Here is my account of what happened:Kevin Sakuda, Mike Hatcher, Paul McDonnell, Sergio Goes, and I got together mid-day on July 11, 2008 for a leisurely afternoon of diving at one of the wrecks. I had not dove with Sergio in a few months and he had called me recently expressing interest in getting together and diving again. I called him the night before to let him know there was room in the boat, and he jumped at the opportunity to join us.
We chose to go to the YO-257, where the deck is at 80ft and the bottom at 100ft. Sergio was a graduate of the
Performance Freediving class (November 2007), which is where I first met him. While in the class he reached personal bests of 120ft in diving and 5:45 in static, so there was no question of his freediving abilities. But since I had not dove with him in a while, I assumed he hadn't been diving much or at all, and I suspected he'd be a little out of diving shape. But, afterward, his girlfriend told me that he actually had been diving with her a bit for a few weeks prior.
Sergio standing on the deck of the Sea Tiger wreck at a depth of 100ft (January 2008).When we reached the wreck (~2:30pm) , I suggested that I share with the group a warm-up protocol that would help us dive well from the start. I described Performance Freediving's very effective warm-up strategy, which Sergio was already familiar with having completed the PFI course. The main component of the warm-up is to do 2 - 3 successive dives of increasing depth and duration by pulling down a rope. This is convenient to do at a wreck because the mooring line there serves as the rope.
Conditions were not bad, other than a slight current pulling toward Diamond Head. Because of this we attached a line to our bow and trailed it alongside the boat so that we could all grab onto it. Our system was to descend down the mooring line one at a time, with the diver finishing a dive going to the end of the line on the trailing rope. Because of this system it was easy for us to keep an eye on each other; each diver would descend and ascend before all of us and we'd keep an eye on him to make sure he didn't blackout.
The trailing rope which we used and the way we lined up.We recall Sergio making three dives on the mooring line. On his third dive Kevin and Mike saw him make it down to the deck, and Mike confirms seeing him return to the surface. Mike even asked him if he was OK, to which Sergio affirmed. Mike recalls watching and speaking to Sergio for a sufficient amount of time to assure that he couldn't still blackout (which I believe is a window up to 10 seconds after the end of a dive). This is the last time any of us recalls seeing Sergio (~3:15pm).
I made two dives after this point (15 - 20 min. elapsed), after which it occurred to me that I hadn't seen Sergio make any dives in a while. I asked the other guys if they had seen him, and they hadn't. I began to feel a slight tinge of concern, which I'm sure was the case for everybody.
After quickly surveying the entire area and not being able to observe Sergio, we realized that we were in a dire situation. Kevin got on the phone to call 911. Meanwhile, Paul and I made a few more dives down to the wreck to scan it and the surrounding area. I even made a slow dive from the surface allowing myself to drift with the current, which allowed me to sink to the area on the bottom where Sergio would have fell if he sank after blacking out. The Atlantis submarine was circling the wreck the entire time we were there, so I also checked all of the propellers of the sub.
Within 10 - 15 min. two team of lifeguards arrived on jet skis. They began to perform a circular search pattern, scanning from the surface (the vis was not good enough to see the bottom from the surface, however). Within minutes the Fire Dept. arrived on a boat, and we could see that they were preparing scuba diving equipment. Shortly thereafter the Fire Dept.'s search helicopter arrived and began to scan the area from above. The crew of the Atlantis also got involved, dropping scuba divers into the water and even having the submarine search from the bottom. Coast Guard patrolled the area from afar, directing boat traffic away from the area. With such a dedicated search effort we expected that Sergio would be found, but time wore on and light waned. The Fire Dept. informed us that they performed three successive dives, having to off-gas on the surface between tank exchanges. Once it became too dark to continue the search, Fire Dept. told us we could head in, and that they would resume their search at first light.
We returned out there this morning. We found a Fire Dept. boat following scuba divers around who were on the bottom. We attempted to contribute to the search by taking turns using a towboard and scanning the bottom. Late in the morning the Fire Dept. boat caught up to us and reported that Sergio's body had just been recovered by the Coast Guard some 6 miles off of Sand Island. He was floating, and the area where he was found suggests that he was probably pushed primarily by the wind. We raced over to Sand Island in hopes of finding the Coast Guard cutter that would supposedly be coming in with Sergio. We weren't able to find the cutter, but we received confirmation by phone that Sergio had indeed been found.
Sadly, he was found under the circumstance of a "recovery" rather than a "rescue".What happened? We have no idea. I don't want to speculate much until the medical examiner's report is released. Of course, I'm sure everyone suspects shallow water blackout. If this happened, it is unbelievable to all of us that were on the boat because we were really keeping an eye on each other. On the last dive we witnessed Sergio perform, Mike confirmed that he did not black out upon making it to the surface. The only possibility I can think of is that, for whatever reason, Sergio made another dive while behind us on the trailing line, which would have been hard for us to notice because we were all only paying attention to the one diver at the head of the line, and the current would have pulled Sergio away from us. He could have dropped something, or seen something of particular interest. But this would not really be consistent with Sergio's attitude. He was not a gung-ho, risk-taking type of diver.
So we are at a loss and in disbelief. We are waiting for the medical examiner's report in hopes of learning more.
Sergio right before his last observed dive.
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