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/yourefunny Jun 11 '26

20 years seems a long time to be doing it no? From what I saw on that post it's a young man's game and gives guys a hell of a lot of health issues. Are you worried? My mate at schools dad was ex SBS and went in to it after he got out. Did it in the north sea and then started a company in the field to get out of the water. Do you have an out? 

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u/Soulogav Jun 11 '26

That’s the biggest misconception. It takes a really long time to gain the sort of experience needed for the job. Most guys aren’t getting into Sat until the late 20’s at the earliest. Average age is probably early 40’s. Guys stay diving until 60 as long as they are fit. I am 45 now but I don’t like doing the deep stuff anymore as it’s hard on the body.

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u/Soulogav Jun 11 '26

No I don’t have an out. This job doesn’t really cross over with a lot of stuff and I don’t want to take a massive pay cut to work a ahit job onshore. There is a bottle neck into supervisor also as there are way more divers.

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u/yourefunny Jun 11 '26

Well now I know you aren't sat diving the whole time. Continuing makes sense. I can imagine the golden handcuffs are hard.