School project--golf ball diving

Hi, Julia . . .

First, I recommend no one post their email in this open forum, as netbots will harvest it for spam.

I find your inquiring interesting, as a lot of scammers come in here posting jobs for golf ball divers. I'm not sure why that job is attractive.

You do not need any education to dive for golf balls. You do need to be a certified scuba diver, so you would have to take the training, and buy the equipment.

I understand that the courses will pay the diver for the balls, or they will just pay a lump sum. Some divers go to several courses in the area to clean up their ponds. This is a part-time job.


This is a good thread. http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/basic-scuba-discussions/35597-golf-ball-diving.html

You should at very minimum be a certified diver. Specialty dive training such as search and recovery might be helpful as well. Equipment would be mask, fins, regulator, BC, weights, tank. Wetsuit would be wise as you likely spend a lot of time in the water hunting golf balls.

Practical requirement would be permission from the golf course. You wouldn't want to be hassled for tresspassing even if the course is a public course. Many golf courses already have arrangements for divers to collect golf balls. Also would be wise not to dive where alligators are nearby.

good luck.

Another issue is the accumulation of nasty chemicals and biological nightmares in many golf course ponds. Be VERY careful if you embark on this path.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Since golf ball diving is more of a sideline thing or even a hobby for divers, perhaps a better topic for a sports job in diving would be a scuba instructor?

Jax:

Hi, Julia . . .

First, I recommend no one post their email in this open forum, as netbots will harvest it for spam.

I find your inquiring interesting, as a lot of scammers come in here posting jobs for golf ball divers. I'm not sure why that job is attractive.

You do not need any education to dive for golf balls. You do need to be a certified scuba diver, so you would have to take the training, and buy the equipment.

I understand that the courses will pay the diver for the balls, or they will just pay a lump sum. Some divers go to several courses in the area to clean up their ponds. This is a part-time job.


This is a good thread. http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/basic-scuba-discussions/35597-golf-ball-diving.html

Click to expand...

Why in the world would you say golf ball diving is a part time job? It is no more part-time than any other job.

Much of the diving is in zero vis and the balls are located by touch, getting scuba certified does little to prepare a diver for this type of work.

Thanks for the response!! What about the pay? What's the average year salary that golf courses will pay?

And fun fact--if anyone has dived for golf balls...what's the most interesting thing that you have experienced during your dive?

Here's a link, 8 cents a ball, 15,000 ball minimum


Diver Inquiries / Jobs | Golf Ball Diving

Juliabonnette:

Thanks for the response!! What about the pay? What's the average year salary that golf courses will pay?

And fun fact--if anyone has dived for golf balls...what's the most interesting thing that you have experienced during your dive?

Click to expand...

For the professional golf ball diver, as opposed to the hobbiest, the golf courses don't pay, a recycling firm purchases the balls. The course is paid for the balls recovered from the course, sometimes a percentage of what is found, sometimes cash per ball.

The eight cents a ball to a diver is pretty common unless you happen to own a recovery company and do a huge volume. Then you might squeak out a dime after paying the course. I pay divers seven cents a ball and then pay them a bonus if they get enough to ship on their own.

I recover over half a million balls a year, so I don't consider it a hobby for me. But it is a demanding job and few can handle it full time.

I work in Minnesota, Wisconsin and the Dakotas in the summer and have been all across the south in the winters - from CA to FL. Currently I am in Florida diving with alligators. I've been nipped by one once, but my worst attacks have been from crabs and snapping turtles, and once a forecaddy in Atlanta chased a bunch of copperheads into the pond with me.

The alligator was probably the most interesting thing and is a long story of me being stupid. Maybe I'll tell it later.

There are a LOT of misconceptions about ball diving. It's not a scam, but some of the get-rich-quick come-ons make it seem like one.

It is NOT necessary to be SCUBA certified to recover golf balls. It can be done with a Brownie third lung since most of the ponds are less than 20 feet deep. Many are barely deep enough to get a tank underwater. It can also be done with what we call "rollers", a device that drags the balls out of the ponds by tractor or golf cart. If someone is going to dive, though, I STRONGLY suggest dive rescue training, advanced open water, and quite a few logged dives. I dove for years and got training and experience as a rescue/recovery diver for law enforcement before I started diving for balls.

There was a diver in Florida that died last month when his regulator became tangled and he drowned, so there is that hazard.

I'll look this thread over and respond to any other questions in a later post.

Oh, BTW, ESPN did a story on golf ball diving recently. Also, there was a special on Animal Planet called "Human Prey" about a guy that got mauled by a 'gator in Tampa a few years ago.