c/commercial-divers

Hot water heater in the dive shack, why did no one tell me to check the anode rod?

After 4 years of diving in Port Angeles, I noticed my drysuit undergarments smelled like rotten eggs every third dive. Turns out the anode rod in our compressor's water separator was shot, and all that sulfide was baking into my gear. Do you guys actually check that thing on a schedule, or am I the only one who learned this the hard way?

Took a hyperbaric chamber course in Seattle last spring, still split on whether it was worth it

I've been diving for about 12 years, mostly inland and offshore work around the Pacific Northwest. Last March I signed up for a two-day hyperbaric chamber familiarization course through a local dive shop, cost me $475 plus a full day of lost wages. Half the guys I work with said it was a waste, just a bunch of classroom talk and sitting in a tube. The other half said it's the only reason they feel safe doing deep mixed gas jobs. Here's where I'm torn. The course itself was straightforward, no magic tricks. But four months later, I had a close call on a job near Tacoma where the surface interval got messed up and I felt the first signs of bends. Because of that course, I knew exactly what to say to the medic and how to describe my symptoms. It might have saved me from a bad outcome, or maybe I'm just giving it credit because I was scared. Has anyone else taken one of these and later questioned if it actually changed their behavior, or am I overthinking a simple safety training?

My dry suit zipper gave out 40 feet down in Puget Sound

Last Tuesday I was doing hull inspection on a ferry dock in Seattle, about 40 minutes into the dive, when I felt that cold trickle start at my shoulder. The zipper on my dry suit just let go, not a tear, just the teeth deciding they were done. I still had a good 20 minutes of bottom time left but I called it and did a slow ascent, water seeping in the whole way up. By the time I hit the surface I looked like a drowned rat and my thermals were soaked through. The suit is 6 years old and I've been cheap about replacing the zipper, figured I'd ride it out one more season. Has anyone else had a zipper fail mid-dive, and did you go with a shop repair or just bite the bullet on a new suit?

Unpopular opinion: soft sand is easier than rock for a rookie crew

Everyone on our barge in Galveston kept telling me rock work builds character, but we spent 6 hours on a jetty repair with too many tangled lines. Switched to a pipeline burial job in soft sand last month and the bottom time was way more manageable. Anyone else think new divers should start in mud before stone?

One dive supervisor's comment about my buoyancy control totally changed my trim

Wet welding on old steel taught me to trust the current, not the book

I used to think all the talk about matching the exact rod and amp settings for different depths was overblown. Like, just crank it and go, right? Last month I was on a job near Port Fourchon repairing a cracked piling on a platform leg, and the dive supervisor insisted I drop down with a specific stick and run a lower current than I normally would. I figured I'd humor him, but when I got in the water and started burning, the bead laid down so much cleaner on that rusty metal than my usual setup. No pops, no slag sticking weird, just a solid tie-in. That convinced me the older guys actually know what they're talking about, especially on aged steel with heavier marine growth. Has anyone else had a moment where they ditched their own habits and trusted the old school method, and it paid off?

Three months chasing a slow leak that was just a cracked valve housing

I picked up a used dry suit last winter for a harbor inspection job in Norfolk. The exhaust valve kept letting in a slow trickle of water, just enough to soak my base layer on every second dive. I blamed the neck seal, then the zipper, then the dump valve gasket. I spent about 8 weekends taking the suit apart and testing each piece with soapy water. Finally I borrowed a buddy's pressure test kit and found a hairline crack in the valve housing itself. A new valve assembly cost me $65 and took maybe 40 minutes to install. No more leak, and I feel dumb for not checking that first. Has anyone else chased a phantom leak for way too long before finding the obvious culprit?

Lost my comms 80 feet down in Port Angeles and had to buddy-breathe my way out

Last Tuesday I was doing a hull inspection on a barge in Port Angeles harbor. Everything was routine until my comms unit went dead mid-check. No surface feed, no backup, just static. I signaled my tender but the current was pushing me sideways around the keel. My buddy Jim dove down with a spare reg and we shared air for maybe 6 minutes while I finned to the ladder. That was the longest 6 minutes of my career. Now I carry a backup UHF radio in a waterproof pouch on my harness, even for shallow jobs. Has anyone else had a comm failure on a simple dive that turned sketchy real fast? What do you keep as your backup?

