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The dive supervisor who told me I was too old for this work
I was 42 and working a bridge job in Portland, Oregon back in 2017. This supervisor, must have been about 28, pulls me aside after my first dive and says I should think about a desk job because guys my age get hurt more. I asked him how many dives he had logged. He said around 400. I told him I had over 3,000 and had been doing this since he was in middle school. He didn't say much after that. I get that safety matters, but experience counts for something too. Anyone else have a younger supervisor pull something like that?
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kellyy954mo ago
Nah I'm gonna play devil's advocate here and say the supervisor had a point even if he was a kid about it. 42 is past prime for commercial diving, the statistics back that up. Your 3000 dives are great but the body doesn't bounce back the same way at that age. He probably saw a safety report or two about older divers getting bent or having heart issues under pressure. Plus you coming back with the log book dick measuring contest just proves you're the type who won't listen to anyone younger no matter what. Maybe he was an ass about how he said it but the core message was valid. I've seen guys in their 40s and 50s get hurt doing jobs they could handle at 25, it happens more than people admit.
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victor_carter514mo ago
Jumping in here because I think everyone is missing something huge @kellyy95. Yeah age and safety stats are real, but what about the money side? That supervisor might have been looking at the insurance costs. Older divers, especially ones with 3000 dives, have way higher premiums and a company might not wanna pay that extra for a job that a younger guy could do cheaper. Plus a 42 year old guy might ask for higher pay cause of experience, so the supervisor could have been protecting the budget, not just safety. Just saying, nobody brought that up yet and it fits the whole "ass about it" part.
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