Cameron Donaldson (northernone) a requiem

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Like many, I only knew him through Scuba Board. Yet his comments always stood out; they represent the best of social media and forums like this. Kind, thoughtful, and knowledgeable.

Until this sad week, I never knew about his work with the Cree. I never knew how YOUNG he was! I always presumed he was an older, wiser diver.

I will miss his presence here, and realize how much more many others will be missing him....
 
First got to know him through ScubaBoard as northernone, always had something productive to contribute to the discussion at hand, calm, mature and full of insights.

About a year later, on another SCUBA facebook group, got to chat with him personally, and he agreed to get the paperwork for my AOW certification done at a minimal price so that I could proceed to my Decompression Procedures training. At that time, I was stuck at Advanced Nitrox without an AOW certificate, already had 5 specialties, but dive centers around me insisted on me paying the price for AOW instead of just doing the paperwork for me.

After getting me certified for AOW, he also shared tips and tricks as to technical diving and rebreathers when I expressed interested in those, sharing what he learnt throughout the years to an entire stranger, answering my questions with patience. Nice guy, pleasant chat, got to the point we were discussing logistics for him to come dive in Malaysia since he had never dove there before.

Really shocked me when I saw the thread on SB stating that he was missing. He will be sorely missed.

Condolences to the family.
 
I hesitate to post this because I have only been involved so much as being an observer, but only having known Cameron through this board and from reading but never directly interacting, this entire rescue operation and the realization this can happen to anyone has me shook to the core like I lost someone who I had known for years; The level of support both on this board for his rescue operation as well as in the real world has me both stunned and amazed in the best possible of ways. I wish him godspeed into his next journey and my deepest condolences to the family.
 
My condolences to Cameron's family and friends. Sad news.

A bit over year ago Cameron sent me a note inquiring about something I had posted up in the classifieds. I can not remember what it was and I had to do some looking. He sent me $5. It must of been for something I was giving away and Cameron could use. He sent me $5 to cover postage and a beer. Tomorrow I will pour a beer, a raise a glass, and toast Cameron.
 
I hesitate to post this because I have only been involved so much as being an observer, but only having known Cameron through this board and from reading but never directly interacting, this entire rescue operation and the realization this can happen to anyone has me shook to the core like I lost someone who I had known for years; The level of support both on this board for his rescue operation as well as in the real world has me both stunned and amazed in the best possible of ways. I wish him godspeed into his next journey and my deepest condolences to the family.

He would be humbled by the outpouring of love and support. He had a very difficult time grasping how much he meant to so many people.
 
Never met Cameron, but enjoyed his posts here on Scubaboard. They were always well thought out and informative.

To Cameron's mom Bonnie, and his close family and friends I send my sincere condolences.

To "Ray from Texas" - Bravo Zulu - you spearheaded the efforts to find Cameron, and kept fellow Scubaboard members informed as best you could. Well done under very difficult circumstances.

R.I.P. Cameron - you will be missed, but you will live on in your contributions to the dive community, and your contributions to the Cree youth of the James Bay region.

Divegoose
 
I only had one exchange with Cameron in a scuba group on fb about six weeks ago (& read a few of his posts in another fb scuba group). We disagreed on a topic I posted. I deleted the post (other group members started mansplaining) & I left that fb group. I wanted to forget about that discussion.

A week or two later, Cameron’s smiling-wild-man-with-sun-kissed-hair profile picture started appearing under "people you may know" on fb. Actually, his pic appeared every time I was on fb from then on. Whether on my fb account page or scrolling, there he was (his pic) - that guy from that post I deleted. Seeing “that guy's" pic on fb all the time kinda bothered me at first. Seeing his pic reminded me about the discussion I wanted to forget. But, that also made me think about the topic - over & over again. I kept pondering Cameron’s comments and a question he had asked in the post I deleted. To the point where I may change my opinion on a certain aspect of the topic.

For the past six weeks or so, Cameron's profile pic continued to appear under "people you may know” every time I was on fb. Until this morning. Today his pic was missing from its usual place - first in the “people you may know” line up.

I didn't know anything about Cameron until reading what has been shared about him here on ScubaBoard. It's clear that he was a kind & thoughtful person - a very special person to those who knew him. My heart goes out to his family (including his ScubaBoard family), friends & all who loved/love him.
 
