Recovery Status: RECOVERED
Location: Farran’s Point Campground, Near Cornwall, Ontario (St. Lawrence River)
Item: Martin’s High-Tech Prosthetic Leg ($25,000–$35,000 Value)
Environment: Deep Open Water / Heavy Current (30–55 Feet Deep, ~80 Yards Offshore)
Recovery Specialist: Multi-Agency Team (Paul Davies, Seaway Valley Divers / O2togo, Abacus Dive Shop, & James Mathias of the Ontario Ring Recovery Services)
Equipment Used: Deep-Water Scuba Diving Gear, High-Pressure Tanks, underwater torpedoes & GPS Mapping
Search Time: Multi-day team effort & multiple dive runs
Date of Recovery: August 3–6, 2026
Date: August 3, 2026
You never quite know what to expect when the phone rings at the Ontario Ring Recovery Services. Usually, we are tracking down lost wedding bands in local swimming holes, heirloom signet rings dropped off docks, or precious jewelry buried beneath sandy beaches.
Every once in a while, however, a call comes across that redefines the word “essential.”
The Referral
It all started with a text message from Laurie Gagne over at the Ottawa Ring Recovery Service. Laurie had a referral and was pointing someone our way. As I was looking down at my phone and before replying to Laurie’s text message, a call came through. On the other line was a man named Martin. (Laurie’s referral).
Martin was currently staying at the Farrand Point campground near Cornwall, Ontario, enjoying a bit of time out on the water. While out swimming off a jet ski, and the unthinkable happened: his prosthetic leg detached and sank 50ft, straight to the bottom of the St. Lawrence River.
(If you’ve never thought about it, modern prosthetic limbs are high-tech, finely tuned medical marvels. They are also astronomically expensive, often costing anywhere from $25,000K to $35,000K, and more importantly, they are vital to daily mobility and independence. Losing one in a major river system is nothing short of a crisis)
Martin managed to keep his bearings tho, (or so he thought) he referenced his GPS, and dropped a quick Google Maps pin right to our chat to mark the drop zone:
roughly 80 yards off the shore in 30 to 55 feet of cold, St. Lawrence water.
Calling in the Heavy Hitters
My first instinct was to loop in Carlos, one of our dedicated local divers with the “Ontario Ring Recovery Services” Carlos, evaluated the details, but looking at the logistics, the odds in that specific stretch of the river were daunting, and his schedule simply wasn’t going to give him the window needed to tackle a deep recovery this week.
Faced with the reality that time was of the essence and Martin was sitting on-site at his campground waiting for answers, I decided to look outside our immediate district.
When you need elite-level recovery work against tough conditions, you call someone with a proven track record. My other usual contact for this would have been Stephane Coutu, however Stephane was out of commission as of late so unfortunately I knew he would not be able to offer assistance for this recovery either.
I reached out to central Ontario’s own veteran recovery specialist, from the RingFinders Paul Davies ( from the Barrie Ontario area). I laid out Martin’s situation, the depths involved, and the stakes. True to his reputation, Paul agreed to jump on a call with Martin to map out the specifics.
The Mission Was Go
Several hours later, my phone lit up with a text from Paul.
After reviewing the dive profile, current, and target coordinates, Paul made the decision to pack up his gear and log the miles. He geared up for a grueling 5-hour drive to the Cornwall area to meet Martin at the campground and put eyes on the bottom of the St. Lawrence.
Martin is still camped on-site, holding out hope, and tomorrow, (August 3rd, 2026) recovery operations officially get underway.
This is what the recovery community is all about. Whether it’s a gold band lost in the sand or a medical device 50 feet deep in a massive river system, we look out for each other, cross district lines, and tap into a intertwined network of dedicated professionals who do their best not to leave people stranded.
THE RECOVERY ATTEMPT
After a five-hour haul from the Barrie area, Paul Davies pulled into the Farran’d Point campground right around noon, exactly as planned. Infact at exactly 12:26PM on August 3rd I recieved a text from Martin letting me know that Paul had safely arrived on site and was suiting up
After a quick briefing and final gear check and Martin on-site, it was time to get down to business.
Paul loaded himself and his gear on a raft as Martin headed out onto the water, raft in tow, to the exact coordinates Martin believed the prosthetic had disappeared.
