Product Description

A true story of death and survival in the world's 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 and complex human relationships amid the perils of extreme sport. On New Year's 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: Bushman's Hole. His destination was nearly 900 feet below the surface. On 8 January, he stepped into the water. He wore and 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, and 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 and his equipment and the aluminum tanks slung under his shoulders. He slipped through the opening, and disappeared from sight, leaving behind the world of light and life. Then, a second diver descended through the same crack in the stone. This was Don Shirley, Shaw's friend and 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, and would spend the next 10 hours struggling to survive, existing literally from breath to breath. What happened that day at Bushman's Hole is the stuff of nightmarish drama, juxtaposing classic elements of suspense with an extreme environment beyond most people's comprehension. But it's also a compelling human story of friendship, heroism, unswerving ambition and of coming to terms with loss and tragedy.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #21441 in Books
• Published on: 2008-03-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Review
'At the bottom of the biggest underwater cave in the world, Dave Shaw found the body of a young man who had disappeared ten years earlier. What happened after Shaw promised to go back is nearly unbelievable -- unless you believe in ghosts.' Outside Magazine, USA

About the Author
Phillip Finch is a journalist and author of more than ten books, both novels and non-fiction. He began his professional life as a 19-year-old reporter for the Washington Daily News; he moved on to the San Francisco Examiner and later became a front-page columnist for the Peninsula Times Tribune in Palo Alto. Formerly a member of an alpine search-and-rescue team, he has had a long interest in extreme sports and the people who pursue them. He is also an experienced cave diver.

Excerpted from Raising the Dead: A True Story of Death and Survival by Philip Finch. Copyright © 2008. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
ON AN AFTERNOON IN NOVEMBER 2004, David Shaw climbed
a steep path up a mountainside that rose above Clearwater
Bay in the New Territories of Hong Kong. His pace - hard,
unflinching, non-stop - was typical of Shaw, a driven man
who did everything with a purpose.

Shaw was fifty years old, a training captain with Cathay
Pacific Airways who helped to oversee the flight fitness of other
Cathay pilots while flying the line's long-haul routes. He and
his wife, Ann, both Australian, had recently celebrated their
thirtieth wedding anniversary. With their two children at universities
in Australia, the Shaws lived alone in the home that
they owned, overlooking Clearwater Bay. They were prosperous,
stable, settled: apparently typical of their circle of
acquaintances in Hong Kong's English-speaking expatriate
community.

Recently, however, those people had begun to understand
that Dave Shaw was not like anyone they had ever known.
In October, he had gone on a diving trip to South Africa.
In the past five years, after he learned to scuba dive during a
family holiday in the Philippines, Shaw often flew around the
world to dive, taking advantage of an airline pilot's flight benefits.
Shaw's acquaintances imagined him at beach resorts,
spending languid days on bright ocean reefs, swimming
with tropical fish.

Henry (a pseudonym), one of Shaw's close friends and director
of a large Hong Kong business, had
first met Shaw fifteen years earlier, when the Shaws had
moved to Hong Kong and joined a small Christian congregation
that included Henry and his family. He admired Shaw's
intelligence and quiet confidence. Shaw spoke little, bragged
not at all and accomplished much.

Shortly after Shaw returned from South Africa, Henry
asked him whether he had enjoyed the trip. Shaw's answer
was curious.

`I did,' he said. `I went quite deep.'

Shaw referred Henry to a website address. As soon as
Henry returned home, he opened the web page.
Welcome to deepcave.com, a website created by Dave Shaw,
the opening page read. Written in the third person, the text
described how Shaw had quickly moved from recreational
scuba to more challenging, and more risky, pursuits.

Another page on the site linked to reports of Shaw's notable
dives. To anyone with any knowledge of diving, the dives
were beyond extraordinary. They bordered on the unreal.

In October 2003 he accomplished two dives past 180
metres at Komati Springs, South Africa, including a critical
equipment failure and what Shaw described as a `near-death
experience'.

In June 2004 he dived to 213 metres in one of the world's
deepest underwater caves: Boesmansgat - Bushman's Hole -
in South Africa.

During the trip just completed, Shaw had become the
third diver in history to return from the bottom of Bushman's.
His depth of 270 metres was a world record depth for
the diving apparatus known as a rebreather.

