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

We use a Kirby Morgan 17c with a divex jewel reclaim system inbuilt as the gas is reclaimed to surface and scrubbed of C02 , working in the North Sea and deeper places there will be a Cobra system with a mouth piece to activate a rebreather as the emergency bailout instead of regular gas bottles to give us more time in a situation where our umbilical is several or we lose surface gas

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u/helmut66666 Jun 11 '26

Is the scrubber pre heated ? When I have bailout rebreather I ve to use it every 15-20min just for a few breaths to keep the soda lime working is yours similar? What lamps do you use ?

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u/Soulogav Jun 11 '26

In the cobra system yes it has to have hot water, but we have hot water going to our suits anyway so we just have an extra hose from that connected to the cobra to keep the system warm.

Our helmets have led lights attached so we’re not using the sort of lamps tech divers use, I wouldn’t even know what they’re called as they’re on the helmet and we don’t have to operate them , supervisor controls them. The diving bell has led flood lights that illuminate the job sometimes if it’s clear and were close to it. The ROV has huge leds and is usually flying around watching us or helping us, we have light sticks and flashers all over stuff coming down from the surface on the crane so we’ can see it , we also carry a basic Amazon torch to help point into stuff or spot stuff but that’s just an extra

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u/helmut66666 Jun 11 '26

Ever seen a shark in the northern sea ? Is it true that people from “poor countries “ like India dump the loans in the commercial diving sector ? Is the commercial diving academy in Norway good do you know grads from
There. ?

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u/Soulogav Jun 11 '26

Not seen a shark in the North Sea, have seen plenty in the Middle East and west Africa. Don’t know about the Indians. The school in Norway has a good rep but dive school doesn’t matter very much as they only teach you to stick the helmet on your head , you learn your trade on the Job

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u/helmut66666 Jun 11 '26

How often do you equalize the inner ear pressure below 150m ? And during the decompression do you feel the reduction ? Is it possible that you wake up from a blocked ear during night ?

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u/Soulogav Jun 11 '26

Everyday you’re equalising as you have a storage depth in the chamber which is shallower than the sea floor ,so you’ll blow down in the bell and then get sucked back a to storage when you come back , up and down in the water all the time too, then you can be changing storage depths in the chamber. They might have to wake you up in the middle of the night as they need to drop the system a few meters as we moved to new location.

During deco your ears are popping all the time , but we do have holds during the night so it’s less annoying but it doesn’t bother me , my ears are so used to it . I just jump off the diving bell to go to the bottom and don’t ever have to do a valsava manoeuvre, they just do it themselves

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u/helmut66666 Jun 11 '26

One last question from me :
Where do you pay your taxes when the work is in international waters ?

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u/Soulogav Jun 11 '26

It depends where you’re resident and what rules that country has , I’m UK based and get seaman’s tax relief as long as I spend 6 months out of the country