Shaw had been working with both hands, and so had been resting his can light on the cave floor. However, within his wetsuit, Dreyer's corpse had turned into a soap-like substance called adipocere, which floats. Shaw had been advised by various experts that the body would remain negatively buoyant because the visible parts were reduced to the skeleton. Shaw ran into difficulties when the body unexpectedly began to float. Shaw recorded his dive with an underwater camera, which allowed researchers to determine that he suffered from respiratory issues due to the high pressure. Shaw died on 8 January 2005 while endeavoring to recover the body of Deon Dreyer. The body was at a depth of 270 metres (890 ft). On this record-breaking dive, Shaw discovered the body of Deon Dreyer, a South African diver who had died in Bushman's Hole ten years previously. The cave elevation was 1,550 metres (5,090 ft) and the dive duration was 9 hours 40 minutes. He used a Mk15.5 with Juergensen Marine Hammerhead electronics and the following gas mixtures: trimix 4/80, 10/70, 15/55, 17/40, 26/25, air, nitrox50, 100% oxygen. On 28 October 2004, Shaw broke the following records at Bushman's Hole, South Africa:

For extended dives in caves shallower than 150 m, Shaw used his Cis-Lunar since he believed it had superior redundancy capabilities but could not cope with extreme depths. The Mk15.5 was his rebreather of choice for dives deeper than 150 metres (500 ft). This prompted him to not only purchase a Mk15.5 but to replace its analogue electronics with the digital ones of the Juergensen Marine Hammerhead, resulting in a specially modified POD designed to handle extreme pressures. Shaw's first rebreather was an Inspiration closed circuit rebreather, with which he eventually dived to depths beyond its purported capability.

Blue water drift dive david herpich