A supervisor told me to stop fighting the current after my first deep water weld

My first time welding on a pipeline in 60 feet of water off Galveston, I was using all my energy to hold position against the tide. The supervisor said I was making it harder by tensing up instead of letting my body relax with the flow. Has anyone else found that loosening your grip actually gives you better control down there?

3 comments

3 Comments

phoenix_martin406d ago

Did you read that piece in Wired about free divers and how they slow their heart rate by relaxing into the pressure? Heard something similar from a saturation diver who said fighting the current just makes you burn through your gas and wear yourself out. The old timers call it "going limp," where you let the water move you while making small corrections with your fins. Tensing up actually makes you less stable because you're fighting your own buoyancy on top of the current.

corah756d ago

I thought @phoenix_martin40 was wrong at first, but going limp really does work better.

olivia_white936d ago

Read something similar about how panic actually makes drowning more likely, @phoenix_martin40 was right.