I have good Google skills
A Columbia diving instructor apparently was training for a record depth
dive
> off the coast of Mexico when he did not resurface.
>
> The body of Mac Lupold, 33, who owns Columbia Scuba near Broad River
> Road, was found Sunday off the coast of Cozumel, a Mexican resort island
> that is popular with American tourists.
>
> Authorities still were searching for Mike Jonaitis, a 28-year-old
Lexington
> commercial diver, who accompanied Lupold on a deep dive. Lupold and
> Jonaitis might have succumbed to a form of nitrogen buildup that
afflicts divers
> at great depths.
>
> Larry Cogburn (sic), who owns Wateree Reef(sic) Dive Center off St.
Andrews
> Road,
> said Lupold told him that he intended to break the depth record of more
than
> 500 feet for a dive made with an air tank.
>
> "Mac was a very competent diver. Several people have died attempting to
> break this record. He knew what the risks were," Cogburn said. "Several
> people, including myself, tried to talk him out of it. It would be like
> trying to climb Mount Everest solo."
>
> Lupold has operated his Columbia diving business for at least several
years,
> Cogburn said. Cogburn, 56, has operated his own diving business for two
> decades.
>
> He and Jonaitis disappeared Friday afternoon, when they went diving off
the
> coast of Cozumel.
> Lupold often went to Cozumel, leading diving tours, Cogburn said. Most
of
> Lupold's clients were novice divers, he said.
>
> Recreational divers don't dive deeper than 130 feet, Cogburn said. At
the time
> he disappeared, Lupold was not diving with the group of 42 Midlands
> residents that he took to Cozumel on a tour.
>
> Lupold and Jonaitis told six members of the tour group they planned to
dive as
> deep as 400 feet at the Santa Rosa Wall. Depths at that formation reach
> 1,000 feet.
>
> The divers, who both had two air tanks, told tour group members they
each
> would send one tank to the surface to show they completed their dive. No
> tanks ever surfaced.