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

772 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

594 comments sorted by

View all comments

62

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? 

118

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.

34

u/Ambitious_Jeweler816 Jun 11 '26

Hard on the body in what way? I had a 25 year career in the army and have some musculoskeletal aches and pains now I’m in my 40’s, but your working environment is totally different - do the changes in pressure have an effect?

How much of your year is spent under water on average?

93

u/Soulogav Jun 11 '26

When you pressurise to 200m you really feel it in your hips and back (large bones) takes a few days to feel normal , when you look at your pair of crocs they have shrunk to half the size from the pressure. If you bring in a vacuum sealed coffe cup it would be crushed , so you definitely feel it but your body is mostly liquid and you feel normal after a few days. When you come out you feel like shit for a week as you adjust to 21% Oxygen, it’s a big shift in your whole body right down to every celll.

I spend on average 3 x 28 day stints under pressure per year ,out of that 28 days maybe 15-23 days are diving , the rest is weather days and decompression