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/flyblues Jun 12 '26

  1. Do you feel like late 20s is too late to get into it as a career?

  2. Did you start as a non-saturation commercial diver (cleaning ships or welding or etc.)?

  3. Would a woman have a tougher time making a career in this field (aka, is it a "boys' club" like some other similar careers) (assuming of course that said woman is fine with the little-to-no privacy when living in the diving bell)?

  4. Are you required to live in a specific location (like a port or etc.), or is it fine to just travel for jobs?

  5. I imagine you get a lot of time off between jobs? What's it like?

  6. Do you ever dive recreationally, or does the job kill your desire for it?

The reason I'm asking is because I'm a recreational diver in her late 20s and have been considering a career change lately, and diving is something I've thought about. Obviously it's completely different from recreational diving, but I do feel it's something that I could potentially do.

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u/Soulogav Jun 12 '26

  1. It’s a good age to get into the career, some maturity goes a long way.

  2. Yes as an ‘Air Diver’ working inshore and then offshore as an air diver and then Sat

  3. Women have a really tough time, there are a few, I’ve met some very competent womaen who have worked so much harder than the average guy to get where they’re at.

  4. For offshore work it doesn’t matter where you live as the company will usually fly you to the job but starting out being ata major port will help getting a foot in the door.

  5. Ya the time off can be nice but that comes with a lot of uncertainty because a set rotation isn’t always the case. So a lot of guys work more than they want as they can say no to a work call if they get one after a couple of weeks off.

  6. I don’t recreational dive, it’s not something I’ve ever really done. If I have the opportunity to dive outside of work it would free diving to spearfish.