'IT RIPS YOUR HEART OUT' SCUBA INSTRUCTOR DROWNS, TRAPPED BENEATH ICE ON DIVE MAN LEAVES BEHIND WIFE, 2 YOUNG DAUGHTERS.

Byline: ERIC LEACH

Staff Writer

THOUSAND OAKS -- Michael Dahan began scubadiving as a teenager, the rush of being under water feeding his adventurous spirit.

As an adult, the Thousand Oaks dive shop owner taught hundreds of people how to dive, always preaching safety while bragging that none of his students ever got hurt -- whether they were training in local waters or as far away as the South Pacific.

But "when it came to his own safety, he was a bit of a daredevil," said friend Steve Giles, a captain with the Ventura County Sheriff's Department.

Last weekend, while icediving in Northern California, Dahan decided to go under without a rope attached to the surface. He ran out of oxygen and became disoriented, unable to find his exit hole beneath 16inches of frozen water. A few frantic minutes later, he was dead.

The accident Sunday at Gull Lake near Mammoth Mountain stunned friends of the Thousand Oaks man -- and left his 3-year-old and 5-week-old daughters without a father.

"He was devoted to his family and his friends," said Dahan's wife, Linda.

Vickie Hiebert, a friend of Dahan who works at the Force Fin dive shop in Santa Barbara, said the news was devastating to the diving community.

"It rips your heart out," Hiebert said.

Dahan, 41, had been teaching an ice-diving class at the lake, and the drowning apparently occurred after the class was over when he went on a recreational dive with a partner, said Shannon Kendall, a spokeswoman for the Mono County Sheriff's Department.

The other diver was attached to a safety line, and the two had agreed they would stay together, but somehow they became separated.

"I think the other guy got out of his sight," Kendall said. While his partner was able to return safely to the surface, Dahan ran out of air and drowned.

Mono County authorities used chain saws to cut holes in the ice and sent divers in to find him. His body wasn't discovered until Monday.

Ice diving is more common in northern Europe and Canada than in California, where scuba divers have picked it up during the past few decades as an added thrill. One of its basic rules is to use a rope to connect a person on the surface to the diver underneath.

Going without a safety line is "a huge no-no," Kendall said.

"He attached the line to the other diver, looking out for the other diver's safety and being less considerate of his own," said Giles, who, like many who knew Dahan, spoke of his devotion to his two daughters, Lauren and Lindsey. "We've lost a really great guy and a really good friend."

Dahan owned Channel Islands Scuba shops in Ventura and Thousand Oaks. He took diving trips to Fiji and the Republic of Palau. He was looking forward to taking a group to Palau later this year.

"He was always careful and always bragged how he never lost one of his students," said his mother, Mary Ayers.

He taught diving for 20 years without an accident, "not even a stubbed toe at the swimming pool," said his friend Mike Brandow, who owns the New England Divers shop in Long Beach.

Darrell Walker of Northridge, a friend who had gone diving with Dahan in the past, said he was "very shocked and very hurt."

"I think he was a really good instructor, but he made a bad mistake by not going down with anything on," he said.

A memorial service is scheduled for 2p.m. Wednesday at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 32111 Watergate Road in Westlake Village. Burial arrangements are being made at Pierce Brothers Valley Oaks Memorial Park in Westlake Village.

Dahan is survived by his wife, his daughters, his mother and his father, David Dahan of Santa Barbara.

eric.leach(at)dailynews.com

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4 photos

Photo:

(1 -- 2 -- color) Michael Dahan, 41, at top, expert diver and owner of Channel Islands Scuba shops in Ventura and Thousand Oaks, drowned Sunday at Gull Lake when he went on an ice dive, like the one above, without a rope tying him to the surface.

(3) Michael Dahan, 41, taught an ice-diving class Sunday at Gull Lake, similar to the one shown above, and he drowned afterward when he went on a recreational dive with a partner.

(4) Dahan, who taught divers like this one without incident for 20 years, went under Sunday without a rope tied to the surface. He ran out of oxygen, became disoriented and drowned.

Bill Becher/Special to the Daily News