Deon Dreyer - too much too young?

[Violent Ken]

Does anybody know the circumstances surrounding Deon Dreyer's death back in 1994? I'm just wondering how he came to be in such a situation aged only 20. It seems young to be exploring such a cave as Boesmansgat.

[Mr T.]

Originally Posted by Violent Ken

Does anybody know the circumstances surrounding Deon Dreyer's death back in 1994? I'm just wondering how he came to be in such a situation aged only 20. It seems young to be exploring such a cave as Boesmansgat.

Hi Ken,

You might want to go back a read the threads in this Cave section and those on the Rebreather forum about the circumstances surrounding Dreyer's death. There are a couple of good threads on the topic in both forums.

HTH.

[Mr T.]

Originally Posted by Violent Ken

Does anybody know the circumstances surrounding Deon Dreyer's death back in 1994? I'm just wondering how he came to be in such a situation aged only 20. It seems young to be exploring such a cave as Boesmansgat.

Ken mate,

you might want attend the presentation given by Don Shirley and ask this question - it is not an unreasonable question to ask, given the dive.

[BigB]

Hi guys,

don't know much about Deon's death, but obviously got quite involved with the whole story.

I had long talks with his Dad as he also wanted to know why Deon died.

The facts are that he had air remaing in his twins (150 bar on the gauges in both) the torch battery was imploded (between the tanks on the back, was a homemade version).

The light of his torch was seen going down (police reports) so the implosion of the battery must have been a lot deeper and couldn't (!!!) have been the cause of his death.

He had a Sherwood Brut first stage on his righthand post and a balanced Spiro on the left, funny thing was the secondstages were swopped !! Sherwood on spiro and vice versa ! no manifold, so he must have been breathing one then the other..

Personally (and I mean this is my opinion only !!!!!) I think he was inexperienced, only deep dives before was in a place called Wondergat (60m) with a bottom..according to Theo (hid Dad) he had about 200 dives, he wasn't a chancer, was doing bike racing and hot rods etc. was his first dive ever in Boesmans.

Boesmans tend to narc you quicker....Wondergat has reference (sides, bottom) Boesmans has a visible side to about 50 m, then just a black void. I think he narced (they were at 70) let go of the line and started sinking, the rest of the crowed must also have been slightly gone as no one noticed him until they saw the light far below.
that's it....

cya!
BigB

[BigB]

Oh...they were'nt " exploring" this was just chasing depth...
cya!
BigB