuba that's quite possible based on where the current runs & other things I've read over the years.

I wouldn't be surprised to learn that more tourists are than we hear about have to be shipped home in bags if found. Still, I doubt that the true numbers would be much more than we hear about. A floater may not make it to Cuba or Key West tho. Wouldn't float that long before being dismantled. Some gear might.

 

[farsidefan1]

This thread remids me of my final certifiction dive in blue lake (vis about 1 foot)Divemaster went down with 3 of us. As soon as I went down I could not see zippo. I hung around for a minute or so then popped up to the surface. One of the other students was already up and the other one popped up within moments. We just floated there expecting our instructor to join us momentarily. 20 minutes later he came up on the other side of the lake, looked around and upon seeing us yelled, "What are you doing over there?" We were kinda thinking the same thing about him.

 

[boulderjohn]

If I were to commit suicide, I think scuba would be a consideration. It beats a bullet to the head and all that entails.

Wow--not for me.

Let's see-- a bullet to the head means instant death, with only the tiniest feeling of pain. The only other thing that it entails is a cleanup mess for others, which can be solved by doing it out in the jungle.

Death by drowning on scuba means a long, slow, wait for the air to run out, with second thoughts running through the head constantly. Should I be doing this? Is this the right thing? What happens when I am dead? What's it like? Then the last few breaths get hard to get in, and the second thoughts multiply. You run out of air, and every natural instinct in your body is driving you to go to the surface and breathe. The CO2 buildup has every fiber of your body screaming at you to sprint to the surface. But if you really want to die, you have to fight that and fight that and fight that until, finally, after a couple of minutes (because there is that much O2 in your blood even after you stop breathing, you pass out.

So you really prefer the second alternative to the first?

 

[cdolphin]

The Vortex cave incident this past summer. He's still missing.