Dave Shaw - 10 years on
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Dave Shaw - 10 years on
Dave Shaw entered Bushman's hole 10 years ago.
An incredible story, and an incredible man.
No matter what opinions you hear from people on the episode, whether it be praise or criticism, there can be no refuting that he was a true explorer and possessed an adventurous spirit that has largely been lost in today's age.
For those who are unfamiliar with his truly remarkable life and story, here is a good article to get acquainted with.
Dave Shaw | South Africa | OutsideOnline.com
Remembering Dave, Rest in Peace
An incredible story, and an incredible man.
No matter what opinions you hear from people on the episode, whether it be praise or criticism, there can be no refuting that he was a true explorer and possessed an adventurous spirit that has largely been lost in today's age.
For those who are unfamiliar with his truly remarkable life and story, here is a good article to get acquainted with.
Dave Shaw | South Africa | OutsideOnline.com
Remembering Dave, Rest in Peace
109Gustav, Thank you for posting that. I don't recollect meeting Dave Shaw when I was in CX ('97-'02).
A great story and a reminder of the dangers attendant upon pushing the limits.
I'm sure that incident was of interest and value to pro and mil divers.
I'm just a 120ft max bubble maker whose knowledge of extreme hyperbaric respiration is sketchy.
A great story and a reminder of the dangers attendant upon pushing the limits.
I'm sure that incident was of interest and value to pro and mil divers.
I'm just a 120ft max bubble maker whose knowledge of extreme hyperbaric respiration is sketchy.
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Australian ABC TV had a great tribute to him on their program 'Australian Story' shortly after his death. Most of the preparation and dive was videoed. Incredible story recounted by his dive mates and footage of one of their dive watches glass cracking under the extreme pressure.
Not sure if it's possible to find a link somewhere.
Not sure if it's possible to find a link somewhere.
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Dangers can lurk even if you don't push limits. I used to scuba dive and like in my skydiving days I was always very cautious and treated myself as being the equivalent of a new private pilot in terms of experience level. Yet on my last dive which was done in a safe manner, I suffered from an arterial gas embolism(and actually became a quadrapalegic for about 10-15 minutes after surfacing). Near immediate 100% O2 may have saved me.
A few hours later I walked out of the hospital just a little bit tired. Extensive testing never came to a positive conclusion with disputing expert views but it was perhaps a Patent Foramen Ovale(small hole in the heart that we all have prior to birth that wasn't 100% disappeared). It took about 80 dives to reveal itself.
You just never know.
A few hours later I walked out of the hospital just a little bit tired. Extensive testing never came to a positive conclusion with disputing expert views but it was perhaps a Patent Foramen Ovale(small hole in the heart that we all have prior to birth that wasn't 100% disappeared). It took about 80 dives to reveal itself.
You just never know.
An extremely interesting but very sad story.
Pucka,
I find that a very bizarre statement. I see absolutely no connection between the two activities.
Extreme sport and flying the line don't work
I find that a very bizarre statement. I see absolutely no connection between the two activities.
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There was a book written about how this fellow found diving and challenged himself with ever more difficult technical dives.
I started the book knowing that the man had died in a diving accident, but I read with a deep sense of forboding, wishing that he would quit while he was ahead. He didn't, of course.
I am a sport diver and am certified as a rescue diver. There is no possibility of Dave having been rescued from where he was. Just the thought of a dive deep enough to require hours of deco coming up is daunting to me.
Dave died challenging himself at known limits.
Maybe that's better than dying while resting in bed?
Maybe not, for those who survive the fellow who dies doing something potentially deadly with no real purpose.
Still, a brave man who died doing what he wanted to try doing.
I started the book knowing that the man had died in a diving accident, but I read with a deep sense of forboding, wishing that he would quit while he was ahead. He didn't, of course.
I am a sport diver and am certified as a rescue diver. There is no possibility of Dave having been rescued from where he was. Just the thought of a dive deep enough to require hours of deco coming up is daunting to me.
Dave died challenging himself at known limits.
Maybe that's better than dying while resting in bed?
Maybe not, for those who survive the fellow who dies doing something potentially deadly with no real purpose.
Still, a brave man who died doing what he wanted to try doing.
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Yes I agree. He died doing what he loved. In a sense he was free because he did not set himself in a life routine of just accepting the limits that society put on you.
Just think on how many of us just keep on working here in Hong Kong just because it is too hard to move on.
Go Dave you da man!!!
Just think on how many of us just keep on working here in Hong Kong just because it is too hard to move on.
