I was at Devil's Den a few years ago with my kids. We dove for over an hour, got out and changed tanks to go back in. One of the guys who went through orientation with us was on the dock worried about his buddy who was still in the water. He was separated early on and thought his buddy was low on air. My daughter and I found out where he was last seen and went in to look for him. We looked there, visibility was mask - zero, in that area. After 45 min down we came up to find the sherrif, rescue team, chopper, and everything else except another diver. We were asked to get out but we were able to go back down to look after they said they didn't have anyone other than the owner looking for the missing diver (he only had a miniC light, we loaned him one of our big ones - ran into him on the bottom). Neither of us found the diver. A professional team didn't either that went in about an hour later. They did find him about 8 hours later after the sediment had settled. He was right where we looked, but we weren't able to "feel" him out because of vis. He seemed to have either lost his mouthpiece and panicked or bumped his head and went unconscious. The diver was a professional diver/fireman who was from Alabama on the way to Orlando for a conference. He was using rental equipment and probably in his mid 20's. He didn't follow the rules and went into a place where he could barely fit - rules were stated to stay out of anyplace where 2 divers couldn't go. Anyway, it was an interesting but tragic ending to a dive vacation. My kids also learned a good lesson about following the rules.
