Lobster diver died doing his "new favorite thing"

By Kristina Davis

Luke Ausdemore called it his “new favorite thing” — free-diving for lobsters at night.

”Hey lobster, come outta that there crack & play … I just wanna pet ya!” he jokingly taunted on his Facebook page after a dive.

A day later, with a brand new dive light in hand, the 25-year-old San Diego native died doing the thing he loved.

Authorities are still investigating what went wrong during the Tuesday night dive. An autopsy has been completed but a cause of death is pending further tests, the Medical Examiner’s Office said.

“He was very excited to try an area of Mission Bay that we had not dove yet but thought would be a lobster haven,” his dive buddy, Escondido police Officer Daniel Garcia, recalled in a written account.

It was Ausdemore’s fourth night out for “big ones” since the season opened on Saturday.

The friends decided to free-dive — or dive below the surface while holding their breath — under the bridge east of Mariner’s Point.

After awhile, the pair lost track of each other despite the water’s clarity and glow sticks attached to their masks.

Garcia came out of the water, thinking Ausdemore may have gone to his car. Growing more frightened, he scoured the water and saw his friend’s diving light near an underwater structure under the bridge.

“My heart sank,” Garcia wrote.

Read more... 

Posted via email from