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Update: Stop treating tender descents like an ego contest, a 52 year old diver in Port Arthur showed me why
I watched a guy on our dock last month brag about free climbing down a 60 foot leg in under a minute, then spend 3 days on the bench with a reverse block while the rest of us finished the job. Here is what people keep getting wrong: a slow descent is not a delay tactic or a sign you are scared, it is how you keep your ears and sinuses working so you can actually make the rest of the rotation. I ran a 14 minute descent on a 90 foot job in Sabine Pass two weeks ago and my tender gave me a hard time, but I was the only one who did all 6 days without a single squeeze. That older diver told me he has not had a bad ear in 9 years, and he spends almost as much time going down as he does on the bottom. If a diver is racing the clock on the way down just to look tough, who is really paying for that shortcut when the shift schedule blows up? For the guys running chambers or tending, how do you handle a partner who treats a fast drop like a badge?
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rowan_anderson18d ago
I used to shrug off the slow-descent guys as just being extra careful, until a 41 year old tender in Morgan City walked me through how those squeeze hits stack up over a hitch. Now I'd rather lose 10 minutes on the way down than lose 3 days to a reverse block.
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