The target zone was daunting: roughly 80 yards off the shore, sitting in 30 to 55 feet of cold, water.
The Long Wait on the Water
Paul dropped down into the depths at approximately 12:30 to 12:45PM to begin the grid search, while Martin and his wife on the surface settled in to wait.
As the minutes ticked by, the tension on the surface started to rise. Forty or 50 minutes had passed, and there was still no sign of Paul breaking the surface. All Martin had to go on, were the occasional bubbles drifting steadily up from the depths, the only quiet indication that Paul was down there, methodically working the bottom against the river’s wishes.
In a search zone that is deep and vast, 45 to 50 minutes underwater feels like an eternity.
When the River Keeps Its Secrets
Despite an incredible effort and an hour of grueling work on-site, the mission unfortunately did not end with the triumphant recovery we were all hoping for.
After burning through two tanks down in the depths, veteran recovery specialist Paul Davies ultimately had to surface empty-handed after running low on air in is air tanks.
Between the daunting depth, the challenging current, and the vast expanse of the 30 to 55-foot drop zone, the river simply proved too much this time around, and the search was officially brought to a close for the day.
While this isn’t the fairy-tale ending we wanted for Martin, it stands as a powerful reminder of the sheer unpredictability of open-water recoveries, or any recovery for that matter. If conditions change or if we aren’t put close enough to the actual location of a target then unfortunately not every recovery attempt will be a success.
We want to extend a massive thank you to Paul Davies for making the 5-hour drive down from Barrie, suiting up on short notice, and laying it all on the line.
With this mans experience if anyone was to be successful in a recovery like this, Paul was a great choice for the job at hand.
This is what the recovery community is all about—showing up, stepping up, and giving it everything we’ve got, even when the elements seem to win in the end.
A Huge thanks to Laurie Gagne for the initial referral, to Carlos for helping triage the logistics, and above all, to Paul Davies for answering the call, logging the miles, and delivering a valiant effort for someone in serious need.
Unfortunately it is also a reminder that not all efforts in this recovery business are going to be successful and even though it’s not the lack of effort, sometimes we do come out empty handed.
Ok, OK, we can’t just leave this story at that.
***********UPDATE: The River Gives It Back
As it turns out, the story of Martin’s prosthetic leg didn’t end with the river keeping its secrets.
While Carlos and I were on a different recovery mission up in Mont-Tremblant, Quebec, we were on our way back to Kingston when we decided to swing by the campground near Cornwall. Carlos still had a full tank of air, and he was more than willing to jump in and give that search another go.
But fate had other plans.
While we were still en route, I received a phone call from Martin. He was ecstatic— the Seaway Valley Divers (O2togo), divers had successfully recovered his leg! and it was already back in place! It turns out that Diver Paul had coordinated with a fantastic group of four divers through the Abacus dive shop in Brockville and the Seaway Valley Divers (O2togo), and they had arrived just in time to get the job done.
I told Martin to hang tight—I wanted to see it for myself.
When Carlos and I pulled up to Martin’s camper, an hour after I was on the phone with him the divers were just in the middle of de-gearing.
Martin walked over immediately when he saw I arrived to his camp site to shake my hand, give me a hug, and thanking me in person for the effort I put in to ensure he had the resources he needed to get his mobility back.
Seeing that genuine smile on his face was worth more than any successful recovery I could have performed myself. It was an honor to meet the team from Seaway Valley Divers; they are so friendly and true professionals. It was a privilege to connect with them. I believe the gentleman that actually found the prosthetic leg was Don? (I think)
I have to give credit where credit is due tho and a HUGE thanks to the entire team of divers for their successful efforts
I made sure to hand Martin an Ontario Ring Recovery Services shirt and sticker to remember this day,
and I am thrilled to have built these new connections for future water recoveries in the Cornwall area.
Sometimes the “success” in this business isn’t about who pulls the item from the depths, but about making sure the right people are in the right place at the right time.
A Huge thanks to the Seaway Valley Divers for stepping up and making this happen for Martin.
What a great, happy ending to this story.
James Mathias
Founder, Ontario Ring Recovery Services
1(613)-876-8167
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