Loading…

Had a supervisor yell at me for 'milking' my decompression stops last month | Commercial Divers - Free To Speak

-1

Had a supervisor yell at me for 'milking' my decompression stops last month

On a job off the coast of Louisiana, I was coming up from a 90 foot dive and taking my sweet time on the stops. This old school supervisor named Kirk chewed me out saying I was wasting gas and time. Said real divers hit their stops quick and get back on deck. I argued back that safety is safety. But then he showed me his way where you bleed off the gas slower on the ascent instead of hanging around. Switched it up and now I'm saving about 15 minutes per dive with the same deco schedule. Anyone else have a boss who forced you to change your routine?

3 comments

3 Comments

caseythompson4mo ago

Kirk actually showed you how to do it faster... and you didn't get bent? Man, that sounds like a recipe for a trip to the chamber if you ask me. I've seen guys try that bleed-off method on a 90 footer and end up with the bends so bad they couldn't walk right for a week. Your old school supervisor might have a trick that works for him, but I'd be real careful trusting that on a routine basis.

the_hayden4mo ago

Did that supervisor ever explain why the bleedoff works for him without landing in the chamber?

finleyl394mo ago

Did anyone ask him what depth he's actually running that thing at? Because there's a big difference between bleeding off a 40 foot dive and a 90 foot dive, and most guys don't realize the pressure change is way more violent the deeper you go. His trick might be fine for shallow stuff but it's asking for trouble on anything over 60 feet. I've seen the chamber logbook at our shop and almost every bends case has somebody saying they "always did it this way" before they got stuck. The body doesn't care what worked last week, it cares about the gas load right now.