Had a chat with an old salvage diver that made me rethink my whole gear setup

Honestly, I ran into a guy at the docks in Norfolk who's been doing salvage for 30 years. He looked at my comms setup and said, 'Kid, you're trusting a $2000 radio to a $50 battery backup. That's like building a house on sand.' He showed me his rig, which has three separate power sources for his comms and hat light. Tbh, I've always just run a single big battery and never had a total failure, but his point about redundancy really hit different. It got me thinking about all the small single points of failure we ignore. How many of you run truly redundant power down there, or is that overkill for most jobs?

3 comments

3 Comments

oliviabutler12d ago

My uncle did commercial diving for 20 years and always said overcomplicating your rig is its own risk. Adding three power sources means more connections, more points for water ingress, and more stuff to fail or get snagged. For 95% of recreational or even light commercial work, a single, well-maintained, high-quality battery is safer and simpler. That old diver's philosophy is for a very specific, high-risk salvage niche.

white.keith12d ago

Agree completely. More parts just means more ways to mess up.

logan27112d ago

Yeah, that "more ways to mess up" line is so true. It's not just about the gear failing, it's about the mental load. Every extra part is another thing to check, another thing to worry about when you're already dealing with cold and low visibility. Keeping it simple means your brain is free to handle the actual dive, not just your equipment.