Sometimes 1,000 feet deep in the middle of the ocean.
They work on bridges, harbors, tunnels.
They assemble offshore oil rigs.
They do lots of underwater welding.
Any deep sea construction, or repairs past a certain depth require a method of diving called saturation diving.
These men are down there in the pitch black with nothing but a head lamp.
The water whirls around them every time a who-the-hell-knows-what swims past.
The air we normally breathe is roughly 80% nitrogen, 20% oxygen.
But at those depths, under that much pressure, nitrogen dissolves into your blood.
It causes your blood to expand.
You’ll start to feel drunk.
you’re able to get decompression sickness (i.e.
the bends) on the way up to the surface.
In short, if deep sea divers don’t saturate their blood they’ll probably die.
It keeps them alive.
Sometimes returning to the surface can take over a week.
They just live underwater for extended periods of time.
They live in a tiny little Oceangate submarine looking-ass chamber (i.e.
diving bell) with multiple other divers for up to months at a time.
They’re just down there living in a tiny little box with a few other dudes.
It’s where they sleep, eat, piss, shit, everything.
The epitome of claustrophobia.
Obviously, the entire operation is dangerous as hell.
So many things are liable to go wrong.
There’s one story in particular of a saturation diver named Chris Lemons' who nearly lost his life.
Which in hindsight is probably why saturation diving came across my TikTok feed last night.
That’s as heroic as it gets.
And arguably the craziest part of the whole things… there’s footage of the entire incident.
So that’s saturation diving.
I didn’t know a thing about it until last night.
I knew jobs like this existed, but I never knew the details.
I find the occupation fascinating.
Especially the heliox part.
Kinda crazy how we were able to figure that out.
Kinda makes you wonder if there are any other situations in which we should be breathing heliox.
Or maybe provide other unique benefits.
Shoutout to the saturation divers of the world.
You do an incredible job.
I might have to start looking into more of the craziest jobs in the world.
I’m know there are plenty of others out there.
Probably other jobs I haven’t even considered.
But surely saturation diving is up there with the craziest.
