He also shared a warning for “overconfident” freedivers.
Yesterday, news broke that a 42-year-old swimmer passed away in Comino after freediving at the Santa Marija caves. A friend and fellow diver share a touching post in honour of the diver as well as insight into what could have happened.
“Just heard the sad news,” Luke Cassar shares in a Facebook post this morning. “A good friend and self [taught] freediver took his last breath diving the Santa Maria caves. The caves are a maze, not to be taken lightly even for someone who knows them inside out.”
“Sometimes you go inside a tunnel and behind you would be dark, this means that you can not go back, you can only move towards the light. His body was found floating later, this indicates that he probably made it out and blacked out on the surface,” he explains.
“This is because we are lowest on oxygen when we surface, then we exhale and lower our oxygen further, after which it takes around 15 seconds for the new oxygen to travel to the brain to prevent blackout.”
“Rest in peace dear James. If you are an overconfident freediver, I hope this humbles you, I hope you live a long life,” he says, addressing divers.
The St Paul’s Bay resident was reportedly given first aid by emergency responders and was then transferred to Gozo General Hospital to receive further care. Unfortunately, he was pronounced dead on the spot.