Prayers and condolences to his family and all his friends.
Zak Jones
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Rossiapacifica
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The sad details are beginning to emerge. Please be respectful (as you would with any other fatality) in your discussion. Judgments would probably not be respectful. Imagine how you would feel if you had been there.
Posted on Tue, Dec. 06, 2005
MIAMI-DADE
Police probe diver's death
BY SUSAN COCKING
scocking@herald.com
Miami-Dade police are investigating the diving death of a professional scuba instructor on Thanksgiving Day off Hallandale Beach.
Zak Jones, 30, who was diving with six colleagues from Fort Lauderdale's Pro Dive International on the Pro Diver II, was pronounced dead on arrival at Aventura Hospital.
Jones had been on what company CEO Frank Gernert described as a ''staff technical dive.'' According to Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Chris O'Neil, Jones and a dive buddy were 150 feet deep, each equipped with three scuba tanks, when they separated to explore a reef.
'After a few minutes, Mr. Jones' dive partner turned and found Mr. Jones struggling as if he were entangled in his tank lines,'' O'Neil said, quoting from a Coast Guard incident report. ``When the dive partner reached Mr. Jones, Mr. Jones was unconscious with the regulator out of his mouth.''
Jones' buddy quickly dumped the air out of Jones' buoyancy-compensation vest, sending him quickly to the surface, O'Neil said. The buddy ascended slower because of the depth they were diving, which is beyond the recreational limit of 130 feet. At the surface, the buddy administered CPR and flagged down the dive boat. The unconscious Jones was lifted on board, where the crew continued CPR and radioed the Coast Guard at 10:35 a.m.
According to O'Neil, two Coast Guard vessels were on the scene in 15 minutes, and one of them took Jones to Haulover Marina, where he was picked up by Miami-Dade paramedics.
A Miami-Dade police spokesman said the death remains unclassified, pending results of tests by the medical examiner's office.
Jones began his diving career in 1992, after receiving his initial certification. In 12 years of diving, he held more than 25 certifications, including course director at Pro Dive International.
Gernert said Jones' colleagues are deeply saddened by his death and want to know what caused it.
''Pro Dive and the staff here want to know to the highest possible degree of certainty what happened, and we are reaching out to all scientific and forensic resources to help us understand,'' Gernert said. ``Until such time as we have anything to report, we only have theories to work with.''
An account has been set up to assist Jones' wife, Robyn. Visit
www.prodiveusa.com/home.php.
Link:
Miami Herald
Posted on Tue, Dec. 06, 2005
MIAMI-DADE
Police probe diver's death
BY SUSAN COCKING
scocking@herald.com
Miami-Dade police are investigating the diving death of a professional scuba instructor on Thanksgiving Day off Hallandale Beach.
Zak Jones, 30, who was diving with six colleagues from Fort Lauderdale's Pro Dive International on the Pro Diver II, was pronounced dead on arrival at Aventura Hospital.
Jones had been on what company CEO Frank Gernert described as a ''staff technical dive.'' According to Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Chris O'Neil, Jones and a dive buddy were 150 feet deep, each equipped with three scuba tanks, when they separated to explore a reef.
'After a few minutes, Mr. Jones' dive partner turned and found Mr. Jones struggling as if he were entangled in his tank lines,'' O'Neil said, quoting from a Coast Guard incident report. ``When the dive partner reached Mr. Jones, Mr. Jones was unconscious with the regulator out of his mouth.''
Jones' buddy quickly dumped the air out of Jones' buoyancy-compensation vest, sending him quickly to the surface, O'Neil said. The buddy ascended slower because of the depth they were diving, which is beyond the recreational limit of 130 feet. At the surface, the buddy administered CPR and flagged down the dive boat. The unconscious Jones was lifted on board, where the crew continued CPR and radioed the Coast Guard at 10:35 a.m.
According to O'Neil, two Coast Guard vessels were on the scene in 15 minutes, and one of them took Jones to Haulover Marina, where he was picked up by Miami-Dade paramedics.
A Miami-Dade police spokesman said the death remains unclassified, pending results of tests by the medical examiner's office.
Jones began his diving career in 1992, after receiving his initial certification. In 12 years of diving, he held more than 25 certifications, including course director at Pro Dive International.
Gernert said Jones' colleagues are deeply saddened by his death and want to know what caused it.
