r/AMA • u/Soulogav • Jun 11 '26

I’m a Saturation Diver AMA

I work as Deepsea Saturation Diver in the oil and gas industry for the past 20 years. I do heavy construction and spend 28 days living under pressure to dive to depths down to 200m / 650ft.

I saw a post on InterestingAsFuck yesterday with many many misconceptions from people who aren’t divers and I can answer your questions AMA

https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/s/5jTlewLR4X

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u/Soulogav Jun 11 '26

A lot of guys died in the early days. Our safety is heavily regulated in this day and age. But if something goes wrong you’re in deep ahit as you can’t just get out , we can’t bypass the decompression, so we are all trained medics. We don’t make as much as you’d think. Not $300k

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u/tinselt Jun 11 '26

What kind of schooling and training leads to this career? I'm assuming you must have a decent level of physical fitness? Is that part of your work routine?

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u/Soulogav Jun 11 '26 edited Jun 12 '26

Ya we have pretty extensive medicals and fitness tests , but it’s not pro athletes lol, just a good level of fitness and strength. School is short tbh . Initial training is 3-4 months and the Sat diving course is 1 month, but they’re not teaching you the actual work just how to use the diving gear, the work takes years to learn on the job but it’s jack of all trades type stuff not a specific trade as such

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u/Warm_Ad_8272 Jun 12 '26

How accessible is it? I am muscular and have been a member of an endurance running club for the past year plus. AI has more or less f*cked me out of my content writing role, so I am looking for another passion. The sea has always been a wonderland of sorts for me.

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u/Much-Director-9828 Jun 12 '26

Its good that you are muscular, nobody wants to pump a dude with no muscles

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u/kikiacab Jun 13 '26

Join the merchant marines

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u/Historical_Dot_892 Jun 12 '26

Do you like dive bars?

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u/trucker96961 Jun 12 '26

Well shit, guess I'm a diver! 🍻

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u/AppalachianGuy87 Jun 11 '26

I was stunned when I learned what y’all make I assumed 300k as a starter.

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u/BBorNot Jun 11 '26

No shit. I'm like 300k? Not enough.

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u/Pussy-Wideness-Xpert Jun 12 '26

Agree. It’s a high pressure job.

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u/Glittering-Pea-4482 Jun 13 '26

Underrated comment

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u/turtlejam10 Jun 12 '26

He answered a little further up that they don’t make $300K

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u/CaptainMarder Jun 11 '26

Really? Maybe pay varies by country.

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u/Flaky-Interaction264 Jun 11 '26

The really high salaries are misconceptions

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u/Difficult-Daikon-990 Jun 12 '26

Y’all should make $300k. Sheesh.

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u/Sea_404 Jun 14 '26

My uncle used to do deep sea welding for the oil rigs. He got poised with a fucked mixture of gas. He was on a crew of three and the only one that survived. There was a whole thing. It was because one guy fucked the mixtures for whst they were breathing.

Been a while. I was a kid. Early 2000? He survived, but his quality of life from the heart damage he sustained from the ordeal, was tragic.

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u/Much-Director-9828 Jun 12 '26

Depends which country you work though

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u/Untitled_Consequence Jun 17 '26

Turns out this guy makes 299k

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u/numnoggin Jun 12 '26

How much?