She and a male buddy were both diving using closed-circuit rebreathers. Diving in one of the deepest parts of the 108m quarry, she reportedly became entangled in a downline after its buoy flooded and started sinking.
Her buddy had to surface after trying unsuccessfully to free her, and was airlifted to hospital suffering from decompression illness and shock.
It remains unclear why, as rebreather divers, the pair would have been short of time to sort out an entanglement problem.
A North Wales Police underwater search team has so far failed to locate the missing diver. The police usually operate to a depth limit of 50m.
Blakemore, whose husband and three daughters were understood to have been present at the quarry, had been a rebreather instructor for the past year, having trained to use a CCR with New Frontier two years ago.
'She would dive with myself or other team-members every week-end of the year,' Jeff Keep of New Frontier Diving has stated on a rebreather forum.
'Paula taught many students over the past 12 months. I'm sure they will all say that she was dedicated, strict, fair and hard to please in the water. But equally, her enthusiasm and dedication to rebreather diving was inspiring.'
Despite more than 20 past deaths of divers in the 108m-deep flooded slate quarry over the past 13 years, this is the first incident there for almost three years.
Dorothea quarry is owned by a property developer and is not open to divers, but is frequently used unofficially for technical training because of its depth.
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