c/commercial-divers

My dad, who worked offshore in the Gulf for 20 years, told me last weekend he never once took a 'souvenir' from a job site. Said it was bad luck and disrespectful to the water. I'd always thought that was just superstition, but the way he said it made me pause.

Had a real bad silt-out at the Port of Tacoma last Tuesday

We were doing a basic hull clean on a container ship and my buddy's dredge line kicked up a huge cloud that went zero vis in seconds. I just froze for a second, felt for my umbilical, and followed it hand over hand back to the shot line. What's your go-to move when the water turns to chocolate milk like that?

Showerthought: I used to think marking my umbilical with colored tape every 10 feet was just extra work.

But after getting turned around in zero-vis on a 40-foot wreck in Lake Michigan last month (and my buddy on comms calmly saying 'follow the blue stripes back'), I'm a total convert, so what's your go-to trick for keeping oriented in the murk?

Honestly thought the 'banana trick' for mask fog was total dock talk until I tried it.

Ngl, I was working a hull cleaning job in Miami last month and my buddy insisted I rub the inside of my mask lens with a banana peel. Tried it out of pure desperation after fighting fog for an hour, and it actually worked perfectly for the whole dive. What's the weirdest old-school trick you've heard that turned out to be legit?

My dive partner in Seattle told me to always pack an extra O-ring in my drysuit pocket, and last month it saved a job.

A new guy on a Gulf job kept asking if we'd seen any 'underwater UFOs'

He was dead serious, asking every day at the 30-foot safety stop. I finally told him the only alien I saw was a weird crab that looked like a tiny pizza box. Has anyone else had a greenhorn with a wild idea stuck in their head?

I used to think those neoprene dive hoods with the extra flap were just a gimmick for new guys.

Did a salvage job in the Puget Sound last month and my regular hood got a tear, so I borrowed one. The flap actually seals way better and I stayed warm for a full 90-minute dive. Anyone else have a piece of gear they wrote off that turned out to be solid?

A diver in Seattle told me 'cold water is just a state of mind' and I still think that's wrong.

Got called out for my sloppy umbilical wrap on a job in Tampa

A diver with 15 years on me watched me pack up and said, 'You wrap that like a garden hose, not a lifeline.' I started using a proper figure-eight coil and it's way faster to deploy now. What's one piece of gear handling you had to unlearn?

Shoutout to the old hand in Corpus Christi who saw me fighting my umbilical and said 'kid, you're fighting the current, not working with it'.

I was on a hull cleaning job for a week, wasting air and energy by trying to muscle through instead of letting the water flow help position me.

Bought a 'bargain' drysuit patch kit online for $65 and it failed on my first dive in Lake Michigan

Had a regulator free flow at 90 feet on a bridge inspection job

It was on the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway project last Tuesday. I was checking a piling and my primary just started dumping air. I switched to my backup, signaled my tender, and made a normal ascent. Everyone says to just breathe off a free flow, but that's a fast way to empty your tank and panic. What's your go-to move when a reg goes bad down there?

Hot take: My old way of cleaning a prop is a total joke now.

Back in 2020, I'd spend a full day on a big boat prop with a wire brush and a scraper, maybe getting through two a week if I was lucky. Then a guy on a job in Tampa showed me his needle scaler setup. I dropped about $300 on a decent one and it changed everything. Now I can knock out the same job in under three hours with way less arm fatigue. Why did nobody tell me about this tool sooner? What's the one piece of gear that made you feel like you were living in the dark ages before you got it?

Finally got my surface-supplied cert after failing the weld test twice

Burned through about $800 in extra materials and practice time before I nailed the 6G position. Anyone have tips for keeping your hand steady in a cold current?

Got a stubborn bolt loose on a Seattle dock job by warming it with a heat pack from my lunchbox

We were trying to replace a worn-out flange on a saltwater intake line, and this one 3/4-inch bolt was just seized solid. I remembered I had one of those disposable hand warmer packs in my gear bag (the kind you shake to activate). Taped it right to the bolt head for about 15 minutes while we prepped other stuff, and it expanded just enough to break the corrosion bond. Has anyone else used weird non-tool items to get out of a pinch underwater?

