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Diver who died off Atlantic City had April heart bypass
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The diver who died Saturday while exploring a sunken World War I wreck off Atlantic City was diving even though he had triple-bypass heart surgery in April.
Joseph Terzuoli, 46, of Wall Township, Monmouth County, died while exploring a freighter called the Texel in 230 feet of water about 60 miles northeast of Atlantic City.
Terzuoli, better known in diving circles as Capt. Zero, from his childhood nickname, was an experienced diver with a reputation for making deep-water dives that require greater experience and technical proficiency.
State Police in Trenton said Terzuoli apparently became entangled in fishing line. The Ocean County Medical Examiner pronounced him dead.
According to his Web log, Terzuoli underwent triple-bypass surgery in April at New York University Hospital.
"I didn't realize he was back in the water," said fellow diver Joe Skimmons, of Divers 2 in Avon-by-the-Sea, Monmouth County.
Skimmons said he saw Terzuoli after he was released from the hospital.
"He looked good. He lost a lot of weight. But he looked drawn. You could tell he had been through a lot," he said.
Skimmons said Terzuoli was a respected boat captain and diver who put safety first on every trip.
"He was a very good diver. He had as much experience as anyone I know," Skimmons said. "There are no old, bold divers. If someone is reckless, that word gets around fast. He set the example. He wanted to make sure they were doing things by the book."
Terzuoli completed 3,500 dives in his career, which began when he was 14 and took his first scuba lessons in the pool at the YMCA in Staten Island, his wife, Susan Terzuoli, said.
"He absolutely loved diving. There aren't many people who have a passion like that," she said.
Terzuoli was a board officer in the Eastern Dive Boat Association, a trade group that helped to establish dive safety standards and promoted the sport of recreational diving.
His resume boasts a long list of dive credentials, including certifications for different types of gases used in deep-water diving and re-breathers. He also was trained in hyperbaric medicine, which is applied to divers who get decompression sickness, or "the bends," from surfacing too quickly after a dive.
He owned and operated a dive boat called the John Jack. While he dove all over the world, his wife said he had a special fondness for the coast of New Jersey, home to hundreds of charted shipwrecks.
"He could have gone anywhere - the South Pacific, the Caribbean. But he loved diving here," she said.
He made several successful dives off the wreck of the passenger liner the Andrea Doria, which at 240 feet is known in diving circles as "the Mount Everest of diving."
"The Andrea Doria was the holy grail of diving," she said.
Susan Terzuoli said she had no interest in diving but lived vicariously through her husband's exploits. She helped run the family's diving business. She said she never worried about her husband's safety because he was always so careful.
"He said it over and over to everybody. You never panic. You stop, think and take a positive action," she said.
In his Web log, Terzuoli acknowledged his reputation for conducting deep dives. But he went on to discourage recreational divers from pursuing them since they require more equipment and training and allow for less time having fun exploring underwater.
"Somehow, the John Jack has developed a reputation as a 'technical boat.' How, I don't know. With my move to New Jersey, I will try to shed this mantle," he said in a 2007 posting after he moved from Staten Island to Wall Township.
Recreational divers typically go no deeper than 130 feet, Skimmons said.
The German U-boat U-151 sank the Texel, a Danish freighter, along with five other ships on June 2, 1918, according to the diving group New Jersey Scuba. The group maintains a list of wreck sites off New Jersey complete with photographs of the boats before and after their sinking.
"She is a deep dive and should be dived by only the most experienced," the site warned.
Skimmons said diving is a safe hobby enjoyed by thousands of people. Deep diving carries additional risks, he said. Very little natural sunlight would reach those depths, he said.
He and other divers are hoping to find out what happened to Terzuoli.
"He was drawn to some of the more extreme diving, the deeper dives. Whenever you put more water over your head, it would increase the chances of an issue escalating out of control," Skimmons said.
Terzuoli taught his son, Nicholas, and his nephew, Stephen, how to dive. His wife said he introduced countless SCUBA students to the sport.
The accident remains under investigation by State Police and the U.S. Coast Guard.
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Posted in Atlantic on Tuesday, June 23, 2009 3:10 am Updated: 5:59 am. | Tags: Atlantic City
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