Max Age for in water working commercial Divers?

As an old guy, 70, I get a damn extensive dive physical every year. They started doing that I think around 55, tread mill with all the little wires hooked up, paying a lot of attention to the heart. After 65, when I passed all that; I have to do the Tread mill again, only this time they shoot me up, with radition and take pictures from a bunch of different angles of the heart. Back on the Treadmill and then another set of pictures.

There are reasons that an age cut of won't work: 1 It is against the law in most major countries. 2. There are damn few commercial divers past 50 or so. The one that are are in damn good shape and have enough experience to be better then the 20 sometnings on the job. 3 Do you seriously believe that an oil company would follow its own Rule if they needed the diver?

See: DMAC Guidance I don't believe all these fine diving doctors have published anything on too old to dive! At least I can not find it!

Though not quite as ancient (or robust!) as JC, at 60 I've lost a step over time and I'm pretty sure that I couldn't spend 12 hours out of the bell anymore, either.

That said, I think it's really up to the individual diver. I understand the possible 'company' queston as relates to diver safety and performance, but at the end of the day "You're only as good as your last dive". It only takes a couple near misses to either convince a guy that's past his prime that it might be time to hang it up or retire him for good.

Divers know when they're operating outside their capabilities, and most will decide to find a new line of work before they unexpectedly make their last dive. And unless times have really changed, guys that can't get the job done don't get called out. So either way, I don't see the value of an age restriction on divers. The nature of the business tends to weed out the guys that shouldn't be there, and if you happen to be lucky enough to have an old fart that can still get it done, why on earth would you want to intentionally sideline all that expertise and leadership?? My two cents.

Juan in Argentina dive maximum age is 52 to 55 years old, it seems logical that after working so hard, you deserve a break and a couple difrutar

Did some research on the ages of divers back in 2002 when I was seriously injured at work and thought I would have to make a claim. I made a full recovery thank god.

The oldest sat diver then working was 68 who worked in the Far East and still fit as a fiddle.

The oldest air diver in the EC was 77 and verified as I called him to check.

I was informed of a diver in the USA who worked inshore who was still going at 88, but I did not verify it although it came from a reliable source.

The more important question you might ask the oil companies to weigh in on: Why don’t they insist on all divers having been checked for.PFO? I know of several young divers that had paid thousands of dollars/pounds to go through dive school and then where found to have a PFO, and could no longer dive.. All were only checked for PFO after becoming Bent. From what I understand PFO are not uncommon

"Age Limit" is a bureaucratic attempt to manage us by pigeon holing or stereotyping. Some insurance weenie has some statistical data that says that at a specific point (age) we suddenly become used up.Young Divers should be as concerned about this kind of thinking as us "more experienced" guys. Soon they will be saying that ... according to some statistical data .. after "x" number of career dives you chances of getting hurt or killed increase exponentially and therefore you must retire.

Yeah .. It's all crap. You know when it't time to look for that beach job. It happens to all of us. As physically demanding and as performance oriented as diving is, we don't need a specific birthday, or a doctor, or definitely not some "insurance weenie" to tells when to quit. Our own bodies and our fellow divers let us know long before anything else does.

The more important question you might ask the oil companies to weigh in on: Why don’t they insist on all divers having been checked for.PFO? I know of several young divers that had paid thousands of dollars/pounds to go through dive school and then where found to have a PFO, and could no longer dive.. All were only checked for PFO after becoming Bent. From what I understand PFO are not uncommon

Absolutely agree with that.

One of the most important reason for establishing that commercial divers can go on working until well into their fifties is that compensation is based on loss of earnings for the next ten ?? years in the UK > Longer I believe in America.

Michael Cocks

We sometimes loose perspective of what fitness really means. It is not age, it is how you take care of yourself. Not to blow smoke, but I was seriously impressed by the energy and fitness of JC.

A touchy point for so many, but weight is more of an issue, I believe.

Age to me is irrelevant. Physical fitness and current health conditions are key. But our profession is so random under normal conditions that a baseline age would be impossible to assess. What we should ask is competency. Is the diver still competent or for that matter, has he/she ever been competent? Those questions should get the answer as to whether or not the person is responsible enough for acknowledging their own limitations....someone who recognizes "back in the day" is long gone. That being said he/she shouldn't be standby as well.

So, if you are "old", fit and competent blow some bubbles!