A simple trick with a zip tie saved a 12-hour job from going sideways

We were on a 3-day job in the Gulf, replacing a valve 150 feet down. The new bolt pack wouldn't seat right, and we were about to call it and surface. My dive partner, an old hand from Louisiana, grabbed a spare zip tie from his kit and looped it around the bolt head as a makeshift guide. It worked on the first try, letting us torque it down properly. We finished the whole valve swap in 8 hours instead of blowing the whole schedule. What's the one weird little item in your save-a-dive kit that's pulled you out of a jam?

My primary light flooded at 90 feet on a harbor inspection yesterday.

The O-ring on the battery cap looked fine topside but must have pinched. Anyone have a good trick for checking those seals under pressure?

My dive partner told me to always carry a backup cutting tool, and I brushed it off

He said he lost his primary knife on a job in the Gulf and had to cut a fouled line with a backup. I finally listened after getting my own line tangled near a piling in Mobile Bay last month. My main cutter jammed, and the spare saved me a real bad time. How many of you actually carry a second cutting tool on every dive?

Took a job on a river barge over a rig in the Gulf last spring

The Gulf job paid $50 more a day, but the river gig was only a 2 hour drive from home. I picked the river and ended up spending three weeks in zero-visibility mud, fixing a broken intake line by feel. Ever regret passing up the bigger paycheck for a shorter commute?

Just read a report saying the average saturation diver works only about 120 days a year

I was looking at some industry data from a North Sea contractor's report last week. It said the average saturation diver works around 120 days a year, even though they're on call a lot more. I always figured the number would be higher, given the long hitches. But the report said it's due to weather delays, mandatory surface intervals, and project gaps. On one hand, it means more time off. On the other, it makes budgeting for the slow months tough. For those of you doing sat work, does that 120-day average sound right from your experience?

Spent 3 days trying to clear a fouled prop on a tug in Seattle, only to find the main issue was a shredded crab pot line wrapped around the shaft seal housing.

What's your go-to method for cutting that heavy, waterlogged poly line when you can't get a clean angle with regular shears?

Rant: Bought a cheap dive light that flooded on the first job

I was doing a hull clean on a tug in Mobile last month and grabbed a $90 'commercial grade' light off some online store. Figured it was a good backup. Ten minutes into the murk, it just filled up, went dark. Had to surface and switch to my main, wasted about 40 minutes of bottom time. That's easily $200 in lost pay right there, not counting the cost of the junk light. Should have just spent the extra on a proper light I knew was reliable. Anyone have a solid brand for a backup light that won't drown on you?

I finally figured out my umbilical routing was costing me air

I was on a bridge inspection job in Mobile, Alabama, and my tender pointed out I was burning through a tank 20 minutes faster than my partner. He watched me and said, 'You're fighting that hose like a snake.' I'd been letting it drag across the structure, creating constant drag. Anyone else have a simple fix that saved you big on air?

Changed my mind about using a full face mask for harbor work

Three years ago on a job in Seattle, my boss made us switch to full face masks for a month of harbor bottom clean up. I hated it at first. Felt clunky, vision felt weird, and clearing it was a pain. I was used to my old half mask and reg. But then we hit a patch with zero visibility, just thick black silt. I bumped my head on a piling and my mask got knocked. With the full face, my reg was still in my mouth, no problem. With my old setup, I would have gotten a face full of that nasty water. That one moment sold me. Now I won't do low-vis harbor dives without it. Anyone else have a piece of gear they fought against but now won't dive without?

Choosing a drysuit over a wetsuit for a winter job in Seattle was the right call

Last December, I had a job inspecting a dock in Elliott Bay. The water was 45 degrees, and I had to pick between my old 7mm wetsuit or spending $3,500 on a new drysuit. I bought the drysuit, and it was worth every penny. I was down for over an hour and stayed completely dry and warm, while my buddy in a wetsuit was shivering after twenty minutes. Anyone else work in cold water and have a strong preference on this?