c/commercial-divers

Wasted $900 on a used Kirby Morgan, learned my lesson

Picked up a used KM 37 off a salvage forum in Tampa, looked fine in photos but the exhaust valve was shot and the reg needed a full rebuild, another $400 to get it dive ready. Has anyone else gotten burned buying secondhand helmets, or do I just stick with factory refurb from now on?

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the_vera•3d ago

Dry suit zippers: overhyped or the only way to go?

I spent years using a shell suit with a cheap zipper, figured maintenance was just part of the job after a 3-day salvage run off Galveston left me soaked and cold. Buddy of mine swore by his fancy dry suit, kept saying the zipper pays for itself. Finally borrowed one for a 40-foot inspection last month and noticed zero water ingress, even with the current pushing me against a piling. Now I'm split: is the $1,200 price tag worth the peace of mind, or are we all just paying for brand names? Anyone else had a zipper failure that flipped their opinion?

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marymorgan•4d ago

My Kirby Morgan headset kept cutting out, turned out it was the neck dam seal all along

Been diving in the Gulf for 6 years and my comms would crap out around 40 feet every time. Swapped cables, checked the mic, even sent the box in for testing. Guy at the shop finally said to check the neck dam for leaks. Sure enough, tiny crack letting water into the ear cup. 12 bucks for a new seal and it's been solid for 3 months now. Anyone else ever chase a comms gremlin that turned out to be something dumb like that?

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mason_ward•5d ago

Sea lion stole my good knife off the jetty in Port Angeles

Tuesday morning, gear check before a hull inspection. Set my rigging knife on the fender while I pulled my suit on. Next thing, this big bull sea lion slides up, grabs it, and takes off into the water. I just stood there in my wetsuit, one fin on, watching my 60 dollar knife disappear. Replaced it with a cheap locking folder, but now I zip everything into a pouch before I even step foot on the dock. Any of you guys lose tools to wildlife, or is this just my luck?

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williams.amy•5d ago

A dive tender's offhand comment got me thinking about my fin technique

Last week on a job in the Gulf, one of the tenders, a kid maybe 22, asked why I was kicking so hard during descent. I told him it was habit, and he said, 'You're not trying to win a race down there. Just let gravity do the work.' I laughed it off, but on the next dive I tried it. Slowed my kicks way down, used my arms for trim instead, and hit the bottom with more air in my tank than I've had in months. Anyone else had a green guy point out a basic thing you've been doing wrong for years?

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troyp37•5d ago

Overheard a deckhand say something that stuck with me

Last week on a job near Port Canaveral, this old deckhand tells me, “The ocean doesn't care about your certs, it just cares about your next breath.” We were doing a repair at 60 feet and he said it so casual, like it was nothing. It made me realize how easy it is to get caught up in gear and schedules, but the real skill is staying calm when visibility goes to crap. Anyone else have a random line from a crew member that just hangs around in your head?

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claire_fisher41•5d ago

Finally cleared a 40-foot silt-out in the Potomac after 6 tries

I do inland salvage work around the DC area, mostly bridge inspections and small jobs. The Potomac has this one spot near the Wilson Bridge where the bottom kicks up mud if you breathe wrong. My first 5 attempts I had to abort, couldn't see my own gauge. This Tuesday I switched to a different approach, slower kick cycles and staying 2 feet higher off the bottom. Got the full inspection done in 22 minutes, visibility stayed around 3 feet the whole time. My tender even said it looked smooth from the surface. Anyone else have a site that just clicked after you changed one small thing in your technique?

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robin_foster1•6d ago

Got a weird text from my tender about a 'sea monster' during a 90 foot dive

Last Thursday off the coast of Galveston, my tender sent me a photo of a huge shadow on sonar and typed 'big boy down there, stay sharp.' I swam over to check it out and it was just a massive, tangled fishing net wrapped around an old tire, not a sea monster. Has anyone else had a surface crew scare you with something that turned out to be total junk on the bottom?

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ryanprice•9d ago

Ditched the drysuit hood for a neoprene beanie on the Strait jobs

Used to swear by the full hood every dive, but after a 3 day run near Port Angeles last month I switched to a simple 5mm beanie under my helmet. The hood always felt like it was pushing my comms unit sideways and giving me a headache by noon. Beanie keeps my ears warm enough down to 48 degrees and I can actually hear the surface calls now. Has anyone else stopped wearing the hood on longer jobs or am I the only one?

