2 Ohio Divers die in frigid quarry

GILBOA, Ohio-AP

Two people who died while diving in a stone quarry had frozen regulators, making it difficult to breathe, authorities said.

The water temperature in Gilboa Quarry was about 38 degrees when Sherry Eads, 43, of Brookville, and Daniel Frendenberg, 21, of Union, went diving Saturday morning, according to the Putnam County Sheriff's Office.

Someone from the quarry, about 50 miles southwest of Toledo, called 911 to report that divers were down, authorities said.

A third member of the diving group, Jason Balsbough, 21, of Clayton, also had regulator problems but was able to surface by himself, said Sgt. Brad Nelson. He was in fair condition at Lima Memorial Hospital.

None of the divers were related, Nelson said. Autopsies were to be conducted by the Lucas County Coroner's Office in Toledo, and the case remains under investigation. Authorities said they do not suspect foul play.

Sheriff James Beutler said the quarry is a popular spot for divers, with many coming from Michigan, Indiana and Canada.

A person who answered the phone at the quarry declined to comment Sunday.

"Frozen regulators"? I thought all regulators fail to free flow when cold? Anyhoo, when I got into diving, I knew most of my diving would be cold water so I bought a Mares V32 Proton Ice regulator. I've had it in water as cold as 35 degrees and my last dive was a 25 minute dive in Lake Wazee on January 1st in 37 degree water will absolutely no problems whatsoever.

I find it hard to believe that all three men would have had regulator problems at that temperature. I wonder what their experience level was and what type of regs they were using.

In my experience, I have noted more problems with regulators the further it has been since servicing. Given the fact that diving in cold water requires "de-tuning" the first stage, so as to have less temp. drop with the release of gas under pressure (remember Charles' Law?) One of the things I used to do when doing any ice diving (or such) was to check the first stage Intermediate Pressure and adjust accordingly----Oh yeah, I maintained the regs in the LDS, so that was my job. In other words get a certified regulator "wrench" to check out your regs ON A REGULAR BASIS. This is not just the manufacturer covering it's butt, but rather common sense having to be articulated.

Yeh, "frozen regulators" sounds like the uneducated media version of what happened. We regularly dive in water below freezing here. The drop in temperature at the first stage causes a huge ice ball to form around the first stage. But when the reg "freezes" it starts to freeflow ... first probably a trickle and then quickly gets worse and worse. It doesn't freeze and become "difficult to breathe". What could likely happen though is if you ignore the freeflow it can drain the tank very quickly ... or if they were diving too far from the exit without backups or anything, they could've lost their gas supply. Once again, it would be interesting to hear what the final outcome of the investigation is. It says the water temp was 38 degrees ... even a low end, non-cold water reg should be able to handle that if they weren't taxing it too much.