Hot take: I thought surface supplied air was a scam for shallow harbor work until I tried it

Willow Torres · 2026-10-03T07:00:05.207428+00:00

For years I ran scuba on every shallow job in the harbor, mostly 20 to 30 feet, because I figured a full surface setup was for deep stuff and overkill for me. Last month a guy I work with out of Newport convinced me to try his setup on a 3 day pier inspection job. I was skeptical about dragging all that hose around, but the first day I got 4 hours of bottom time without swapping tanks once. No more humping a second 80 down the ladder, no more watching my gauge like a hawk, and the comms meant the tender could just tell me where to check next. My back felt way better at the end of the day too. Anyone else made the switch for shallow work, or am I late to this party?

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Hot take: I thought surface supplied air was a scam for shallow harbor work until I tried it | Commercial Divers - The Community Guide