Jared Hires, a stalwart in the tech diving community, died yesterday while diving the Plura cave system in Norway.
According to news reports, Hires was diving with a group of two other divers and bringing up the rear as they were on their way out of the cave when he suffered an apparent seizure.
In a Facebook post, Rosemary Lunn, Business Development Director at The Underwater Marketing Company, wrote that one of the divers involved in Hires’ fatal dive told her:
“A team of three divers entered Plura. The first diver, along with Jared Hires, had previously dived Plura in 2022, so they took position one and three respectively. The middle diver had not dived Plura, hence this dive team formation effectively ‘protected them.’ The 30-minute inward swim went well, with no issue, and the three divers surfaced in an giant air chamber known as the ‘Wedding Chamber.’ After a chat the team turned to swim back out of Plura, again in the same formation. Jared Hires was diver three.”
The first diver told Lunn that the group was around 250 meters/820 feet from the surface when Hires’ light began to go “erratic.” Diver One turned and got to Hires in 10-15 seconds. Hires “was actively seizing,” the first diver told Lunn.
The second diver in the group swam out of the cave to get help, while the first diver got Hires out of the cave.
Efforts to revive him after surfacing were unsuccessful, according to the reports.
In a Instagram post, In Depth Magazine said:
“The 33-year-old father, explorer and educator was an exceptional young man and much admired and loved by the community. Our hearts and prayers go out to his parents, Lamar and Lee Ann, Jared’s wife Taylor and their two children, and the Dive Rite team for their loss. Note that we have temporarily held the story, ‘Forty Years of Dive Rite (1984-2024).’ from the April issue so as to not distract the family in their grief.”
The Plura Cave was in the news recently for a much more positive reason when it held a concert that was accessible only by diving to it.
