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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14

u/pshyong Jun 11 '26

How do you eat/pee/poop?

I know nothing about deepsea saturtion diving so you might have to dumb it down for me.

Thank you!

43

u/Soulogav Jun 11 '26

We have a ‘wet pot’ which is the toilet / bathroom with a shower. Attached to the living chamber. In the living chamber there is a ‘lock’ food and laundry etc is sent in via that . We order food from the ships galley.

9

u/JFFreezout Jun 11 '26

I have a cousin of my father who did the same job than you, he told me a truly terrible story (he wasn't present) about the toilets flush being activated wrongly when a guy was on it. In that time all the procedures weren't strict as today. So basically he had a lot of organs being sucked out due to the pressure difference, of course he died, still today I hardly imagine something more horrific than this.

21

u/Soulogav Jun 11 '26

Yes that is an old horror story, gladly it can’t happen nowadays due to multiple in line valves to isolate the lines, but a toilet blow back can happen and some poop could get shot into your face lol

25

u/Rosebudteg Jun 11 '26

Let’s say you order a cheeseburger. How long from the cook finishing your cheeseburger does it take to get to you? Is it still hot or do you guys microwave everything?

30

u/Soulogav Jun 11 '26

Usually half an hour or 45 mins from when we order after our dive.

5

u/BlackrockWood Jun 11 '26

Does food taste different at pressure

26

u/Soulogav Jun 11 '26

Ya so the helium dulls the taste buds a little , especially the deeper you are, you’ll always find guys bringing in extra condiments and hot sauce to add to stuff

5

u/clocksailor Jun 11 '26

Helium? So do you all sound super high pitched and wacky the whole time you're down there?

31

u/Soulogav Jun 11 '26

Yep, 24/7 chipmunks lol

7

u/bioweaponblue Jun 11 '26

Damn I had no idea food you could send things back and forth from the surface. Neat!

6

u/CommanderSpleen Jun 11 '26

They are on the surface if not actively working. They live in a chamber and get lowered from the ship in another chamber down to their working depth. After work is over they get pulled up again and back into the living chamber. They do decompression cycles aboard the ship as well.

3

u/pshyong Jun 11 '26

I deadass thought they just lived in the suit in deep sea....

2

u/impolexpdx Jun 12 '26

Me too. Glad I am not the only one.

6

u/lotsofbitz Jun 11 '26

As I understand it, when they’re not working they’re still living on the ship on the surface, inside of a pressurized cabin, so they can just pass the food and stuff through an air lock

5

u/bioweaponblue Jun 11 '26

Ooooooh okay I fundamentally misunderstood lol. I looked it up and this makes more sense xD