Here's the latest news on Ron Fuller's death. This is from the San Diego
Union Tribune (http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/index.html)
We weren't the only ones he impressed with his friendliness.
-Mark B.
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Divers recover body off La Jolla
Victim was well-known in San Diego diving circles
By Gregory Alan Gross
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
August 11, 2000
The body of a popular diver and Web page designer, whose
disappearance
Wednesday shook San Diego's tightly knit diving
community, was found
yesterday afternoon off La Jolla Shores.
Friends of Ron Fuller, 51, spent several hours in the
water off La Jolla Shores
yesterday afternoon, scouring the bottom from the murky
shallows to depths
approaching 200 feet.
But it was San Diego lifeguard divers who located
Fuller's body in 50 feet,
directly off La Jolla Shores, said volunteer search
divers who were in the
water with the lifeguards when the body was found.
Fuller's wife reported around 6:30 p.m. Wednesday that he
had left home at 9
a.m. to go diving and had not returned. She told
lifeguards that he had gone
diving alone and was using a rebreather, an underwater
breathing apparatus
designed to recycle breathing air by "scrubbing" out
carbon-dioxide.
Authorities found Fuller's car in the La Jolla Shores
Beach parking lot
Wednesday. Lifeguards used boats and paddleboards to
search the area until
dark, then resumed the search with dive teams yesterday
morning as
volunteers watched.
At midday, they allowed the volunteers into the water to
search on their own.
Others waited onshore.
Wading in and out of the water in their bulky suits and
breathing apparatus,
they were an incongruous sight among the sunbathers and
laughing children
splashing in the surf at La Jolla Shores.
Fuller was well-known around San Diego not only as a
diver but as a Web
page designer and host. Among local divers, Fuller's Web
page on San Diego
diving is considered a virtual bible on the sport.
"He had a heart of gold; he was always trying to help,"
said one woman who
identified herself only as Leslie, a sport diver for the
last five years who had
dived with Fuller.
Perry Armor and Toni Barnhart, both of Poway, were among
those who went
out yesterday to look for their friend.
"We were in the gym (Wednesday) working out, and Toni
looked up and
said, 'Ron Fuller's on TV; he's missing,' " Armor said.
An auto accident in 1991, a collision with a drunken
driver in East County,
had left Fuller with a steel rod in one leg, but it never
deterred him from the
hobby he loved so much, Armor said.
"It put him out of commission for a while," Armor said.
"He had to get around
with a cane. But he did really well, and he continued to
dive."
Although he was diving alone Wednesday morning, Fuller
was anything but
reckless, Barnhart said.
"He was not a thrill seeker," she said. "He was very
safety-conscious. If he
was diving by himself, he wasn't doing anything radical."
Nonetheless, Fuller had had recent problems with the
rebreather, which he
had assembled from a kit.
Rebreathers initially were developed for the military
because they allow divers
to swim underwater without giving off telltale bubbles.
They are still in use today by Navy SEAL commandos and
other special
forces, and civilian versions are being adopted by
recreational divers.
However, their use carries risks.
A malfunction in his rebreather had forced Fuller to
abort a dive about two
weeks ago on the Canadian destroyer Yukon, sunk off
Mission Beach last
month, Armor said. If the unit suddenly began feeding
Fuller pure oxygen
underwater, it may have killed him, he said.
"Pure oxygen becomes toxic once you get beyond (a depth
of) 33 feet,"
Armor said. "The problem with rebreathers is that they
may inadvertently
deliver oxygen at the wrong depth.
"Ron was aware of that. But, if that's what happened, he
may have realized it
too late."
Fuller discussed the rebreather unit on his Web page,
http://www.diegoweb.com/diving.
"I'll write up a full page later in the summer or the
fall," he wrote. "But first, I
have to get a few hours with the rig."
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