Heard a guy talking about a 200 foot dive on air at a rest stop in Pensacola

I was grabbing coffee near the truck stop on I-10 and this older diver was telling his buddy about a salvage job he did in Mobile Bay back in 07. He said they were working a wreck at 200 feet on regular air, no trimix, and he came up with a nasty case of the bends that laid him up for a week. Made me think twice about pushing my own limits on deep air dives, especially with the new gear out there. Anyone else ever hear stories like that from the old-timers?

2 comments

2 Comments

parker54320d ago

Bet those old school guys taught their kids the same bad habits.

walker.alex20d ago

The part about him coming up with a bad case of the bends for a week really hits home. I knew a guy back in the early 2000s who swore by deep air for lobstering off the coast of Jupiter, Florida. He'd hit 180 feet on a single AL80, no deco gas, just a safety stop. After a few seasons, his shoulders and knees would ache so bad after a dive he couldn't sleep. He never went to the chamber, just joked it was "the price of being a cowboy." That story about Mobile Bay makes me wonder how many of those old-school divers just quietly damaged themselves for life without realizing it until years later.