A crusty old salvage diver in Mobile told me my umbilical checks were a joke

He pulled me aside after a job and said, 'Kid, you're looking at it, not feeling it. That braid can hide a cut for months until it pops.' He made me run my whole length, inch by inch, with my gloves off. Found a tiny, sharp burr on a hose clamp I'd missed three times. Now my pre-dive check takes 15 minutes longer, but I feel every inch of line and hose with bare hands before I even suit up. Anyone else have a simple check they do now that they used to skip?

3 comments

3 Comments

emery_craig2mo ago

Damn right. Bare hands find what eyes miss.

sethmartinez2mo ago

Yeah, that "looking at it, not feeling it" line hits hard. I read a report once about a rig medic who said most gear failures he saw came from visual-only checks. His thing was always checking the inside lip of o-rings for tiny nicks with a fingernail, not just a glance.

sandragonzalez1mo ago

and that medic was totally right, because I remember reading something years ago from a guy who did inspections on scuba tanks (like the big ones for commercial diving). He said the same thing about those tank o-rings, that if you just looked at them they'd look fine, but running your thumb over them would catch these tiny little tears that'd leak like crazy under pressure. I've never been a pro at this stuff myself, but that always stuck with me, you know? it's like your hands are better at seeing things than your eyes are for some reason.