Deon Dreyer and David Shaw:

Deon Dreyer grew up in Vereeniging, a city in the Gauteng province, south of Johannesburg, South Africa. He was an adventurer who loved to dive frequently and did.

When he received an invitation to dive at the Boesmansgat Cave (also known as Bushman’s hole) with some of the members of the South Africa Cave Diving Association, he leapt at the chance to join them. They had planned a deep, technical dive at a decent of 492ft.

Tragically, on the 17^th of December 1994, Deon died during the practice dive at around what was assumed 160ft. He was only 20 years old at the time.

Although a small remotely operated underwater submarine was hired and sent down to look for his body, it found nothing but his helmet at the bottom of the cenote floor.

I0 years had passed when an experienced and prominent Australian cave diver named David Shaw discovered Deon Dreyer’s body at 890ft in October of 2004. He was compelled to retrieve Deon’s remains from void, and on the 8^th of January 2005, on what would be his 333^rd dive, he embarked on his mission, disappearing into the inhospitable darkness of what many refer to as the dead zone.

(picture from deepcave.com)

Everything was going as planned, Shaw was recording his journey and in the film he is seen attempting to roll a body bag over the legs of Deon Dreyer. He runs into complications when he cuts the body loose from its harness and it begins to float up. A line floats free from the body bag, tangling Shaw’s flashlight and himself. Since Dreyer’s body had been in encased in his wetsuit it had reduced to a lathery adipocere and became buoyant when cut free from the harness.

Shaw ran out of time and knew that it was time to start making it towards the surface.

He died attempting to recover Deon Dreyer.

Both bodies eventually surfaced.

(picture from deepcave.com)

Youtube video of David's last dive [ X ]

David Shaw's website deepcave.com [ X ]

Deon Drever wiipedia [ X ]

David Shaw Wikipedia [ X ]