Follow a Single Mom's Journey to Becoming a Commercial Diver

[DwayneJ]

Not a big fan of the "single mom" stereo type used in the heading - Lots of single parents in the work force today.

Commercial diving has got to be one of the toughest professions available - Underwater Survey/Construction/Demolition/Maintenance and its certainly not a 9-5 job. Interesting career choice for a single parent unless there is great extended family support.

I read the story and with all the talk of love of the ocean, I think the better career choice would have been Marine Biologist or related field.

 

[cameron]

I work in the offshore diving field and I get to see my kids a whole whopping 4 months a year.

I'll say that this job is impossible with kids unless you have someone at home who takes the resposibility for raising the children. YOU CAN NOT DO THIS JOB AS A SINGLE PARENT

If she does have some support then;

I guess she could get an inshore job. Diving in zero vis 4C water for 8 hours a day gets a little tiresome. The magic of the underwater world really wears off when you are pulling bloated dead dogs off a bar screen and they tear apart in your hand.

If she makes out to the offshore world then she'll can look forward to back to back 12 hour bellruns for 30 days straight...minimum. Add to that the stress of instaling a 24 inch 28 tonne spool with your eyes closed and you will shortly find out that commercial diving doesn't have one god damn thing to do with diving.

You have to be a special kind of retard to love this work.

The marketers at the schools should be shot. They really pull the wool over alot of peoples eyes and make them believe this is a job anyone can do. They invest so much time and money and then find out its nothing like what they thought.

Cam

 

[Kevrumbo]

We were looking for scuba related stories recently that hopefully would help explain why Scuba Diving can be a passion for many. I know that my story was similiar when I became a Scuba Diver and then onto Instructor, but we decided to add other people's interesting stories of how scuba diving has affected them.

Case in point, Rosie, who has a story that I think everyone should hear. She is a single Mom who is going to become a commercial diver, but she has to get certified first. She has just started the PADI Open Water Course and will go into commercial diving this year. Talk about ambition!! What a great story.

Rosie could use some encouragement and I know that ScubaBoard members are the best when it comes to that. Please take a look at her story on our Blog and leave a comment or two. She is totally stoked about scuba diving and it is refreshing to read her postings. Online Scuba Blog: Scuba Gear & Dive Equipment Info

Thanks for reading this posting!!.

If she's genuinely interested in diving, IMHO she would have a less rigorous and more fun occupation like this one:

Hyperbaric Technologist.
Hyperbaric Chamber Technician job in Zephyrhills, FL - Florida Hospital Zephyrhills | SimplyHired

 

[james croft]

She is going to have a tough row to hoe. I know a single mom who has a Master degree in marine biology and was a working diver with NOAAA. After having a kid she is now working in an office 9-5 and still has to leave unexpectedly to get the kid at school when the school nurse calls or has to stay home on snow days when schools are closed, etc. This girl lives for diving but cannot do it now due to being solely responsible for a child. Two kids will be much harder. Good luck to her.

 

[divegoddess41]

ok i know im a female commercial diver and its hard enough for me and im not married and i have no kids . the time and energy spent on getting this cert and then breaking into the field will be very hard for her and her child. i work 24/7 10 to 12 hr days. and she will be looked over for jobs and they will hire the male diver over her. a single mom will have a very hard time and it would not be realistic in thinking she can do this and take care of her child. im sorry i know all of this is negative but i would rather you know of this now before so much time and money is spent to find out it wouldn't work out. please think about this before venturing out . ive been there i know it took a lot of know how and the right people to get the job im in now! you can pm me if you want to ask more questions i wish you would because there are things i would like to discuss with you but i cant put them up on here . they are very important topics . BYE AND GOOD LUCK DIVEGODDESS

 

[marinediva]

Rosie,
If you are reading this, go for it.......There are plenty of people who have done things against all odds. Once back in 1976 I was told I could not be a chef for all the reasons, male oriented profession, etc etc, I did fight it and I achieved my dream.

Fifteen years ago I decided I wanted to travel and cook.......told it was hard because of this and that reason, well I did and I am still travelling and working and earning a great living.

My only regret in life is that I did not follow my first choice of profession. To be a professional diver. I honoured my parents who were against the idea. Then when I was an adult and had moved away from home I followed my partner who could not dive for medical reasons, it was nearly 30 years later I finally did WHAT I WANTED......and yes there is prejudice, and yes it is hard because of age now but I now I have the experience and financial backing to make my own school if I wish. DOn't give up on your dream, focus on it and block out the no way's.

So what if you have a child, children grow up and you are young, and I hope you can get a good support system.

Sometimes in a life, there are things that come along and never leave, this may be one of them,
sometimes the person has no idea why they are attracted to it. They just are. So what if she starts the course and realises she doesnt like it.........at least she gave it a go.

The world is changing very fast. The percentage of Female to Male chefs in Aust when I started was 1/40. Now it is 1/2. When I was in the Air Force a woman could not serve in a front line role, now they can.