A diving supervisor in Louisiana called out my hose wrapping habit

Been doing commercial diving out of Port Fourchon for about 8 years and always coiled my umbilical the same way over my arm. Last month a supervisor watched me prep and said 'you're twisting the layers every time you do that, it'll wear the jacket faster'. I switched to a figure-eight lay on the deck before each dive and honestly it feels slower but the hose lays out cleaner underwater. Anyone else get told to change a habit that felt natural for ages? Did it actually save you money on replacements?

A diving supervisor in Galveston changed my mind about full face masks

I used to think full face masks were just for rookies who couldn't handle a regular reg and a comms unit, but last month a supervisor in Galveston told me to try one on a 60 foot pipeline repair and said 'your jaw will thank you by the third dive.' He was dead right, my face wasn't wrecked and comms were way clearer than the hard hat I'd been using. Has anyone else switched over for long bottom time jobs, or is it just a preference thing?

Dove into an old wreck off Key West, found something weird

Last month I got a charter gig helping with a hull inspection near the Dry Tortugas, and on the way back we passed over a wreck that wasn't on any of the local charts. The captain said it was probably a shrimper that went down in the 80s, but we dropped a buoy anyway and I went down about 70 feet to check it out. The visibility was decent, maybe 40 feet, but the structure was peeled open like a tin can, and there were these big steel cables wrapped around the bow that looked way too new for a wreck that old. I got close enough to see a nameplate, but the corrosion ate the letters, so no luck there. It got me thinking, how often do you guys stumble on unmarked sites during normal work, and do you report them to anyone or just let them be? Because I'm still kicking myself for not taking better photos before the current picked up.

TIL a cracked demand valve hose can sink your whole dive in 40 feet of murk

Last Tuesday off Port Fourchon we had a simple pipeline inspection job, nothing deep, 40 feet max. My buddy Mike gets in first, I'm gearing up. He drops down and within 2 minutes he's hammering the comms line saying his regulator is free flowing and he's getting water in his mask. We pull him up fast. Turns out the hose on his demand valve had a hairline crack right where it bends at the swivel. Nobody caught it because it looked fine during the pre-dive check, no bubbles until it hit pressure at depth. We lost 3 hours waiting on a spare from the shop, whole crew sat on deck. That crack cost us the afternoon shift and almost cost Mike a panic situation. Has anyone else had a hose fail like that on a routine shallow dive, or do you replace those swivel hoses on a strict schedule no matter how they look?

That time a newbie's weight belt nearly dragged me down in Port Orchard

We were doing a pier inspection last month and this kid shows up with a belt that looked like he'd borrowed it from a gym. I asked him what the water temp was and he said 50 degrees, so I told him he'd need about 28 pounds. He put on 14 and figured that was fine. Took me 5 minutes to realize why he kept sinking feet-first. The guy never read the dive tables, just guessed. Has anyone else had to stop a job to fix someone's basic gear setup before the client noticed?

Paid $120 for a heated dry suit liner and now I'm questioning everything

I work out of Port Angeles and figured a battery heated liner would beat dealing with cold water on those early spring dives. First time out it crapped out after 40 minutes and I was shivering worse than without it. The company offered a replacement but I'm not sure I want to trust it again. Anyone else gamble on fancy heating gear and get burned, or is there a brand that actually holds up?

Just found out 1 in 4 commercial divers has permanent hearing loss from regulator noise

Was reading through some OSHA records last night for a safety course I'm taking and stumbled on a stat that absolutely floored me. Apparently the constant high-pressure air flow from our regulators pushes noise levels over 85 decibels for entire dive shifts. I always thought the noise was just part of the job, but now I'm wondering how many of us are ignoring ear protection. Has anyone else looked into this or found better earplugs that work under a hood?

Got told my lift bag technique was all wrong by an old timer in Texas

I was working a bridge repair job down in Port Arthur last summer, and this salty diver who's been doing this since the 80s pulled me aside after a surface interval. He said I was clipping my lift bags directly to the load with carabiners like everyone does, but he showed me how that puts all the stress on one point and can tear the bag if it snags. He made me switch to using a spreader bar and two independent straps with backup knots on everything. Honestly felt like a rookie for about ten minutes, but after I tried it on a heavy concrete block lift, the control was way better and I didn't have that constant worry of the bag popping off. Has anyone else had an old hand correct something basic that you thought you already knew?

