pangamadness
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Missing diver in Santa Rosalia?
Does anyone have any info about a possible missing diver from Santa Rosalia?
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Ski Baja
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Santa Rosalia Police Phone #
01 615 153-0049. That's about the best I can do so far. Sorry.
It's time for a return to Addams Family values!
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dbrooks
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Possibly
I learned of a guy in San Diego who said he was traveling down there to look for his brother, who was "lost" diving. His (the guy that was traveling
to SR) name was Howard Seo.
hseo@m2.qualcomm.com
That's all I have.
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Family Guy
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Read this today in the LA Times and it doesn't look good. My heart goes out to the family.
A former O.C. man disappeared on a dive off Mexico, and a team that includes his brother and a private investigator will seek clues.
By David Haldane
Times Staff Writer
January 10, 2004
The last time anyone saw Shinho Steve Seo, he was slipping beneath the ocean's surface at a remote place called Punta Prieta, about 700 miles south of
the Mexican border in the Sea of Cortez.
It was New Year's Day. Seo, an enthusiastic free-diver, snorkeler and spear fisherman who was out on the ocean with another diver and a dive operator,
was going after prey about 60 feet down. As far as anyone knows, he never came back. And though searchers later recovered his spear gun, the
34-year-old mortgage banker was not to be found.
Now Seo's family is mounting an expedition to discover his fate. On Friday, a four-man team including his brother and a private investigator flew to
southern Baja, where they plan to spend the next week combing for clues by boat, scuba, airplane and car.
"At this point, I'm really not sure exactly what happened," said Howard Seo, 37, a San Diego patent attorney who expects to spend in excess of $10,000
on the search. "There's still a chance he may be living; maybe some fisherman rescued him and he's knocked out unconscious."
Whatever the outcome, Howard Seo said, the family needs closure. "If he's alive, it will be a miracle and I will be happy," he said. "If he washed up
on shore, maybe we can recover the body. He's my brother and I want to do everything possible to find him."
By all accounts, the missing man ? a native South Korean and longtime Orange County resident who recently moved to Norwalk with his wife and two young
daughters ? loves the ocean. His New Year's trip to Santa Rosaria, however, was a last-minute deal: Fellow diver Tim Stewart of Huntington Beach had
planned it with another man, who then came down with the flu.
On the recommendation of the sick man, according to Bill Garcia, the private investigator overseeing the search, Seo was invited aboard as a
substitute. And on Dec. 30, Garcia said, the pair headed south in Seo's truck on an excursion that was to last several days.
Stewart said Friday that he was too distraught to talk about what happened next. "I'm having trouble dealing with the whole ordeal," he said. "I'm
trying to put it behind me."
But Garcia, who specializes in finding missing people in rough terrain, offered the following scenario, based in part on a missing-person's report
filed Jan. 5 by Stewart and Howard Seo with the Huntington Beach Police Department.
The two divers arrived in Santa Rosaria on New Year's Eve, Garcia said, checked into a hotel and went to bed early. The next morning, he said, they
hired a dive operator to take them out in a 20-foot rubber boat.
After arriving at Punta Prieta ? Spanish for "dark point" ? the three men entered the ocean together, though the dive operator said he later saw Seo
heading for deeper water.
After about 30 minutes, Garcia said, the dive operator speared a fish, stowed it on the boat and motored to a nearby spot to pick up Stewart.
Almost immediately, Garcia said, he headed back to Seo's area ? marked by a buoy ? but could find only Seo's floating spear gun, which appeared to
have been fired. He dived into the water and followed the spear gun's cord down about 60 feet into a coral cave, Garcia said, but Seo could not be
found.
Paul Romanowski, an experienced diver and past president of the Los Angeles Fathomiers, a dive club that Seo also belongs to, said Seo, whom he
described as a "fairly new but enthusiastic" diver, probably suffered a "shallow-water blackout" and drowned.
"Basically," Romanowski said, "you hold your breath so long that you pass out cold. You work to suppress your urge to breathe, but you can overdo it
and not even realize it. You run down your oxygen too far, and it's like not having enough electricity: The lights go out."
No matter what the outcome, Howard Seo says, he feels compelled to search. "If I don't do this," he said shortly before departing for Mexico, "I will
regret it for the rest of my life."
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pangamadness
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Thanks for the INFO
Thanks Family guy. That was the story I was looking for. Very sad. It is a dangerous sport.
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Pescador
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Well, the story is all screwed up. First of all the dive happened at Santa Rosalia and happened out of San Lucas Cove. They were not in a rubber
boat, they were using Bill Hamels panga and Bill was diving with them. They were diving off of a point which is north of Santa Rosalia. They found
his dive bag and some other equipment in the coral cave but dove around the area for as long as they could and found no more clues. They did alert
the authorities who have involved the navy and all authorities there and there has been no trace or other information as of my last communications.
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Family Guy
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Pescador, thanks for the clarification
There was clearly some geographic problems with the newspaper account. Please let us know if more information becomes available.
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Anonymous
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.the mix up in the newspapers regarding the missing diver is a Daily occurance in the "New York Times"!!
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Anonymous
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Pescador, where does your information come from?
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Ken Bondy
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Pescador
I am not trying to be picky but, as an experienced diver, I am trying to learn as much about this as I can. You said they found his "dive bag" and
some other equipment in the coral cave. Could you possibly mean his "game bag" rather than his dive bag? You don't usually take your dive bag with
you on a dive. Also, do you know what "other equipment" was found in the cave? Finally, can you confirm that they were free diving rather than on
scuba? Thanks for the help.
++Ken++
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Family Guy
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Anon, must agree about the NYT but
this particular story was taken from the LA Times. You would think that being so close to the border and a newspaper of this size would have a
reporter with some experience in Baja or at the very least a clue about the geography--Santa Rosaria could very well be a typo but Punta Prieta with
the added translation for dramatic effect--abominable journalism.
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Anonymous
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If he was out with Bill, he was freediving.
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pangamadness
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Diver death
I will get the story from Bill. Have a friend passing through on Mon or Tue and he will check with Bill.
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Pescador
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First of all, Bill is a very good friend of mine and please be very considerate of his feelings. He was driving the panga that Seo was diving off of.
From other friends, I have been informed that he is having a really bad time over this incident. So please be careful. Tim was with them and
obviously he and bill searched the area extensively and Because Bill takes everything very seriously and is not one to take unnecessary chances, I
know that he is taking this very hard.
For those who would like a report that does not have all the wrong information that was in the Los Angeles Times, go to www.fathomiers.com
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pangamadness
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