Diver Found Dead in La Jolla

[NeptunusRex]

From what I've seen this spot typically has rough conditions. Was there any more info since? I'm curious as to what new gear he was trying.

Scuba Shore Diving Site Page for: Hospital Point of California South, USA West

[Blue Sparkle]

Article text from whitewatermike's link (added for when link no longer works but thread still exists):

Diver Found Dead Near Children's Pool ID'd
Jimmy Tanovan, 35, Found Dead Off Coast On Sunday Evening

POSTED: 11:15 am PDT October 10, 2011
UPDATED: 8:01 pm PDT October 10, 2011

LA JOLLA, Calif. -- The body of a diver discovered about 30 yards off the coast of La Jolla Sunday was identified Monday by the San Diego County Medical Examiner's Office.

Jimmy Somphirigna Tanovan, 35, was found on a rock around 8:40 p.m. about one mile south of the Children’s Pool.

Chris Lafornara, who was house-sitting at an apartment in the area, said he met and spoke with Tanovan before he went in the ocean around 6:15 p.m.

Lafornara said he was friendly and excited about using his new SCUBA equipment. He asked if Tanovan would pick him up a lobster.

Lafornara said he thought something was wrong when the diver didn’t return after a couple of hours.

“When I saw the light on the rock, I knew he was either barely making it, or he was dead,” Lafornara said. “I came back up and called the cops.”

Tanovan was pronounced dead at the scene by lifeguards.

Tanovan's mother, Paulina Banhthanavong, said, "I miss him. I don't know what I'm going to do."

Tanovan and his mother left Laos as refugees when he was just 11 months old.

"We moved to the United States because I wanted him to have a future [and] freedom," Banhthanavong told 10News.

Tanovan was free to pursue his many passions, which his girlfriend, Stephanie Fong, admired about him.

"He was a very accomplished musician," Fong said. "He played the guitar, the bass, the piano, the drums …"

Fong said he was pursuing a music degree at UCSD, and prior to that he served in the U.S. Navy for nine years. Tanovan recently joined the Navy Reserve.

"He loved serving, and he was very involved with the church," Fong said. "The reason why I fell in love with him was because he was a man of God."

"He came to church, he served as an usher, he took his girlfriend out for lunch afterwards and he Skyped his brother later that afternoon," said Pastor Julia Pearson.

His brother, who is serving in the military in Afghanistan, is headed back for the funeral.

Tanovan was known to give lobster dinners for his family and friends.

"He just loved catching lobster and he loved seafood and one of his other passions was cooking," said Fong. "I believe that he's right now standing at the throne with Jesus, probably eating some lobster."

The cause of Tanovan's death was under investigation.

[DandyDon]

Excerpting from Separate scuba-diving deaths deemed accidental | SignOnSanDiego.com

The body of Jimmy Somphirigna Tanovan, 35, of Oceanside, was found Oct. 9 floating in rocks near the shoreline of the Children’s Pool in La Jolla. The other diver, James Daniel Kinane, 56, of San Diego, died on July 2, the Medical Examiner’s Office said.

The autopsies determined both men also had cardiovascular disease, a medical examiner’s investigator said Friday.

[Gunrock]

I know the thread is a bit old but I did not see a response from anyone who has dived HP. I lived in San Diego until recently and did hundreds of dives there, including many solo dives -- but I only dove HP once. There is a series of beaches and coves south of La Jolla Cove that are diveable but depending on the time of year and swell direction they can all be subject to large waves, strong surge, and powerful rip currents. Some sites are also subject to nasty shore breaks that carry a lot of power even when the waves look small. On one occasion I helped a guy retrieve his whole rig from the water -- he had gotten into trouble in a rip current on a rough day and ditched all his gear to survive. In my experience the viz only averages around 10 feet, and of course it's quite cold. In sum these are not novice sites and even among avid divers I rarely met anyone who had even one dive in this area under their belt, and no one who claimed to dive this stretch of coastline frequently. I would say it's generally better suited to freediving than scuba.

Unfortunately the only really quiet spots to enter the water in San Diego County are at La Jolla Shores and La Jolla Cove, but they're both in a preserve. So HP and the other rougher sites are where people do their bug hunting. (Of course there's the infamous Children's Pool, but most divers don't want to deal with the overzealous "seal people" harassing them.)

As far as HP specifically I waited years to dive there because I wanted to go with someone who knew the site. Like the other spots it is kind of tricky so you want to pick your entry/exit carefully. Although there's a sandy beach there is a lot of rock structure as soon as you hit the water; some of it extends right onto shore and would make for a bad place to get caught in the surf zone. Underwater there is a lot of this rocky reef structure to explore with overhangs, channels, and even a big swim-through, with lots of seagrass for lobsters to hide in. My memory's a bit hazy on the depth but from what I recall of this whole area it's only 15-20 feet deep for the most part. Regardless there is no need to go very far out from shore to do the dive.

To sum it all up it makes for great diving -- on a calm day. Not the place to solo dive, or try out new gear, IMO, let alone do these things at night. I realize we'll never know just what happened to the poor guy but I just wanted to paint a better picture of the dive site for people who don't know the area. The La Jolla coastline is absolutely beautiful but the ocean there is unforgiving.