Published: November 06, 2009 05:41 pm      

SWHS softball coach reflects on loss of his son in scuba diving accident

Somerset — Jim Woodall’s voice holds sturdy as he speaks. He sounds as one would under any normal circumstances — when in fact, it’s actually a remarkable show of emotional restraint. Few would blame him for being unable to speak at all.

“He was just an outstanding young man,” Jim said of his son. “He loved life and lived it to the fullest. He lived every day like it was his last day.”

Woodall, known to many in this area as a retired employee of Somerset Refinery and current Southwestern softball coach, lost his son James “Jimmy” Woodall, 39, this week in a tragic scuba diving accident.

Jimmy was cave diving with a friend, Gregory Snowden, in Weeki Wachee, Fla., on Tuesday — that is, swimming deep below the water’s ceiling into underwater caverns. Jim said that the two men were not in the ocean, but rather a sort of lake found there in the popular mid-Florida destination. They had gone about 274 feet down below the surface.

According to Hernando Today, a newspaper in the Weeki Wachee area, the two men were about 500 feet upstream from where they were trying to go when Snowden noticed his friend was having a problem with his breathing apparatus.

“They were coming out of the cave, following the rope that they’d put in there when they went in — they were latched on to it,” said Jim.

“(Jimmy’s) friend looked back and didn’t see him” Jim continued. “Jimmy was floating on top of the cave.”

Underwater divers use a sort of sign language to communicate when they can’t talk to each other, and so Snowden motioned to ask Jimmy if he was okay. Jimmy responded in the affirmative, suggesting nothing was wrong.

“But something wasn’t right — (Jimmy) started acting very abnormal,” said Woodall. “(Snowden) started thinking that maybe Jimmy wasn’t getting enough air.”

Jimmy indicated that his breathing gear was working fine, but when the two men started their ascent, Jimmy again floated to the top of the cave. Snowden reacted this time, attempting to utilize the backup system both men carried with them in case something happened to the primary one, but Jimmy didn’t respond.

“(Snowden) saw that Jimmy was just gone,” said Jim.

The elder Woodall said the coroner’s preliminary report indicated the cause of death was drowning due to equipment malfunction. There are no other toxicology reports available, and a final report is still pending.

“Nobody really knows what happened,” said Jim. He is certain, however, that the incident is not due to neglect.

Hernando Today reported that while both divers were certified through the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (according to the New Horizons Diving Center in Lexington, to which both belong as members), they were using a life-support system called a rebreather used by Navy SEAL teams, which requires a much more elaborate certification process than normal. The newspaper quoted one source as saying that if you aren’t trained in using the equipment to cave dive, you don’t do it.

However, Jim said there’s no way his son would have done anything he didn’t feel absolutely secure about in regards training and safety.

“Jimmy was one of these people that loved skydiving and scuba diving and parachuting, rappelling, these kind of things,” said Jim. “He was so safety conscious, he wouldn’t have attempted to do something until h had dotted all the I’s and crossed all the T’s.

“With those two (Snowden and Woodall) being there, it was not something where they got themselves into a situation they couldn’t have gotten out of,” he continued. “They were experienced, certified divers. They weren’t doing things where they didn’t know what they were doing.”

Jimmy had been down diving in Florida like this before, and was attending a scuba diving convention in Orlando when the incident occurred, said Jim.

One of the more likely explanations for the malfunction, figures Jim, is that the gases in the life-support system Jimmy was using mixed incorrectly. Hernando Today stated that if the mixture contains too much oxygen, it can become toxic to the diver. The newspaper also said that during a seizure, which could result from the oxygen overload, the diver may spit out his or her mouthpiece and lose consciousness, causing them to drown if it isn’t replaced quickly.

“We try to speculate and guess about things,” said Woodall. “Was it the right mixture (of gases)? Too much of one causes you to lose the ability to think. ... At this point, everyone seems to believe it was an equipment malfunction.”

Jimmy was a 1988 graduate of Pulaski County High School. He had worked as a paramedic for several years, but then became a successful entrepreneur after starting his business Superior Sign Service in Richmond, Ky., where he was residing at the time of his death.

Jim says that his son’s death was “just one of those unfortunate things” — impossible to see it coming, but hopefully there will be answers as time goes on. In the meantime, Jimmy’s passing has revealed just how big an impact he had on those around him.

“I’ve never seen such an outpouring of calls, people stopping by out of respect for (Jimmy),” said Jim. “He was loved by everybody. That makes a dad proud, knowing he’s affected so many lives. It says a lot for Jimmy.”

See Jimmy Woodall’s obituary on Page A3.