Kostadin Seal has died

  • With deep regret I must inform the clan our good friend Kostaadin Seal drowned .

    Our friend SEAL drowned while Spearfishing off of Nusa Penida Island in Bali, Indonesia today. SEAL leaves behind many friends and loved ones.

    I am so so sad.


    Sincerely Don

    "Great mother ocean brought forth all life, it is my eternal home'' Don Berry from Blue Water Hunters.


    Spearfishing Store the freediving and spearfishing equipment specialists.

  • Yes Dan . Sorry to say it was Kostadin Kanavrov from Bulgara . I have never dove with him but admired his innovation , craftsmanship and willingness to share information. I had a chance to inspect one of his carbon wood rollers last year and it was a work of art. I do not know the whole story of his passing . The area has sharp drop offs with down currents that can be a killer. I have only experienced down currents on walls in French Poly on scuba. If I had been freediving I would not be here today. My professional underwater photographer friend had to drop his very expensive movie camera to cut down on drag while inflating his BC.


    Sincerely Don

    "Great mother ocean brought forth all life, it is my eternal home'' Don Berry from Blue Water Hunters.


    Spearfishing Store the freediving and spearfishing equipment specialists.

    Edited once, last by Don Paul ().

  • Terrible news. From his dive partner Lyubin who was his buddy on this dive. (translated)


    Dear friends and relatives of Costa, since the internet has written all kinds of things, let me tell the story seen through my eyes. We left at 07 pm from port to spota. We had rented a boat from the day before. The boy was waiting for us. On the way we enjoyed the beauty of the island and the luck we had that we were there. We were all so happy and excited! When we got close, we started planning things. We decided that none of us are in shape, and we need at least 3 days of adaptation to take it easy, not dive deep, but only up to 12 feet. We've been with him deep in Greek before. That was one of the reasons he kept us together on this trip, we were already together as a couple. When we went into the past in the deep end, we were able to snorkel the " without losing eye contact, one always waiting for the other to return to the surface, watching him. That day we decided that we would get used to the sea, and we wouldn't go deep, we didn't have to use that method. We just agreed to stay together and the boat followed us. We've reached our destination in 45 minutes. First in the water, I jumped, and in a few minutes, Costa and Danny. We held together as we drifted along. After a few dives, I managed to get a trophy fish. I called the boat to come, she was about 25 feet between me and the other guys. We picked up the fish, we pulled out my buoy, and we went to show it to Danny first, and when he saw her, he got in the boat, he got a little sick of the excitement. Then we immediately took the Costa, which was 20 feet away from Danny. We all enjoyed our luck, just a few dives and we already had a trophy! Costa must have cracked the capillary and had some blood in his nose. A few times we asked him if he was okay, he laughed and said there was no problem, you know..... the boat was shaking a lot, there was a reflected wave from the shore and it wasn't very nice to stand in it, we decided with Costa to get Back to the same place where I hit the fish. So we did. We jumped, and Danny stayed in the boat, he wasn't feeling well. Drejfahme and get about 10-12 feet. We met once in a while. In about 40 minutes, I met costa and asked him how he was. He said he took a fish to 7-8 pounds. Everything was fine. Then he dove in front of me, and I saw that under 5 Feet, he went to the bottom without waving his flippers! Later I found out he took extra lead from Danny. I assumed it was shallow. We went on like this for about 20 minutes. In one of my dive, the current pulled me lightly in front of the escarpment, which was falling steep down there, not as edge as before. I immediately felt that I was going down too easily to the bottom, and I knew I was in daunstrijm, the current of this place was going straight down. In situations like this, I've been in Norway, and I'm well known. That's how I know it's not a joke. It usually happens when the current, the power and the direction of the wind have a certain force and match at a certain angle. I never hit the bottom, and I turned around and started at a normal pace to swim up to the surface. I felt like I was standing in one place without moving up, I was about 15 feet away. Then I sped up to maximum and managed to swim. On the surface, I blacked out. I raised my head, and I saw the boat about 15 feet away from me, and I went out there yelling at Danny to warn costa not to enter this place because there's a strong current down. And he raised his hand and pointed out his buoy, saying, " look at him, ljubo, he's already there!" we saw how fear stood up a few times, like he had fish on it. We used the setʺp for trophy fish, where the arrow after a shot remains tied only to buoy. I went to his buoy right away. The current was brutal in this place. The boat with Danny in it followed me. As soon as I arrived, I saw his harpoon emerge from the bottom, grabbed it and handed it to Danny. I already found out something bad happened. Costa was shooting. The Rope of the buoy was hanging down without reaching the bottom. Later, the rope was 43 feet. I dived on it straight down. I reached 20 feet, I saw at least 15 feet down. Beneath me was an abyss, there was no bottom, there was no sign of Costa. I came up extremely hard. I looked around and remembered the place, it wasn't hard, it was near the shore. I couldn't dive again. The current took me out of the place, no matter how much I kicked my flippers. I was just hoping he'd be caught somewhere in the arrow line and pull it out with her. Unfortunately, it wasn't. We picked up buoy, who apparently drejfaše, held the position, got on the boat and we a point of gpsa so we wouldn't lose the place. Right after that, we went down with the boat, hoping he'd throw his seat belt off and float away. We've made multiple circles around the place by expand them every time. No score. I told the boatman to call the police and the coast guard, and I went back in the water. We've been looking for him for about 3 hours, trying to pull me on the boat and go with the current, which was so strong, I couldn't move a meter against him, swimming as hard as I could. My eyes saw what I wanted to see, in my head, my friend's outline from every pebble and every coral. A few times, I was convinced I was seeing him, but after I got closer, I could see it wasn't him. The police came with a boat, and there were a few more boats. I asked them to give me diving, but they said they didn't. I was invited to the boat to explain what happened. I went up there and gave them quick explanations, asked them to send a diving team, but they said there was no one in there. They assured me they were lifting a helicopter. That's where they sent us to the police station with Danny, and they kept searching until dark. The search continues until today. From talks with the local spiʺrfišing guides, I found out that usually search operations for the missing spearos are very difficult due to the strong currents and the depths that near this place fall to 180 m. That's where I think he's dropping all that water table. I guess costa, just like me, was sucked into the same place, but he saw a fish that he was shooting at, he fired, but it was already too deep to emerge in that current. There's no way he could have broken a flipper on his way up and tried to pull up on the buoy that stood up several times before I got to him. The other night, he was showing me how he was reinforced with his carbon monoxide flippers because they were cracked in front of slipper. He was the one who chose to come in then, I guess, with the idea of trying them on a shallow hunt. That's the truth about what happened. Anything else written on the internet by side people is fiction. I'm so sorry about Costa. I lost one of my biggest friends. I'll never forgive myself for not being with him a minute earlier and for not being able to reach him..

    __________________

  • Very sad story, I could feel the desperation and the hopelessness as I read your post. Sorry for your loss and thank you for sharing.

  • I edited my post above as a friend of Kostas contacted me and said that I should be aware that some of the translation regarding the depths and distances was incorrect. It makes a difference as the conversion was from feet to meters and speaks to the likelihood that depth and overweighting were also possible causes. Depth, Overweighting, Currents, Downcurrents, possibly a broken fin, possibly trying to unwrap a fish or line from coral at depth, possibly fighting with a fish or some kind of band tangle etc.


    I also want to add some videos here which explain better the kind of currents and type of diving and quarry which Kosta was experiencing. I've dove those spots many times and I have seen/experienced currents similar to this on occasions.


    This clip from Perrin James shows the kind of currents. The longer film shows some of the spearfishing in these kind of areas.





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