Commercial diver Tony T. wears Fire Hose Work Pants over his scuba gear

We've heard some amazing yarns from customers about how tough our Fire Hose® pants are. How they turned back the tusk of a wild boar down in Texas, or preserved a New York guy's privates when a 12-foot maple pole drove into him "down under" and knocked him off his tractor. But this one takes the cake. A guy named Tony T. wrote us from Boston, thanking us for making the Fire Hose Work Pants that he wears as a diver doing marine construction. That's right - he wears our trusty 92204's underwater!

Think about it. You're driving over a bridge, or along a causeway, or even gazing out over a beautiful marina, highball in hand. Way back when, somebody had to be down there blasting and cutting and shaping and pile driving, right? It was guys like Tony.

Tony got his start working along the Mississippi River. "If you can dive in the Mississippi, you can dive anywhere," he says. "The current is very strong, and there's not much visibility."

In 1985, he moved to Boston, where he's worked his most memorable jobs. Drilling and blasting the Ted Williams Tunnel under Boston Harbor. Repairing and splicing the power cables that run from Falmouth to Martha's Vineyard. Helping tankers off Gloucester hook up to buoys and pump their cargo of natural gas into the mainland.

"How long we stay down depends on how deep we're working," says Tony. "Our limit is 180 feet. In a typical day, I'm down for two hours in the morning, then assisting another diver in the afternoon." As soon as he comes up, he goes into a decompression chamber to complete the decompression for that depth. When he's working, Tony wears "chafing gear" over his wet suit, to protect it from rips and tears. When he lost his old chafing pants a few years ago, he was in a fix, till he discovered Fire Hose Work Pants on our web site.

"I like the heavy duty canvas of the Fire Hose pants - it's really tough," he says. "They're comfortable to move around in, and they've got all the pockets I need for my tools." (Which depending on the day's work could be anything from knives, hammers and other hand tools to an ultrathermic torch for cutting steel. The pockets also come in handy for storing the nuts, washers and bolts Tony might need.)

"A pilot whale surfaced right next to the boat, not more than a dozen yards from us… I thought, 'Who gets to see things like this?'"

Most of us could never even imagine doing Tony's job - how daunting and demanding it would be. But it has its beautiful moments too, as Tony tells us: "We were out on the Atlantic one night about midnight, getting out of our gear. A pilot whale surfaced right next to the boat, not more than a dozen yards from us, and just rolled over and looked at us. I thought, 'Who gets to see things like this?'"