deepdiverbc:
Have any Pentiction area divers heard details on the golf ball diver accident?
Our local news reported that his buddy made it to shore to get help but it was too late. They reported they were diving a lake retrieving golf balls.
If you have any information please give your source so we can limit speculation. I have not posted this on the dive accident forum.
I found this article here
http://www.pentictonwesternnews.com/
cya
Ken
Man drowns diving lake on golf course
Apr 24 2005
Tracy Clark
News Staff Reporter
A Vancouver Island man is dead after a diving accident at St. Andrews by the Lake Thursday.
Patrick Allan Baker, a 33-year-old Courtney man, died while diving in the lake to collect golf balls, said Cpl. Rick Dellebuur from the Penticton RCMP.
Baker, wearing full diving equipment including an air tank, was working with a Delta company at the lake, he said.
The man was pronounced dead at Penticton Regional Hospital.
Foul play is not suspected in the death, said Dellebuur.
Worker's Compensation Board, the coroner and police are all investigating the death.
"It's tragic. It's unbelievable," said a six-year employee of the course, which is operated by a strata council. "Nothing like this has ever happened here."
Steve Toth, owner of Oceantec Scuba Diving in Penticton, said commercial diving is much different than sport or recreational diving.
The 25-year veteran said experience in difficult situations while diving can often be the difference between life and death.
Although he has not dived at St. Andrew's and does not know the circumstances surrounding Thursday's drowning, he said diving into dark and murky waters - which is often the case in smaller and more shallow lakes and ponds such as the St. Andrew's golf course lake - can cause confusion and disorientation. The diver may not be able to determine which way is up. A diver's comfort in the water is greatly decreased in these circumstances, he said.
Police have yet to release the circumstances behind the drowning.