Never met Cameron, but enjoyed his posts here on Scubaboard. They were always well thought out and informative.

To Cameron's mom Bonnie, and his close family and friends I send my sincere condolences.

To "Ray from Texas" - Bravo Zulu - you spearheaded the efforts to find Cameron, and kept fellow Scubaboard members informed as best you could. Well done under very difficult circumstances.

R.I.P. Cameron - you will be missed, but you will live on in your contributions to the dive community, and your contributions to the Cree youth of the James Bay region.

Divegoose

I only had one exchange with Cameron in a scuba group on fb about six weeks ago (& read a few of his posts in another fb scuba group). We disagreed on a topic I posted. I deleted the post (other group members started mansplaining) & I left that fb group. I wanted to forget about that discussion.

A week or two later, Cameron’s smiling-wild-man-with-sun-kissed-hair profile picture started appearing under "people you may know" on fb. Actually, his pic appeared every time I was on fb from then on. Whether on my fb account page or scrolling, there he was (his pic) - that guy from that post I deleted. Seeing “that guy's" pic on fb all the time kinda bothered me at first. Seeing his pic reminded me about the discussion I wanted to forget. But, that also made me think about the topic - over & over again. I kept pondering Cameron’s comments and a question he had asked in the post I deleted. To the point where I may change my opinion on a certain aspect of the topic.

For the past six weeks or so, Cameron's profile pic continued to appear under "people you may know” every time I was on fb. Until this morning. Today his pic was missing from its usual place - first in the “people you may know” line up.

I didn't know anything about Cameron until reading what has been shared about him here on ScubaBoard. It's clear that he was a kind & thoughtful person - a very special person to those who knew him. My heart goes out to his family (including his ScubaBoard family), friends & all who loved/love him.

Thank you all so much. Divegoose- I may have appeared as the face of the effort here, I was really just one of many and many of them spent every waking hour. I was still living some semblance of a normal life and just doing what I could. My fellow mods, oh my God they are good people, worked very hard. Wow @Pedro Burrito and others! Our members helped the many threads and discussions stay respectful.

I want more than anything to get across to all of us that the people here all have wonderful qualities mixed with pain and fears. When I overlook the things I know are expressions of the pain and fears in peoples' life, I get to later see the wonderful parts. People that insult, demean, attack or bicker with me may act in ways that would justify a counter response where I might work to find their flaws but that would be a mistake.

I can make a long list of people that have given me the opportunity to use my wit and intellect to put them in their place. In almost every case given enough time those people later post something that makes me respect them. There are few irredeemable people in this world. There are countless hurting and misunderstood people that want to do good and are tired of being picked on by life and by petty tyrants.

We are in this together. We are stronger together. We must accept what we don't understand about someone's attitude or position long enough to get the magic of finding out that they are special too. It literally happens here every week or every day.

Take that angry response and make a copy to send later. I like to send it to a friend instead. It's not painful to delete a full page of scathing response. You won't want to send it a week later. Some people that have helped me the most are people I wanted to give a piece of my mind and didn't. We never have the full picture and we shouldn't be quick to act on the bit of the picture we have when it is negative. It is probably based in our own fears and preconceptions. Thinking like this is what getting old can do.

That's the good part of getting old. The bad part is burying your friends, sometimes way too soon.
 
I knew nothing about Northernone prior to this tragedy. All I can say is that he was a very lucky man to have earned so much friendship, love, and respect from so many. I wish I had known him.
RIP Cameron!
 
There was a thread yesterday about removal of the bp/w and a comment that made it seem as if doing it at depth was not a useful skill. That is of course silly and it is a useful skill. I mentioned that it is of course required to along with wetsuit partial removal in order to perform a warhammer maneuver. What I didn't share was the part about Cameron.

On my trip there in December we were all having dinner together and I admitted to Cameron and the group that at 70' in the middle of the dive I had gotten really sick and had to perform this maneuver to avoid soiling my wetsuit. My wife and I snuck off to find a protected area out of view and current and did the dirty deed. The relief was immediate and immense. As we were finalizing my getting resituated a group wandered by with a confused look.

A week or two later I get a message from Cameron with a link attached. The message was a question about if I was training to avoid sonar detection. The link was an article on how submarines will sometimes empty their waste tanks to attract schools of fish to create confusion on the sonar of searching enemy subs. He never missed a beat. bu da boom
 
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