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the_phoenix•11d ago

A salvage captain's 20 minute chat fixed my dive planning problem

I was running a pipeline inspection off Port Fourchon last month when this old salvage guy, Carl, came up to me at the dock. He watched me setting up my decompression schedule and just said, "You're planning for the job you want, not the one you have." That hit me because I kept getting short on bottom time when the current picked up. He showed me how he built in 15 extra minutes of slack for every hour of planned work, and it's been so much smoother since. Anyone else got a veteran trick that changed how you run your dives?

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bailey.sam•12d ago

Pro tip: Check your dry suit zipper lube before a deep run, not after

I've been diving commercially for about 8 years now and always thought the zipper grease thing was just a sales pitch from the gear reps. Last month on a harbor job in Norfolk I got 60 feet down when the main zipper started catching hard every time I moved my arm. I figured it was just the suit getting old, so I kept going. By the time I surfaced, the zipper teeth were actually bent in two spots and the suit started leaking around the shoulder. The shop guy told me he sees this all the time, guys skip the lube for months and then blame the suit when it fails. I spent $450 on a replacement zipper and lost two days of work waiting on the repair. Now I check the zipper before every single dive and keep a small tube of the silicone stuff in my truck. Has anyone else had a zipper go mid-dive or do you just replace the whole suit when that happens?

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bettyhunt•15d ago

One supervisor's comment about my buoyancy changed my whole approach

I've been diving out of Port Fourchon for about 4 years now, mostly doing inspection work on platforms. Last spring, this older supervisor I was working with pulled me aside after a job and said I was 'fighting the water too much.' I mean, I thought I had decent trim and everything, but he pointed out I was constantly kicking and using my arms to correct, which wasted air and stirred up silt on the bottom. He told me to slow down, breathe deeper, and use my dump valve more aggressively instead of finning. I spent the next two weeks practicing that on every dive, just hovering and adjusting with my lungs and the valve before moving. It cut my air consumption by almost a third, and frankly I felt way less tired at the end of each shift. Has anyone else gotten feedback like that that completely flipped how you operate underwater? I feel like we don't talk enough about the small corrections that make the big difference down there.

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thomas_roberts•16d ago

Supervisor in Houma convinced me to stop chasing deeper jobs

I always took the deepest dives I could get, figured more depth meant more respect and better pay. Last month a supervisor I trust pulled me aside after a 180 foot job and said my bottom time was getting sloppy, I was rushing checks just to say I did it. He pointed out that a guy who bails on a 40 foot pipeline repair because it's 'beneath him' is the first one who gets hurt at 200 feet. That hit different because he's been offshore for 25 years and never once bragged about his max depth. Now I'm looking at a shallower salvage contract for next week, and honestly I'm not mad about it. Anyone else ever pass on big depth to stay sharp on the basics?

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jade32•17d ago

That old dive tender in Port Fourchon still crosses my mind

Back in 2009 this guy named Earl rigged my bailout bottle in about 10 minutes without a word, just a nod when it was done. He told me the secret was keeping the hoses short and dry, nothing fancy. Anyone else have a tender who taught them more in one job than any course did?

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price.jake•18d ago

Dive superintendent took 20 mins to set up my twinset, still think about it

Working a gas pipeline job off Galveston last fall and my manifold was being finicky in the chop. This old superintendent, guy named Sal, waded over and just started reconfiguring my hoses without saying anything. He turns to me and goes 'kid, your valve drill is your lifeline, slow down and own it'. He showed me his trick of taping the reserve knob at a 45 degree angle so you feel it in thick gloves. Ive been doing that on every dive since and it changed how smooth my checks go. Anyone else got a small tip from a vet that just stuck with you?

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williams.robert•19d ago

Old surface air vs. studying for mixed gas, which way do you lean?

I ran surface air for 8 years in the Gulf, mostly 100 foot pipeline inspections, and we just did things by feel and hand signals. Now I'm diving trimix out of Seattle for a salvage outfit, and the pre-dive planning feels like a whole different trade. Anyone else switch over and find the math and gas management makes you a safer diver, or do you think the old hands-on approach had its own edge?