Things change........People change. Who's to say she does not come across a company who can see the value of a female commercial diver. I am sure there are lots of benefits somewhere.

As a chef I am extremely good at small work because of the size of my hands, and I can certainly keep up with the physical side of things the same as most average males. I can excede the bigger overweight ones because I am a lot fitter, and deal with stress so much better.

Having a child make her more responsible and care more. Who knows. Just don't let others tell you what to do, make your own wave, and ride it with pride. Others will always cut in on it thats life. I would rather die having tried then live wondering what it.

 

[marinediva]

Something else,
how many times you do pick a new best seller of a biography of someone who has overcome the odds. A man I recently worked for has cancer and had it removed twice now,
he is in his mid sixties and he recently flew a helicoper over 5000km on a journey taking three days from Northern PNG to SYdney. Two months later he flew it back.

Is he crazy probably, or the aussie guy who climbed mT Everest with one leg.
Or a woman who is about to leave Aust and row.....ROW....to South Africa.

These are extrordinary people, who have extraordinary committment.
Get with the program all yee who wish to hold this woman back........the what if's of the world are still back popping on the nike for the big race, wondering what if. The other just did it.
Dream it, believe it, and it will.

 

[vladimir]

I am all for equality between the sexes, to the extent possible. Certainly, most evolved people can agree on equal opportunity and equal pay for equal work. There may be a couple of atavists in this thread, but I think the general concern is, "who's going to raise the kids?" And that is a concern that transcends sex. We would have the same concern for a single dad. Marinediva, your pep talk may be inspirational, but it's not that relevant. Nobody is trying to hold Rosie back, we just want her to take care of her kids. That is a parent's first responsibility. As for chasing dreams and seeking personal fulfillment, those decisions have been, for the most part, made already, and Rosie was in on the decisions.

 

[marinediva]

Vladimir I respect your opinion and can understand your concern but as a child of a woman who raised myself and two other siblings more or less single handed I still believe it is possible and can be done with no ill effect on the children. My father was in the army and then worked for a Government agency and spent a lot of time (six months at a time) away, sometimes just home for a just one week. When we did get to see him I can only remember profound quality time and those moments have impacted greatly on my life.

I do understand the principal of a parents first responsibility is their children, although (and god forgive me for saying this) I also feel they also have a responsibility to themselves. If a parent is not happy, truly happy, what kind of parent do they end up? What example do they really set?
Someone who just accepts their lot in life and leave it at that. I hope not. Fact is she is being mother and father at the moment, and that is not an easy position to maintain or accomplish.
Lets face it some children grow up in a worst position because their parents are around ie abuse, apathy.

My point is within the dream, within the goal, the children are part of it. I could think of no better role model for a child than to watch and participate in, a mother accomplish her goals.
In saying that, if that goal was coming from the wrong place, if it did/was causing issues for the children and those issues were not being addressed then I feel it would be selfish. There has to be a balance.

Right now she is a single parent, that may very well change, like I said the world is changing and it is no longer just taken for granted that women will stay home to take care of the kids. Building networks and a close family support system can also assist in a parenting role. Males are willing to loose the sterotypical role of bread winner and assume the role of home maker, who's to say Rosie will not meet a partner who is so enlightened that way.

My "pep talk" was directed at all the posts using the gender card as an argument on why she should not take up such a role. I feel it is very relevant, I would not have written it if I didn't. They are real problems and obstacles to what she has chosen. The point being they can be overcome. They are NOT insurmountable and in most countries today there are laws to protect people from bullying, sexism and bigotry.

There are other posts here that reveal males who are genuinely evolved in their opinions of gender politics. Activists, well from reading some of the posts seems females have a long way to go in some minds. Myself I am a humanist and respect and support anyone who is willing to challenge one of the last bastions of male gender occupations.

 

[DaleC]

Marinediva,

I think you are taking your experiences and transferring them into a situation that is not the same. As Vlad said, no one is trying to hold her back, as such, but some of us are concerned that she is not being realistic about what she, and the schools, are doing.

1. Unlike your example of a present single mom raising kids she will be a single mom, raising kids who is absent for long periods, in effect a non mom. What did her kids do to deserve to be abandoned by both parents? How can her kids be "involved in" the dream of commercial diving? They will just be absent, excluded, abandonned. That is the reality of that kind of work. Kids cannot come along and sit in the chamber with mommy on her coffee breaks, they don't have day care on the rigs and you can't play ball on a rolling shipdeck.

2. She is "chasing" a dream she doesn't even understand. If you read her blog entries you will see her expectations of commercial diving and the realities are two different things. If she is to be encouraged at least it should be to face the facts about commercial diving.

3. The problem with her, trying it and if she doesn't like at least she tried, is that now she will be a single mother with two small kids and a big debt from commercial diving school.

It's easy to be all "nicey nice" and cheer her on but I wonder who will be there to pick up the pieces for her and her kids after the parties over? Who will help her pay those debts?