Am I dillusional?

[JustAddWater]

I don't know your age or current profession, but have you considered law enforcement? Big cities and sheriff departments have dive teams. I know a few police / deputy divers who keep pretty busy in the water. One spends much time under cruise ships looking for drugs and bombs.

I don't know if being a former adult film star would be considered "bad" on a resume, but if you were saving someone's private parts, that might be deemed heroic.
=-) :boom:

 

[Don Burke]

Since I retired, I've been working pretty much where I liked working.

My latest adventure is driving a six-pack dive boat, so I'm taking the rescue diver course and will continue to divemaster. Instructor isn't in my plans, but divemaster wasn't in my plans either.

With my retirement and some part-time work during the week, I think I can make a pretty interesting life of it.

I've been wanting to write a book about the local diving, not unlike what Gary Gentile has done, although on a much smaller scale.

If I had a wife and 3.2 kids to support, I don't think I could do it.

I worked around commercial divers while I was on active duty. It isn't for me, at least not on that scale.

 

[DFC5343]

But there is a ole Navy diver saying that goes like..."The cowards never started and the weak died along the way".

 

[Karl_in_Calif]

WileEDiver once bubbled...

And how is the porn star, ah, Adult Film biz these days?

PBS did an editorial on this. Sweet Sally from the Rockies does Los Angeles, or something like that.

Hard to imagine (no pun intended) but that gets old too.

Anything in sufficient quantity, day in and day out, including but not limited to tennis, golf, scuba diving, mxxx diving, etc all becomes just more work.

 

[pipedope]

Commercial diving is not about diving.
It is about cleaning, inspecting, building, installing, dredging, pipefitting, pumping concrete, plugging pipe, unplugging pipe, fixing, fussing, and doing it all in some pretty nasty conditions.

Diving is just how you get to work.

Now, there are a number of ways to make money in diving or diving related activities. The trick is to think of something different and unique that is not overcrowded already, like instructing or running a dive shop.

 

[doole]

Don't know if you're dillusional - tell ya when I get to know ya better.

For my own part, I''ve known any number of folks who have taken a perfectly rewarding hobby and turned it into a money-losing business. I don't think I'd bother going there.

And no - the divers don't always have control over their own deco schedules. There used to be a guy who worked near me who worked on an oil rig (making GREAT money, mind you) but one day his supervisor kacked a calculation in the guy's table. The only reason he has lived to tell the story is that the gas embolism blew a large hole in the side of his neck instead of continuing on into his brain. No permanent damage - just a lot of severe pain.

Then there's the osteoperosis and the short term memory loss.

Ouch! What was I just saying?

 

[kelpmermaid]

I don't think you are delusional, but you are significantly younger than I am. If I did not know better, this would sound like a midlife crisis to me. Not that I would know anything about that at all, mind you!

 

[Karl_in_Calif]

pipedope once bubbled...
Commercial diving is not about diving.
It is about cleaning, inspecting, building, installing, dredging, pipefitting, pumping concrete, plugging pipe, unplugging pipe, fixing, fussing, and doing it all in some pretty nasty conditions.

Diving is just how you get to work.

Now, there are a number of ways to make money in diving or diving related activities. The trick is to think of something different and unique that is not overcrowded already, like instructing or running a dive shop.

Michael, if he opens his own dive shop, then he wont have time to dive anymore. It will just become all work to him.

Ever notice that the dive shop owner is too busy to go diving?

 

[DA Aquamaster]

I considered the commercial diving thing in the early 80's and in the late 70's early 80's saturation divers were paid like rock stars.

However, after checking into it I found that 1) you could plan on getting bent and 2) you could plan on a relatively short career due to a) getting bent, b) getting injured, or c) getting bone necrosis in your joints due to the prolonged exposure to high pressures and partial pressures involved. So I figured even if I made a lot of money I would not really be able to enjoy it after I retired.

I think it is safer in general today, (but then the pay is lower) and if I were 20 something, I'd give it serious consideration. Hell... I'm 38 and I still give it serious consideration. This usually occurs when I am at work looking at some incredibily stupid order, policy or directive from above trying to figure out what moron would put someone so incredibly stupid in charge of anything.

Commercial diving is especially appealing to me as I suspect (hope?) that some sort of darwinistic principle will be at work thinning the idiots from the herd before they rise to the level of being diving supervisors.

And...no you are not delusional. Delusions are when you see something that exists and then develop irrational beliefs or attibutions about it. Hallucinations on the other hand are where you see or hear things that do not in fact exist.

So....a delusion would be if you saw a dive instructor in a BMW and thought he actually owned it instead of just working a second job as a valet parking attendant to pay the rent. A hallucination would be if you saw a dive instructor in a BMW with his name on the vanity plates and a supermodel in the passenger side.

You strike me as being relatively sane (as divers go), so you're probably just having an early mid life crisis or maybe just nitrogen withdrawl.

 

[Bob3]

Hell... I'm 38 and I still give it serious consideration.

The Army Corps of Engineers retires their divers at age 38, most others at 40. You won't find anyone diving offshore that's over 40, no insurance company would cover them.
You can get away with being a little older in the inland market, but you'd need to be an established mossback.
I made it 'till 46 before I couldn't lie my way through the physicals anymore, couldn't tell which leg was getting jabbed with the pin.
The dive school salesmen will still take yer money though.