Commercial Divers Record Dam Dive

Skin Diver’s Record Dive (Down 170 Feet)

Professional diver Neil Johnson came up through something more than 170 feet (51m) of water at the Warragamba Dam yesterday with the word that “It’s pitch black down there.”

Mr. Johnson, with a team of four professional divers, this week has been making the deepest dives ever made in Australia by experts using lightweight equipment.

The department of Labour and Industry had to give special leave to the team to work at this depth with this equipment.

In the weird underwater world that is the working day of the Figtree diver, spiralling to the bottom takes only 70 seconds, but coming up takes 38 minutes if he is to avoid the bends.

And the diver can stay no longer than 14 minutes on the bottom. Temperatures are below 50.

Mr. Johnson has made 40 odd dives since arriving at the Dam late last week on an assignment for the Water Board.