''Pro Dive and the staff here want to know to the highest possible degree of certainty what happened, and we are reaching out to all scientific and forensic resources to help us understand,'' Gernert said. ``Until such time as we have anything to report, we only have theories to work with.''
An account has been set up to assist Jones' wife, Robyn. Visit
www.prodiveusa.com/home.php.
Link:
Miami Herald
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To say the least...it is has been quite the shock to learn of Zak's untimely death. Zak was one of my instructors at Pro Dive throughout this summer passed. He saw me from AOW through my instructor's ticket. At that time he had recently joined the Pro Dive staff and I was lucky enough to be one of his first Pro Dive students. I arrived in Florida a day late for classes and in response Zak took the time out of his day to personally instruct me through PPB. At the end of the summer it was my intention to write him a letter of appreciation to let him know just how much he had helped me develop not only as a diver, an instructor, but as a person. It is a shame that I found myself caught up in daily life and did not make time to do so. I'll take this moment to express a bit to the dive community.
Zak was a phenomenal individual to say the least. He had a flair for positivity second to none. His personality and charisma breathed life into his classes and his smile, voice and comic relief that came to follow were impossible to deny. He was personable enough to make anyone feel like a close friend. I am also convinced that within his versatility he could find a way to relate to nearly every personality type he encountered... no matter the circumstances he could make you feel good. Zak truly was a gift not just to the dive industry but everyone who had the pleasure to interact with him on a personal level.
One of my better memories of Zak was during one of his IDC prep sessions where it was the student's job to lead a dive of instructor candidates posing as open water students. Zak had a special knack for creating scenarios that always kept his students on their toes...ready for anything and everything. During this portion of his preparing me for "instructorhood" I had to lead and navigate a shallow reef dive with the remainder of my class as Zak would pose a number of different problems, you as the instructor candidate had to deal with. First it began with him un-strapping one of my student's tanks, followed immediately by him removing another student's fins. He swam up to me handing off the fins and gave me a puzzled look as to what he should do. I went through the motions of helping the student secure his tank and replacing another student's fins while he was off conjuring up his next act. As things progressed he removed his gear and began his famous tank rodeo. I quickly swam to him motioning him to calm down and replace his gear. He then proceeded to hand me his rig, flooded my mask & over-inflated my BCD. I managed to hang on to his gear, purge my BCD and one handedly clear my mask as Zak swam from student to student taking sips of air from their alternate air sources and taunting me as I swam after him. When I finally caught up to him he posed as a panicked diver eventually in need of full rescue...Later on a few others present at the time agreed that it was the most creative and difficult problems our class had the pleasure of experiencing. Keeping that in mind I'll let everyone know that I'm fully confident that every student that has crossed Zak's path should be proud and capable. He left no stone unturned when it came to thorough instruction. There were certainly frustrating moments, but at every turn I reminded myself and others as to how incredibly calculated his instruction was and how prepared we would be upon completion. I will live out the remainder of my career as an instructor attempting to emulate many of the lessons learned from Zak.
My favorite stories he shared with us were of his salvage of the B-17 (http://www.b17labrador.com) and the story of how at a young age he and a friend were scolded after being caught by his mother for diving a makeshift dive bell in a swimming pool…with a large garbage can.
I encourage everyone to celebrate the passing of this great person as his life was certainly lived to the fullest with both purpose and value. Even spending a short time with him during "story time", which would certainly be included within at least thirty minutes of every lesson he gave, confirms that a day in his life was lived with more activity and pursuit of dreams than most. My deepest condolences go to Dave, Robyn, his family, the staff at Pro Dive and everyone who had the pleasure to interact with Zak. He was truly a mountain of an individual and we as a community should work to ensure his memory is not forgotten. Although his passing is a very saddening event do not lose sight of what a blessing his time was.
Thanks Zak!
Zak was a phenomenal individual to say the least. He had a flair for positivity second to none. His personality and charisma breathed life into his classes and his smile, voice and comic relief that came to follow were impossible to deny. He was personable enough to make anyone feel like a close friend. I am also convinced that within his versatility he could find a way to relate to nearly every personality type he encountered... no matter the circumstances he could make you feel good. Zak truly was a gift not just to the dive industry but everyone who had the pleasure to interact with him on a personal level.
