c/commercial-divers

Had a real bad silt-out in the Cooper River last month, visibility went to zero in seconds

That time my comms went dead at 90 feet on a bridge piling job

We were working on the underside of the Sunshine Skyway in Tampa, doing an inspection. My tender's voice just cut out, no warning, about an hour into the dive. I had a choice: go up or finish the job. I stuck to the plan, used the rope signals we'd drilled, and got the visual checks done. My tender said a connector on the surface unit just corroded through. Who else has had to finish a dive on hand pulls alone?

Pro tip: A simple bolt replacement on a Boston harbor barge turned into a three day job

The nut was seized solid from saltwater corrosion, and we had to torch it off underwater without damaging the flange. That single task ate up 24 hours of dive time we hadn't budgeted for. What's your go-to method for dealing with badly corroded fasteners in saltwater?

Unpopular opinion: people think a 2-inch cut is no big deal topside

I had a small slice on my hand get infected after a dive in Galveston Bay last month, cost me a week of work. How do you guys handle minor injuries before they turn into a real problem?

My drysuit zipper gave up the ghost 60 feet down in Lake Michigan last Tuesday.

I was doing a routine hull inspection on a ferry and felt a sudden, icy trickle that turned into a full-on flood. I had to surface and basically waddle back to the boat like a freezing, waterlogged penguin. Anyone have a good zipper repair guy in the Chicago area who won't charge an arm and a leg?

Finally got my first solo inspection job on a bridge piling in the Mobile River.

I was reading an old salvage report from the 80s and the pay rate for a basic diver was way lower than I guessed.

Found it in a stack of papers at the maritime museum in Seattle, and it was only $18 an hour for a deep water job, which seems crazy low even for back then considering the risks.

My dive partner insisted we double-check the winch on a salvage job in Galveston, and it saved us from a real bad day.

Got called out for a 'simple' hull clean in Miami last week that turned into a full day nightmare

The boat owner said it was just a light cleaning, maybe two hours tops. Once I got down there, the entire bottom was covered in a thick layer of barnacles and mussels, like it hadn't been touched in over a year. My scraper was dull within the first thirty minutes, and the current was way stronger than forecasted. Ended up burning through three tanks just to get it mostly clean, and my whole body was sore for days. What's the worst 'quick job' you've ever been sent on that blew up like that?

I finally got a stubborn hydraulic fitting on a dredge pump in Galveston to seal after fighting it for nearly 8 hours.

What's your go-to method for dealing with a fitting that just won't seat right in cold, murky water?

Changed my mind about using a second tether on deep dives

My dive partner in Seattle kept telling me to run a backup tether on any job below 200 feet. I thought it was extra gear for no good reason, slowing us down. Then last month, my main tether snagged on a wreck and the quick release jammed. The backup line is the only reason I got clear without a real problem. Now I won't go past 150 without that second line clipped on. Anyone else have a specific depth where you always add a backup?

Tried a new lift bag setup on a salvage job and it went sideways fast

We were pulling a small crane off a river bottom near Pittsburgh last month, water was maybe 30 feet deep. My boss got this new double-chamber lift bag system, said it would give us more control. First chamber filled fine, but when I hit the valve for the second one, the whole thing shot up like a rocket. It ripped the rigging right out of my hands and the crane slammed back down, kicking up a huge silt cloud. Took us an extra two hours to find and re-secure everything in zero viz. Learned that new gear needs a real shallow water test run, not a trial by fire on the actual job. Anyone have a go-to method for checking new lift gear before you commit it to a dive?

I thought the old-timer's trick of using a potato to stop a mask leak was a joke until my buddy did it on a job in Mobile Bay last fall.

We were 60 feet down on a pipeline inspection and my mask seal gave out, so he just grabbed a spud from his lunch bag, cut a slice, and jammed it in the skirt, which held for the whole 45-minute dive and saved the day. Anyone have a better field fix for a torn silicone skirt when you're miles from the shop?

A crusty old tender in Seattle told me my umbilical handling was a joke

He said I was letting the hose and comms cable twist like a phone cord, and that one bad kink could cost me air or comms at 150 feet. I used to just coil it fast and toss it in the bin. Now I do a proper figure-eight lay on deck, checking for twists every single time before I go in. It adds maybe two minutes to my prep, but I haven't had a single comms cutout since I started. How do you guys manage your umbilicals on a cramped barge deck?

A crusty old tender in Galveston told me my umbilical coiling was a mess

He said, 'You're gonna get a wrap on that and it'll be your last dive.' I started using a figure-eight pattern on the deck and haven't had a single tangle since. How do you guys manage your hose on a tight deck space?

