Commercial Diver ?

[Jeff=Dive]

Are you or have you ever been a Commercial Diver ?

I'd like to hear from you. I am very serously considering attending DIT in Seattle. Convinent since I live here, plus their program surpasses all others I've looked into, including job placement prior to graduation.

:06:

I've heard good and bad things alike, but would like more input about the feild of work, benifits, company vesting, "accidents... incidents... near misses"... I would prefer to hear from those who've "been there, done that" althought anything anyone's got would be greatly appreciated.

Jp

 

[drivsea]

Are you or have you ever been a Commercial Diver ?

I'd like to hear from you. I am very serously considering attending DIT in Seattle. Convinent since I live here, plus their program surpasses all others I've looked into, including job placement prior to graduation.

:06:

I've heard good and bad things alike, but would like more input about the feild of work, benifits, company vesting, "accidents... incidents... near misses"... I would prefer to hear from those who've "been there, done that" althought anything anyone's got would be greatly appreciated.

Jp

Jeff - at 29 in a dead end job with 18 scubadives mostly in the northeast Atlantic, decided on a life change involving that school in Seattle. Had a good time there, living in Ballard, some great faculty there who can teach you as much as you are willing to learn. They teach scuba for a few weeks for naui aow, (love northwest diving) but the course is focused on surface supplied and surface decompression diving. There is the flavor of US navy dive training which is more disciplined than some of the gulf diving based schools and some cool perks like a week of Mark V brass hat diving however it is expensive like most of the com. dive schools. Upon graduating, job placement seems to mean either working out of a van for two months at a time vacuuming the inside of potable water tanks and towers, or the other route which I did and probably most of the graduates who are still serious about the career choice following graduation (about 25% aren't and probably never dive again, no one knows why). That route is of course moving to Louisiana and hiring on as pond scum for one of the companies servicing the offshore oil industry. Now for some this is rewarding (being sopping wet for 18 hours holding a hose while the company man swears at you over a loudspeaker and you're trying hard not to hurl that rotten etouffee slop on a rolling converted rowboat and after two months of having no contact w. anybody except your workmates you've been plotting to murder you end up on the beach waiting 2 hours for the drunken van driver to pick you up, and 15 minutes from home the van turns around to put you on a different boat "just for a few days..." and the whole time you're just grateful that work is steady for now...) Forget trying to have a relationship (unless you married a one of a kind like I did) or trying to plan anything. It gets better after you put in a couple years though, if your idea of a good dive is some jerk yelling at you through the feedback in your dive hat while you gritblast every living thing off the weldseams of a rig... or even better handjet your way through the mud and thousands of dead fish after a platform is dynamited. If you still like diving for fun after a few years you will be one of the few. I m still new so I still do... but everytime I think about sneaking away to go for a dive I seem to get that phone call again. Pay is ok now about 12/hr for 12 a day which works out to just under 1g a week after tax and ins. Accidents- will see the occasional missing fingers, just saw a type 2 dci but thats why we have chambers and o2. This is a very different kind of diving (putting a bucket of air on your head and stomping around the bottom in rubber boots-) than recreational diving and if your end goal is in scuba this is probably not the best route. good luck (pray on this one).

 

[Wildcard]

Yes, but are there any down sides to it?.....LOL......Glad you set the kid straight.

 

[DeepSeaDan]

Are you or have you ever been a Commercial Diver ?

I'd like to hear from you. I am very serously considering attending DIT in Seattle. Convinent since I live here, plus their program surpasses all others I've looked into, including job placement prior to graduation.

:06:

I've heard good and bad things alike, but would like more input about the feild of work, benifits, company vesting, "accidents... incidents... near misses"... I would prefer to hear from those who've "been there, done that" althought anything anyone's got would be greatly appreciated.

Jp

...you leap, my young diver friend!

I've written numerous times on this board on the subject of careers in the deepsea commercial diver field - do a search on my posts with respect to commercial diving.

Also, visit www.offshorediver.com and www.longstreath.com for some good information & a peek into the minds of those working in the field.

If you have any specific questions, feel free to p.m. me & I'll answer them as best I can.

Regards,
D.S.D.

 

[Jeff=Dive]

Thanx everyone for the input. I appreciate it. I'll check out the links as well. No one has ever tried to hide the fact that it's a lot of work, not even DIT. Fine with me, I'm not timid about hard work. I just want it to pay off after a few years down the road, and I know it will. Dead end job is right on the nose with my current employer, and theres hardly any diversity of work to be had.

Praying... Looking... Praying... Waiting... Praying...

Prov 15:16

 

[boomx5]

Hi Jeff,

Do your homework on this one. One of my best friends and dive buddies is a commercial diver and boy has he got a few stories. Personally, I love to dive, but after talking to him, I'd never be a commercial diver...that's for sure.