One of my better memories of Zak was during one of his IDC prep sessions where it was the student's job to lead a dive of instructor candidates posing as open water students. Zak had a special knack for creating scenarios that always kept his students on their toes...ready for anything and everything. During this portion of his preparing me for "instructorhood" I had to lead and navigate a shallow reef dive with the remainder of my class as Zak would pose a number of different problems, you as the instructor candidate had to deal with. First it began with him un-strapping one of my student's tanks, followed immediately by him removing another student's fins. He swam up to me handing off the fins and gave me a puzzled look as to what he should do. I went through the motions of helping the student secure his tank and replacing another student's fins while he was off conjuring up his next act. As things progressed he removed his gear and began his famous tank rodeo. I quickly swam to him motioning him to calm down and replace his gear. He then proceeded to hand me his rig, flooded my mask & over-inflated my BCD. I managed to hang on to his gear, purge my BCD and one handedly clear my mask as Zak swam from student to student taking sips of air from their alternate air sources and taunting me as I swam after him. When I finally caught up to him he posed as a panicked diver eventually in need of full rescue...Later on a few others present at the time agreed that it was the most creative and difficult problems our class had the pleasure of experiencing. Keeping that in mind I'll let everyone know that I'm fully confident that every student that has crossed Zak's path should be proud and capable. He left no stone unturned when it came to thorough instruction. There were certainly frustrating moments, but at every turn I reminded myself and others as to how incredibly calculated his instruction was and how prepared we would be upon completion. I will live out the remainder of my career as an instructor attempting to emulate many of the lessons learned from Zak.
My favorite stories he shared with us were of his salvage of the B-17 (http://www.b17labrador.com) and the story of how at a young age he and a friend were scolded after being caught by his mother for diving a makeshift dive bell in a swimming pool…with a large garbage can.
I encourage everyone to celebrate the passing of this great person as his life was certainly lived to the fullest with both purpose and value. Even spending a short time with him during "story time", which would certainly be included within at least thirty minutes of every lesson he gave, confirms that a day in his life was lived with more activity and pursuit of dreams than most. My deepest condolences go to Dave, Robyn, his family, the staff at Pro Dive and everyone who had the pleasure to interact with Zak. He was truly a mountain of an individual and we as a community should work to ensure his memory is not forgotten. Although his passing is a very saddening event do not lose sight of what a blessing his time was.
Thanks Zak!
Rossiapacifica:
Thank you Rossiapacifica... I appreciate your posting this as this is the first public story I've seen.
caveseeker7
Contributor
If the rest of Susi's story is as accurate as that sentence it isn't worth much.MIAMI-DADE (BY SUSAN COCKING):
Either she or the Coastie seem to have a lack of understanding basic physics.
Frank@Pro Dive
Guest
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Gang, please be careful what you take from the Miami Herald, there is incorrect information and mis-quotes. There is however an ongoing investigation to best determine what happened by review of equipment and circumstances. As soon as anything can be acknowledged with likely or absolute probabality, the industry has my word it will be posted to our website and cleary reported to PADI. Until that time, there is truely nothing more to be said than currently contained on the website (www.prodiveusa.com).
Live large for Zak -
Live large for Zak -
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Thank you Frank ... would you please post it here as well? I didn't know Zak, but he was very well liked and respected in our area, and his death affected quite a number of local divers. As is always the case when someone dies in a scuba accident, it brings some closure to know why it happened ...Frank@Pro Dive:
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
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Yeah...something sounds a little weird about the story posted in the Herald.
caveseeker7
Contributor
Frank, good of you to respond, thanks.
Or do you refer to acknowledging mistakes being made?
A detailed account of what actually happened would do for now.
The newspaper article seems to lack undertsanding of diving, as they unfrtunately
frequently do. 'After a few minutes, Mr. Jones' dive partner turned and found Mr.
Jones struggling as if he were entangled in his tank lines,''
What "tank line"? Why "as if"? Was he actually entangled?
Or did he have convulsions?
With acknowledged I asume you refer to the outcome of the equipment analysis, correct?Frank@Pro Dive:
Or do you refer to acknowledging mistakes being made?
A detailed account of what actually happened would do for now.
The newspaper article seems to lack undertsanding of diving, as they unfrtunately
frequently do. 'After a few minutes, Mr. Jones' dive partner turned and found Mr.
Jones struggling as if he were entangled in his tank lines,''
What "tank line"? Why "as if"? Was he actually entangled?
Or did he have convulsions?
Frank@Pro Dive:
Thanks Frank..... The very worse thing that could happen is people receiving false information. I'm so glad we have you and Pro Dive here on our board to keep thing straight.
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