During that dive, as he swam along the bottom, Shaw
came across a macabre discovery. His online dive report described
the incident:

I was headed for what appeared to be a deeper section of the
cave and was laying line as I swam. This was cave diving at its
best. I scanned the floor as I went, taking in the scenery. It
appeared the cave would not go much deeper. I swept right
and left with my HID light as I moved forward ...
I was relaxed and could almost not believe where I was. I
was slowly descending and reached a depth of 270m ... as I
swept left, at an angle of about 30 degrees,
about 15m away I saw a body, as plain as day. This had to be the
body of Deon Dreyer, who died on the 17th Dec 1994. Even following
extensive searches his body had never been found.

He was lying on his back, arms in the air and legs outstretched.
There was no shock on my part, but rather a decision making
process of what to do. Do I continue for depth or go to
the body? The decision was easy really. I turned and was soon
next to him. I needed to try and make a recovery of the body.
Time was critical. I was within seconds of my turn time and
I needed to make a decision. I tried to lift him, but to no avail. I
knelt next to him and tried harder. I was now puffing and panting
with the exertion. This was not wise, I told myself. I am at
270m and working too hard ... Time to go; I was one minute
over my maximum bottom time already. I tied off my reel to
him so that he could be found again, not even wasting time cutting
the reel free. I followed my line back to the shot line and
started my ascent..

Nearly all recreational diving takes places at depths above 130
feet. Many divers never exceed 90 feet. With his dive in
October, Shaw had become only the fifth sports diver in history to
exceed 700 feet and survive. More men have walked on the
moon. In five years of part-time diving, he had gone from
rank beginner to one of the world's most accomplished and
ambitious divers.

And he had done it without ever mentioning his feats to
anyone in Hong Kong. Even his wife Ann had only a vague idea
that he was going far beyond the norm.

Now, as Shaw crested the ridge at the end of his long
climb, he encountered Henry, who had taken a more
leisurely path to the top. The two men stood chatting for a few
minutes, taking in the spectacular view of the bay.

Henry remarked on Shaw's strenuous push up the hill.
Shaw explained that he was trying to stay fit for his next big
dive. He said that he would be returning to South Africa
soon, back to the bottom of Bushman's Hole.

Henry was surprised and dismayed. He was not a diver
but he knew that cave diving was among the world's most
hazardous sports and he guessed that Shaw's extreme cave
diving must be unimaginably dangerous and challenging.
He knew, for sure, that Shaw had much to lose, a truly
enviable life with a devoted wife, good health, all the money
that he would need.

`What's the point?' Henry said. `You've already done that.'

`Not like this,' Shaw said. `Nobody has ever done anything
like this. I'm going back to get the body.'

Customer Reviews

Superb book
A book which is simply un-putdownable, but which is also tragic. A truly riveting read that tells an amazing story - I can't recommend it enough. However, one can't help but think why on earth Dave Shaw thought this was a risk worth taking, especially since he knew the extreme dangers involved in cave diving. Very sad.

The diving equivalent of 'Touching the Void'
I first learned about Dave Shaw and his tragic accident while researching rebreathers. A short burst of surfing later and I was reading 'Raising the Dead', an article by Tim Zimmerman for 'Outside' magazine. Before I knew it, I was viewing Dave Shaw's head cam footage, recovered after the ill-fated dive. I was almost in tears. 270 metres underwater, he might as well have been walking on the Moon. I would defy anyone not to be moved by his story.

I bought this book despite being sceptical that it would add much to what I already knew or have the same impact as my original encounter with the story. Being longer than the Zimmerman article, Finch has taken the opportunity to flesh out the personalities and roles of the participants - yet it remains a gripping, fast-paced and moving story. I read most of it in one sitting and couldn't wait to get back to it - even though I already knew how it would end. This is the diving equivalent of Joe Simpson's 'Touching the Void'.

By the way, it also provides a very brief and simple explanation of how rebreathers work and points out the hazards of breathing different gases under pressure (i.e. at depth). This book is so good that I've bought another copy for my favourite dive buddy.

A must read
I am not a diver and as a friend gave me this book to read, I was at first very sceptical as to why he recommended it. Having read it I can see why. This was simply a real page turner I could not put this book down. Forget the technical "stuff".It is a gripping and tragic account at the same time. I tried to imagine why Dave Shaw should attempt to rescue the body of someone he did know knowing the obvious risks to himself and indeed others. I think I still don't really understand why but forget this and read it as a human story with a sad ending.This is real life not Hollywood.The book itself is well written and kept this reader wanting more. I even watched the film of the fateful dive and that for someone who has no interest in this type of "hobby" is really saying something about the quality of this story.