Spent a whole day trying to free a stuck shackle pin on a salvage lift bag in zero viz

It took me nearly 8 hours of fumbling with a punch and hammer in the dark, cold water before I finally got it loose by heating the pin housing with a small torch, something the old guys used to do back in the 90s but we never learn anymore.

Just hit 500 hours of bottom time this year. That number hit me.

Logged it last night after a long day on the Lake Michigan intake lines. Boss just handed me the sheet. Been grinding since January, mostly cold, dark work. Never kept track before. Makes you think about all the time spent down there. Anyone else ever get surprised by their own logbook totals?

Tried a new way to pre-heat my drysuit on a cold Lake Superior job

Used to just run hot water in the shower, but this time I filled a cooler with warm water and submerged the suit for 20 minutes. The core stayed warm for the entire first dive, no initial chill at all. Anyone have a better method for those really cold surface intervals?

A simple change to my pre-dive checklist cut my bottom time on a murky job by almost half

I was on a salvage job in the Mobile River last month, visibility was maybe two feet on a good day. We were down there feeling around for pieces of a sunken barge, and my first two dives I came up with nothing. My dive partner, this old guy named Carl, asked me how I was searching. I told him my usual grid pattern. He said, 'In this soup, you're just swimming in circles. Mark your start point with a big glow stick on a weight, then tie a 50-foot line to it. Swim out until the line goes tight, feel around, then come back to the stick and move it over ten feet. Repeat.' I started doing that the next day. Went from finding zero pieces in a four-hour dive to pulling up three sections in just over two hours. It seems so obvious now, but having that fixed reference point in zero viz changed everything. What other low-vis search tricks do you guys use when you can't see your hand in front of your face?

A chat with a retired salvage diver in Seattle changed how I see our gear

I was up in Seattle last month for a job and met an old timer named Frank at the dive shop. He worked salvage back in the 80s. We got talking about helmets and he said, 'We used to fix our own hats with a hammer and a prayer. Now you kids have a computer in your face and a hotline to the factory.' He wasn't being mean, just stating a fact. It made me think about how much we rely on tech now instead of just knowing the gear inside out. My Kirby has a heads-up display for everything, which is great, but I realized I couldn't tell you how to manually adjust the exhaust valve if the screen went black. Frank's whole career was built on that hands-on fix-it knowledge. It's got me wanting to learn the old school basics on my own rig, just in case. Has anyone else made a point to learn the manual overrides on their newer helmet systems?

Had a close call with a silt out in a zero vis harbor job

We were doing a hull inspection on a barge in the Mobile ship channel. My umbilical got snagged on a piece of sunken debris I couldn't see, and when I yanked it free, I kicked up a massive silt cloud. I lost all sight instantly and my comms got fuzzy with static. I went straight to my training: stopped moving, felt for my umbilical, and followed it hand over hand back to the down line. Took about 90 seconds of slow, calm movement to clear the cloud. Has anyone else had a silt out that bad, and what's your first move?

Heard a guy at the dock say a 30-minute bottom time is always a waste of a dive...

That was last week in Port Arthur, and it got me thinking. He was talking about big inspection jobs, saying anything under an hour isn't worth the suit-up. But I did a 35-minute dive on a pump intake last month that found a critical crack. The client paid the full day rate and was just glad we caught it. Sometimes the short, focused dives are the most important ones. What's the shortest dive you've done that really mattered?

Finally got my dive log organized after years of scribbles on napkins

I used to just jot down depth and time on whatever paper was handy, usually a greasy lunch bag. After a job in the Gulf where we needed to check a specific valve from six months back and I had zero notes, I knew it had to change. Now I use a simple waterproof notebook and spend five minutes after each dive writing everything down, even water temp and visibility. Has anyone else found a better way to keep track of all the small details?

I finally got a good handle on silt control after a job in Mobile Bay last month

We were working on a pipe survey and the viz went to zero in minutes. I started using a small bilge pump to push clean water from above right at my work spot. What's your go-to method when you're working in mud?

Vent: Just read a report that said most inland dive deaths happen in under 30 feet of water

I was looking through some old safety bulletins from the Association of Diving Contractors (you know, the ADC) last night. One from 2022 had a breakdown of incidents, and it said over 60% of fatal accidents in commercial inland diving happen in water less than 30 feet deep. That blew my mind. We always think the big depth, the deco, the mixed gas jobs are the killers. But it's the 'easy' shallow jobs, the quick in-and-out stuff where people get sloppy. Found it on page 14 of their 2022 annual safety review PDF. Makes you rethink every single toolbox talk about complacency on a simple potable water tank inspection. How do you guys fight that 'it's just a shallow dive' mindset on your crews?