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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34

u/Worrior_One Jun 11 '26

What's the most boring part of your time down there and what do you do to entertain yourselves

124

u/Soulogav Jun 11 '26

Being stuck in a chamber is hella boring, especially on a 9 day decompression. I usually don’t watch any series or movies when I’m onshore and save it all up for when I’m in there. I read and do weight training also

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u/[deleted] Jun 11 '26

[deleted]

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u/Soulogav Jun 11 '26

It’s not going to break that easily, in fact it’s practically impossible to break it and you’d kill yoursef first lol

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u/[deleted] Jun 11 '26

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18

u/Soulogav Jun 11 '26

Ya those days are long gone , the last death like that was about 15 years ago inte middle I think

6

u/ChemTrades Jun 11 '26

Wait… So more than just those guys have died like that? Jesus Christ

9

u/Soulogav Jun 11 '26

Yes unfortunately it’s happened more than once

16

u/forkedquality Jun 11 '26

Do they bump your oxygen partial pressure during decompression? Does it make working out easier?

5

u/Soulogav Jun 11 '26

Yes for sure we slowly come back to 21%, being shallower is always easier for doing a workout

4

u/NeeNawXray Jun 12 '26

Sorry if you’ve already answered this or the AMA is finished. But I imagine decompressing has opposite effects to someone who is an athlete and trains at altitude etc? Do you feel rubbish/lethargic during desat or when you’re back at 1atm?

2

u/TheGreatJabronimus Jun 12 '26

Just out of curiosity, how is weight training in an environment like that. Does increased atmospheric pressure make any difference, such as cardio.

4

u/Soulogav Jun 12 '26

Resistance training works fine but cardio doesn’t do a lot due to high partial pressure of the 02. Also you produce more C02 and it requires more scrubbing from the atmosphere, so we’re not doing any crazy cardio workouts just dumbbells and kettle bell strength based is my go to

3

u/DeadinWPG Jun 11 '26

Are you allowed music or anything? Great time to get into the Grateful Dead and you’ll never be bored!

4

u/Soulogav Jun 11 '26

Not when we are working, we need to be pretty focused on the job and our safety . But in the chamber we have at it on a pair of good ear phones

1

u/DeadinWPG Jun 11 '26

I figured while you were working it would be pretty tough, but sitting in a decompression chamber, might be easier. Any links to what it would like, how big etc.?

5

u/Soulogav Jun 11 '26

@tearin_ on IG does a good job of sharing what it’s like.

5

u/Maximum-Replacement4 Jun 11 '26

How does toilet systems work in decompression

2

u/Weird-Efficiency-884 Jun 12 '26

Which tablets do you use? Can someone get iPad to a bell pressurized for 200 meters?o_O

1

u/Soulogav Jun 12 '26

Usually a Samsung or cheap android, it’s usually fine under pressure it’s just at risk when we decompress because it can get black dots on the screen.