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Old 05-07-2008, 05:55 PM   #12
FredT
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Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: MS Gulf Coast
Age: 72
Posts: 2,877
Re: 100 Ways for a Rig Diver to Die

7. Shooting a Tuna in the murk, in the ass. Makes for a very long ride home with a dislocated shoulder.
8. Entanglements! Near shore rigs are often a sea of lost mono and shrimp nets. be sure you can strip your gear to clear any, and a razor letter opener from an office supply place is good to clear mono you can't reach easily. Keep your knives SHARP as well.
9. Sharks generally stay outside the rig. Be especially aware of any INSIDE the leg pattern, as he'll have diminished and confused electromagnetic sensing capability from the currents generated by the rig's anodic protection system. They'll be especially unpredictable.
10. Gas bubbles coming from underwater BEFORE you get in are a bad sign. If a gas leak is down there it can decrease the buoyancy of the water your boat is floating in, to the point it won't.
11. If the guys on the rig suggest you don't dive that one, politely move on. Usually they are NOT just being assholes, but know of a service boat schedule or other thing happening that could be bad news for you in the water. Assholes there are out there, but few survive long in the offshore environment. Spare beer usually works to sort those out.
12. Do NOT piss off the guy on the rig welding. Welding rods are bad news after a 70' free fall, and have been known to penetrate fiberglass decks & engine cowlings, as well as divers.
13. The lower murk is an interesting place to hunt, but many rigs have mud mats that have been scoured out to provide a space under them. Stay OUT of these spaces as finding your way out when narked with near zero vis and low on air is more than a little problematic. Think cave diving without a line. There may be a worse way to die than drowning in the dark, but I don't think they let the Apache women do it any more. If taking a big fish into the mud to pack his gills with mud and get him under control do it OUTSIDE the rig footprint!

FT
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Last edited by FredT; 05-07-2008 at 09:05 PM. Reason: Typos
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