Go Dave you da man!!!
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India 42.. The point I was making was this..extreme sports, by definition, require extreme degrees of skill, concentration and prep. Take aerobatics at competition level..the CX roster in NO way allows sufficient of the above to produce the goods at top level. One can prepare in theory but the practical exposure on an airline roster is completely insufficient. Same with extreme diving. The tech elements that enable the theory levels to be met, mixing gases etc...fine. BUT you have to get wet...again and again..more than a line roster or any other roster permits. even the full time guys..Rob Palmer/ Pete Scoons etc in the end couldn't stay on top of their game. Dave was as pedantic use as they get, highly organised and totally committed...but his wet time was low. RIP DS.
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There may be some validity to this but I'm not sure I completely agree. Competition or really airshow aerobatics where margins with the ground are much lower, require reaction times where I suspect a less than a second late can mean an accident.
Scuba diving in my experience was a slow sport. Based on the assumption that he had the background and high experience level, I would think that he would have had the experience for this kind of dive. In fact, I suspect that the actual frequency of the extreme depth dives is fairly infrequent for guys like this and are interspersed with a lot of shallower dives although that is just a guess.
When we look at the causes of this accident, the lessons learned are not that there was any reaction time problem but decision-making such as having the flashlight located the way it was which got tangled in the line and the decision to expend a lot of physical effort in the recovery which appears to be a direct cause instead of cancelling the mission and trying again another time with a new plan when things changed. Perhaps in such extreme dives, if things don't go near exactly to plan, it is time to abort the mission.
My knowledge of this technical diving stuff is not a lot. I'm not sure if more frequent dives would make one more used to the narcosis effects of that depth or any depth.
Scuba diving in my experience was a slow sport. Based on the assumption that he had the background and high experience level, I would think that he would have had the experience for this kind of dive. In fact, I suspect that the actual frequency of the extreme depth dives is fairly infrequent for guys like this and are interspersed with a lot of shallower dives although that is just a guess.
When we look at the causes of this accident, the lessons learned are not that there was any reaction time problem but decision-making such as having the flashlight located the way it was which got tangled in the line and the decision to expend a lot of physical effort in the recovery which appears to be a direct cause instead of cancelling the mission and trying again another time with a new plan when things changed. Perhaps in such extreme dives, if things don't go near exactly to plan, it is time to abort the mission.
My knowledge of this technical diving stuff is not a lot. I'm not sure if more frequent dives would make one more used to the narcosis effects of that depth or any depth.
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A well done movie released in 2020
Dave Not Coming Back
Dave Not Coming Back received the Audience Award at both Austin Film Festival and Hamilton Film Festival 2020. The film premiered on August 17, 2020 as part of the Adventure Film Series, a special summer edition of the Whistler Film Festival. It subsequently premiered commercially in Montreal, Quebec, on September 11, and was screened later the same month at the Sudbury Indie Cinema Co-op in Sudbury, Ontario, before being released commercially to streaming platforms in October 2020.
It was released theatrically in the fall of 2020, despite a semi-lockdown due to the Coronavirus pandemic. It was released online in the United States on November 10, 2020 and in Canada on December 15, 2020.
Malak received a Canadian Screen Award nomination for Best Editing in a Documentary at the 9th Canadian Screen Awards in 2021. The film has an 8.5 score on IMDb and a 100% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Dave Not Coming Back
Dave Not Coming Back received the Audience Award at both Austin Film Festival and Hamilton Film Festival 2020. The film premiered on August 17, 2020 as part of the Adventure Film Series, a special summer edition of the Whistler Film Festival. It subsequently premiered commercially in Montreal, Quebec, on September 11, and was screened later the same month at the Sudbury Indie Cinema Co-op in Sudbury, Ontario, before being released commercially to streaming platforms in October 2020.
It was released theatrically in the fall of 2020, despite a semi-lockdown due to the Coronavirus pandemic. It was released online in the United States on November 10, 2020 and in Canada on December 15, 2020.
Malak received a Canadian Screen Award nomination for Best Editing in a Documentary at the 9th Canadian Screen Awards in 2021. The film has an 8.5 score on IMDb and a 100% on Rotten Tomatoes.
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Dave’s wife taught me high school maths in Hong Kong. He came in to talk about life as a pilot back in the early 90’s. Definitely inspired me. Well spoken and incredibly humble. His selflessness eventually took his life but his story is one of incredible courage and sacrifice. If you’re out there Mrs.Shaw please know that Dave was a legend to the aviation community in Hong Kong…