Spent 3 years flipping my lift bag wrong before a salvage diver in the Gulf showed me the right way

Every time I tried to control a lift bag at 60 feet it would spin out and I figured that was just how it worked. Then a guy on a pipeline job off Galveston watched me for 5 minutes and pointed out I was clipping the dump valve to the wrong D-ring. Has anyone else had a basic skill turned around by someone who actually knew what they were doing?

3 comments

3 Comments

carter.joseph10d ago

Honestly that's the kind of thing that makes you feel like a total goofball once you realize it. Took me a solid year of struggling with my drysuit inflation valve before an old timer at the shop just casually mentioned I was threading the hose the wrong way. He showed me how to route it behind my shoulder strap instead of in front and suddenly I could actually reach the damn thing without dislocating my arm. Ngl those little details nobody tells you about can make a huge difference underwater. It's funny how we just assume something is hard when really we've been doing it backwards the whole time.

lewis.mila10d ago

Feeling like a total goofball" - best way to learn anything, honestly.

ray_williams10d ago

Yeah I read somewhere that like 70% of divers never get any formal training on lift bags, they just pick it up from whoever shows them. That dump valve thing kills me though because it's SO specific but makes total sense once you see it. I remember reading a blog post from some saturation diver who said the difference between a good lift and a blowout is literally just a half inch of where you clip your hardware. Makes you wonder how many other gear problems are actually just setup problems nobody bothered to explain.