Pro tip: Watch how an old hand ties off a bag line before you open your mouth

I was working a bridge job near Mobile Bay a few years back, fresh off my surface tender card. This older diver named Ray must have been 60, grey beard, hands like catcher's mitts. He was showing me how to tie off a lift bag to a 400-pound beam, and I started telling him about a knot I learned in class. He just looked at me, cut me off, and said "Son, that knot will spill at 30 feet with any sideways current." Then he tied his own in about 4 seconds and it held through the whole lift. I felt about two inches tall, but he didn't rub it in. He just handed me a piece of line and made me practice it six times until I could do it blindfolded. Anyone else have a diver take the time to correct you without making you feel dumb?

3 comments

3 Comments

tara64229d ago

Honestly though, is this really that deep? I mean yeah, Ray sounds like a solid guy and all, but it's a knot. You tie it, it holds, great. People act like old timers invented the wheel every time they show someone a better way to do something. lol. Like cool, he knew a knot you didn't, but it's not exactly brain surgery. I'd just take the win that you learned something and move on without the whole "humbled by a salty veteran" narrative.

grantp1429d ago

Next you'll tell me tying your shoes isn't a life changing spiritual experience either, lol.

lilya7629d ago

Didn't I read that old sailors used to say a good knot is worth more than a good engine?