Raising The Dead

Product Description

A true story of death & survival in the worlds most dangerous sport cave diving. Two friends plunge 900 ft deep into the water of the Komali Springs in South Africa to raise the body of a diver who had perished there a decade before. Only one returns. Unquenchable heroism & complex human relationships amid the perils of extreme sport. On New Years Day 2005 David Shaw travelled halfway around the world on a journey that took him to a steep crater in the Kalahari Desert of South Africa a site known locally as Boesmansgat: Bushmans Hole. His destination was nearly 900 feet below the surface. On 8 January he stepped into the water. He wore & carried on him some of the most advanced diving equipment ever developed. Mounted to a helmet on his head was a video camera. David Shaw was about to attempt what had never been done before & he wanted the world to see. He descended. About fifteen feet below the surface was a fissure in the dolomite bottom of the basin barely wide enough to admit him & his equipment & the aluminum tanks slung under his shoulders. He slipped through the opening & disappeared from sight leaving behind the world of light & life. Then a second diver descended through the same crack in the stone. This was Don Shirley Shaws friend & frequent dive partner one of the few people in the world qualified to follow where Shaw was about to go. In the community of extreme diving Don Shirley was a master among masters. Twenty-five minutes later one of the men was dead. The other was in mortal peril & would spend the next 10 hours struggling to survive existing literally from breath to breath. What happened that day at Bushmans Hole is the stuff of nightmarish drama juxtaposing classic elements of suspense with an extreme environment beyond most peoples comprehension. But its also a compelling human story of friendship heroism unswerving ambition & of coming to terms with loss & tragedy.