Met an old saturation diver in New Orleans who told me about his 500 foot record

I was getting my gear inspected at a shop in New Orleans last spring and this retired guy comes in. He was sitting on a crate drinking coffee and we got to talking about deep water work. Turns out he did a sat dive to 510 feet in the Gulf back in the 80s for a pipeline repair. He said they had to breathe a special gas mix and the decompression took 8 days straight. I asked if he ever got scared and he just laughed and said you focus on the job or you don't come back. Has anyone here ever done a serious deep dive past 300 feet that felt different from shallower work?

2 comments

2 Comments

joel_clark371mo ago

510 feet is deep, sure, but it's not like every dive past 300 turns into some life-or-death movie scene. The gas mix and the long decompression are just part of the job for those guys, not some heroic battle. I've known a few commercial divers and they all talk about it the same way, like it's just another Tuesday with a thick wetsuit. The "focus on the job" line sounds cool but it's basically just saying "don't panic," which is the same advice you'd give a newbie at 30 feet.

phoenixw111mo ago

Nah, you're oversimplifying it. 500 feet is a different world.