- Sheck Exley
Infobox Person
name = Sheck Exley
image_size =
caption =
birth_date = April 1, 1949
birth_place =
death_date = April 6, 1994
death_place = El Zacatón, Tamaulipas, Mexico
other_names =
known_for = Cave Diving Pioneer
occupation = Automobile Dealer / High School Math Teacher
nationality = United StatesSheck Exley (
April 1 ,1949 –April 6 ,1994 ) was acave-diving pioneer.Biography
Exley is widely regarded as one of the pioneers of cave diving, [http://www.stationr.org/caving/exley.htm] writing two major books on the subject: "Basic Cave Diving: A Blueprint for Survival" and "Caverns Measureless to Man" published by
Cave Books , (ISBN 0-939748-25-8), and establishing many of the basic safety procedures used in cave and overhead diving. Exley was also a pioneer of extreme deep water diving.Exley began diving in 1965 at the age of 16. That very year he entered his first cave and was hooked on cave diving for the remaining 29 years of his life.
He was the first in the world to log over 1,000 cave dives (at the age of 23): in over 29 years of cave diving, he made over 4,000. He is one of the few divers to survive a 122 metre(400 ft) dive on compressed air.
He died aged 45 on April 6, 1994 while attempting to descend to a depth of over 300 metres (1,000 ft) in a
cenote calledZacatón in Mexico [ [http://www.newscientisttech.com/article/dn11890-robotic-submarine-reaches-new-depths.html Robotic submarine reaches new depths - tech - 18 May 2007 - New Scientist Tech ] ] , he was about 10 meters away from the bottom of thecenote .cite journal |url=http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1005741/index.htm |author=Taylor, MR |title=Deep, Dark And Deadly |date=1994-10-03 |journal=Sports Illustrated |accessdate=2008-09-18 ] His body was recovered only because he had hooked his arms in the descent line, perhaps to sort out gas issues. His wrist-mounted dive computer read a maximum depth of 268 metres (879 ft). It is not certain what caused his death; team members concluded the causes "...could include stress of HPNS exacerbated by the narcotic effects of nitrogen at that depth". [ [http://www.iucrr.org/aa_misc.htm#What%20happened%20to%20Sheck%20Exley%3F A/C N10 - Incident Reports ] ]Sheck Exley is one of only seven people in the history of recreational SCUBA diving to dive below 800 feet. [cite web|url=http://www.nunogomes.co.za/rec.htm|title=Verified dives below 200 metres|accessdate=2008-06-14]
References
External links
* [http://www.scubadivingbooks.com/cavediving/blueprint.htm Basic Cave Diving: A Blueprint for Survival] (description of book and author)
* [http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/3.11/divers.html?topic=&topic_set= Under Pressure] , Jerry Shine, Wired Magazine 3.1, Nov 1995
* [http://www.intotheplanet.com Jill Heinerth Top Female Cave Diver influenced by ExleyPersondata
NAME=Exley, Sheck
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=cave-diving pioneer
DATE OF BIRTH=April 1, 1949
PLACE OF BIRTH=
DATE OF DEATH=April 6, 1994
PLACE OF DEATH=
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