 

[seavonj]

Jeff - at 29 in a dead end job with 18 scubadives mostly in the northeast Atlantic, decided on a life change involving that school in Seattle. Had a good time there, living in Ballard, some great faculty there who can teach you as much as you are willing to learn. They teach scuba for a few weeks for naui aow, (love northwest diving) but the course is focused on surface supplied and surface decompression diving. There is the flavor of US navy dive training which is more disciplined than some of the gulf diving based schools and some cool perks like a week of Mark V brass hat diving however it is expensive like most of the com. dive schools. Upon graduating, job placement seems to mean either working out of a van for two months at a time vacuuming the inside of potable water tanks and towers, or the other route which I did and probably most of the graduates who are still serious about the career choice following graduation (about 25% aren't and probably never dive again, no one knows why). That route is of course moving to Louisiana and hiring on as pond scum for one of the companies servicing the offshore oil industry. Now for some this is rewarding (being sopping wet for 18 hours holding a hose while the company man swears at you over a loudspeaker and you're trying hard not to hurl that rotten etouffee slop on a rolling converted rowboat and after two months of having no contact w. anybody except your workmates you've been plotting to murder you end up on the beach waiting 2 hours for the drunken van driver to pick you up, and 15 minutes from home the van turns around to put you on a different boat "just for a few days..." and the whole time you're just grateful that work is steady for now...) Forget trying to have a relationship (unless you married a one of a kind like I did) or trying to plan anything. It gets better after you put in a couple years though, if your idea of a good dive is some jerk yelling at you through the feedback in your dive hat while you gritblast every living thing off the weldseams of a rig... or even better handjet your way through the mud and thousands of dead fish after a platform is dynamited. If you still like diving for fun after a few years you will be one of the few. I m still new so I still do... but everytime I think about sneaking away to go for a dive I seem to get that phone call again. Pay is ok now about 12/hr for 12 a day which works out to just under 1g a week after tax and ins. Accidents- will see the occasional missing fingers, just saw a type 2 dci but thats why we have chambers and o2. This is a very different kind of diving (putting a bucket of air on your head and stomping around the bottom in rubber boots-) than recreational diving and if your end goal is in scuba this is probably not the best route. good luck (pray on this one).

Go to college and become someone, if you really want to be a commercial diver attend young memorial in Louisiana, it's cheap and it won't financially strap you once you are out of school.
If I had knew what I know now I would have become a carpenter instead.

 

[rmediver2002]

Are you or have you ever been a Commercial Diver ?

I'd like to hear from you. I am very serously considering attending DIT in Seattle. Convinent since I live here, plus their program surpasses all others I've looked into, including job placement prior to graduation.

:06:

I've heard good and bad things alike, but would like more input about the feild of work, benifits, company vesting, "accidents... incidents... near misses"... I would prefer to hear from those who've "been there, done that" althought anything anyone's got would be greatly appreciated.

Jp

First off, I love this job and there is nothing I would rather be doing, I do not think that is the predominant attitude in this industry though. Sometimes people stick with it for a short time or stay for other obligations.

It is hard because you have to try it for yourself to know but, at this point in my life I am very thankful to have found something I can make a living at and I enjoy.

DIT is a good school, most of the instructors are former Navy divers and that carries through to the training. You are able to get IMCA certification through DIT and if you are so inclined you will find it easier to work overseas.

In this trade many divers are always looking for the next best thing, so company loyalty is not as common as some industries. The best bet for your future (retirement, benefits) is to try to break into one of the unions. For this you will be diving the West coast or NorthEast most likely but rates are much hirer and you have a great benefit plan. (starting in Manhattan is $48.50 for diver right now)

You can get more of a mom an pop feeling with an inland company but I have seen many more unsafe inland operations.

By the time you graduate school with a little common sense you should be able to indentify an unsafe operation just looking at the system components. Don't accept any excuses and you will minimize the amount of risk your exposed to.

This trade is always going to expose you to some degree of risk, but you are the primary factor in minimizing it...

Work can be somewhat sporadic, (right now is no indicator, we will be short people for the next three years and stay busy down here) so always put money away for a dry day. Also put as much money as you can into investments (easier said than done sometimes...) for both retirement and so you never let yourself get into the position of accepting marginally safe or unsafe conditions to make enough to pay your bills...

If you try it and find this is your calling (you will not think it might be you will know) then try to find some friends who also feel that way (I would estimate 2 in 10 on average truely love the field and will stick with it in the long run) don't let the negativity of others drag you down.

Good luck!

Drop me a line if you have any questions or to let me know how everything is progressing.

P.S. looking into the state funded school (Youngs memorial and Santa Barbara) is good advice, you will spend 20 to 25 percent of what you would spend at a private school...

Jeff

 

[angryguy777]

How deep can commercial divers work? Or, how deep do they typically work?

-Zak

 

[rmediver2002]

How deep can commercial divers work? Or, how deep do they typically work?

-Zak

A french company COMEX hodls the open water record, 701 meters or almost 2250 feet.

It really depends on the type of work being supported, I average less than 30 FSW on most projects. Much of my work is in support of construction or demolition projects such a bridges and inland pipelines.

Offshore depending on the system being used (air, mixed gas, saturation)

Depths normally range from 0-200 FSW some deeper projects use saturation diving, normal operations range to about 600 feet although the capability to go deeper is there.


The reason most divers are 0-200 feet is no so much the dive system as the work available, shallower than 200 FSW pipelines must be buried (jetted in) deeper than that they are left uncovered, most damage / deterioration on offshore platforms is in the splash zone, etc.