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elizabeth_gonzalez•19d ago

The $300 drysuit zipper grease that did nothing

Bought this fancy zipper wax from a dive shop in Florida, 30 bucks a tube, and greased my drysuit zipper before a weekend of work on the rig. Spent 4 hours fighting the thing, thought I ruined the suit, turns out the zipper was just old and needed a whole replacement part from the manufacturer. Lost the money on the wax and another 300 for the repair kit, plus a missed paid job on the St. Johns River. Anyone else get suckered by gear that sounds too good, or should I just stick to basic silicone spray?

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knight.xena•21d ago

Band mask bumps on a rusty hull, my air knife trick saved the job

Spent last Tuesday chopping growth off a barge in San Pedro and kept scratching the paint with my standard scraper. Swapped to a worn air knife nozzle at 90 psi and the barnacles lifted clean without gouging. Anyone else run a spare nozzle for tight spots under fenders, or is that just me?

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andrew_kelly•21d ago

My old Kirby Morgan reg froze up on a 60 foot dive last Tuesday

I've been diving since 1998 and I swear the older gear just had more give, but my Kirby Morgan second stage started free flowing about 15 minutes into a hull inspection. I had to switch to my bailout bottle and abort the job, cost me half a day's pay waiting on parts. Anyone else notice the newer regulators seem to stick more than the beat-up ones we used back in the day?

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robin_foster1•22d ago

A retired saturation diver's 5 minute talk made me rethink my whole career path

Last weekend I was at a dive gear swap meet in Tampa and this older guy, must have been pushing 70, was just shooting the breeze by a table of old helmets. He did saturation diving in the North Sea back in the 80s, and he told me something that stuck with me. He said, "Kid, I spent 14 years of my life living in a steel tube the size of a closet, and I missed my daughter growing up. All that money, and I can't get those years back." I've been doing inland commercial diving for about 5 years now, mostly bridge inspections and pipeline work around the Gulf, and I always thought saturation was the ultimate goal. It hit me different because I just took a 6 week job in Louisiana that has me away from my wife for a month at a time, and I realized I'm already making the same trade he did, just for less pay. Has anyone else walked away from a big offshore gig after hearing a veteran talk about the toll it took on their family? How do you balance the money against the time away?

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linda_clark•25d ago

That dive supervisor who swore by zip ties was right about my gauge cluster

Back in February I was working a pier inspection job in Port Canaveral and my console kept rattling loose on every dive. My supervisor, an old guy named Ray who has been in the water since the 80s, told me to just zip tie the whole thing to my harness instead of using the plastic clips. I thought he was being lazy and I kept fighting with the clips for two days, losing time between dives. Finally on the third morning the clips snapped completely and I had to rig it his way with three heavy duty zip ties from the toolbox. That setup held for the rest of the 14 day job, even in some rough surge near the pilings. I still use clips on my backup gear but the main console gets zip ties now, no question. Anyone else have a stubborn old timer give them advice that made zero sense until it saved your dive?

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bettymurphy•26d ago

TIL the hard way about dry suit zipper lube caking up in cold water

Last month in the Puget Sound I watched a guy's zipper seize mid-descent because he was using regular silicone spray instead of the right wax, and our whole crew burned 45 minutes getting him back on the boat, so has anyone else found a brand that actually holds up below 50 degrees?

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sethanderson•27d ago

Air hose got me in the face at 40 feet, changed my whole pre-dive checklist

Was doing hull cleaning in Norfolk last Tuesday when a worn O-ring blew on my second stage, I panicked, went up too fast, and sat in the chamber for 4 hours, anyone else had a near miss that made them redo their gear checks from scratch?

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andrew_kelly•1mo ago

Wasted $250 on a cheap Kirby Mask, went back to my old one

My dive computer crapped out on a salvage job in Tacoma last spring. Screen went black at 90 feet. Had to abort the whole operation, cost me two days of pay plus the $180 repair. The old heads warned me about the cheap batteries in those units. Should've listened. Now I keep a spare in my dry bag, even if it's heavy. What do you guys run for a backup that won't break the bank?

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the_anna•1mo ago

My drysuit valve was backwards for 2 whole seasons

Been diving out of Port Angeles for years and never thought to double check my exhaust valve setup. Last month my dive buddy pointed out I was fighting the current just to vent air, and it hit me that I had the intake and exhaust hoses swapped the entire time. Checked my training notes from 2021 and sure enough, the diagram showed it the other way. Now I spend way less time finning and more time actually working on the hull calc. How many of you run into gear setups you just assume are right until someone calls it out?

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