That feedback about my fin kicks saved my air consumption

I did a deep water job off a platform in the Gulf last summer and kept burning through my air way too fast. A senior diver I worked with told me I was kicking way too wide and my ankles were flexing wrong on the upstroke. He showed me to keep my knees straighter and use short, fast kicks from the hips instead of my whole leg. I tried it on the next shift and dropped my air use by almost 25 percent on a 90 minute bottom time. Has anyone else gotten a simple technique fix that made a huge difference in their gas consumption?

Changed my mind on those cheap weight belts with the plastic buckles

I always swore by the expensive metal buckle ones, but after watching a guy on a job in the Gulf use one for 18 dives without a single buckle slip, I grabbed a $40 model off Amazon. It held my weight just fine during a 60-foot salvage pull last week. Anyone else make the switch from the pricier gear?

That $400 drysuit zipper replacement I put off almost killed my dive Saturday

My neck seal zipper started sticking two months ago and I figured I'd just deal with it, then at 60 feet on a bridge pier inspection in Charleston the thing blew open and flooded my suit. Cost me $475 to fix it right after that, plus a whole day of lost work. Anyone else learned the hard way not to cheap out on zipper maintenance?

Swore by Kirby Morgan for years til I tried a Divex helmet

Did a 6-week job off Aberdeen last spring and had to use a Divex helmet since that's what the client had. Used to think Kirby Morgan was the only way to go but the Divex comms were way clearer and the neck dam seal was better. Anyone else switch brands and find something that worked better for deeper dives?

Finally figured out how to keep my hot water suit from getting that mildew smell

For years I'd just wring out my hot water suit and hang it in the van after a shift. It always got that sour funk after a few weeks. Last month I started rinsing it inside and out with fresh water right at the dock before I even pack up. Then I hang it open with the neck and cuffs spread wide. Been over a month now and no smell at all. Anyone else deal with this or find a better way to dry them out fast between dives?

Heads up on those new Kirby Morgan band masks we're seeing on job sites

I was at a dive shop in Houston last week and two guys came in complaining about the cracking on the new-style exhaust tees after only like 40 dives. Anyone else seeing those fail faster than the old rubber ones?

I used to think old Kirby Morgan hats were just nostalgia...

Been doing inland commercial diving for about 8 years now, mostly bridge repair and dam work around the Pacific Northwest. Always ran with a modern KM 28 with that lightweight shell. Then last month I had to use a beat up old SuperLite 17 for a whole week when my reg went down for service. After about three days I noticed my neck was way less sore at the end of shifts... that extra weight actually balanced better underwater and the old exhaust valve setup felt more reliable somehow. Now I'm hunting for a used 17 and wondering if anyone else has gone back to older gear after swearing by new stuff.

My drysuit zipper blew out 60ft down off the coast of Oregon last month

I was working a salmon farm net pen job up near Astoria, about 45 minutes into a repair dive, when I felt that cold trickle run down my back. My zipper just let go. Not a slow leak, I mean it split right open. I had to do an emergency ascent, which is sketchy enough solo, but I popped up right under a feed barge and nearly got clocked. The tender hauled me in quick but I was soaked through in like 30 seconds flat. The suit was a DUI that I've had for about 5 years, never had an issue before. I got it patched up at a shop in Portland but the whole thing cost me $200 to fix. Has anyone else had a main zipper fail in cold water like that? What do you do to spot corrosion or wear before it goes?

That 'cheap' Kirby Morgan rebuild kit cost me a surface interval in Port Nolloth

Last month I bought a non-OEM rebuild kit for my KM-48 from a shop in Cape Town for $45. Got out to the boat near Port Nolloth, swapped it in while waiting on the crane, and the first dive back down to 30 meters the main exhaust valve stuck wide open. Had to abort after 10 minutes, spent 2 hours fixing it with spare parts from the boat's first aid kit essentially. Anyone else given up on saving a few rand on critical parts?