hello all, i’m a newbie as far as asking for life advice on a bike forum but i know how much you love dishing it out so here we go!

i’ve been reading a lot about commercial diving as a possible career change but i don’t have anyone i can talk to in ‘real life’ so i thought i’d ask on here. all of the training schools make it sound amazing but they’re selling the courses so i want to speak to someone a little more objective.

i’m at the point where i’m willing to invest as much effort as it takes to re-train and do something more interesting/financially rewarding and this looks like something worth pursuing, but again i’m basing this on what i’ve been reading online over the last few months. in the case of diving the investment would be mostly financial and quite substantial.

so does anyone here dive for a living?
if so, where do you do it and what do you do?

i’ve got a lot of questions but let’s wait and see if there’s actually any divers here.

thanks in advance.

This must be you in a few years – surely 😉

Oh – and welcome to stw.

Bloke from my diving club has just gone off to do commercial diving. It sounds hardcore! Diving to 45m in the north sea on a wreck dive can be pretty stressful god knows what it’s like to be a whole lot deeper and have to do a job.

Do you dive now?

Edit…welcome!

Consider the diving skill as simply a way of getting to a worksite that happens to be underwater; you’ll need other skills (welding, inspection etc) to make a real go of it. I have a small role in a University-run HSE diver training team; our graduates get their jobs primarily because they have a degree in a subject such as Marine Biology or Civil Engineering but having an HSE SCUBA ticket (together with things like HSE First Aid, boat handling, VHF/GMDSS radio and oxy admin tickets) all helps them to get themselves into a job. Then its a case of getting plenty of on-the-job experience and further dive training (HSE surface supply is needed for any inshore engineering work) and the world’s your oyster.

***blows bubbles***

i don’t have a relevant degree and no i don’t currently do any diving. i have been looking at the courses run by the Underwater Training Centre in fort william where they provide packages of different skills and qualifications. i understand that learning to dive is basically learning how to ‘commute’ to the work site so it would be essential to do as much training as i could.

the job itself looks fascinating, mentally and physically challenging etc..all those things that made it get my imagination ticking, i just don’t know much about the industry yet. where are the jobs? and what kind of job could i expect to do if i was fresh out of school with my HSE and training in construction, inspection and tools training? and would i lose out to graduates with mountains of previous experience and degrees?

I think tonyplym gave the best answer to be honest.

However if you have not dived before I would recommend (while you do research and decide if this is a path you want to take) you join a diving club. BSAC are good. I pay about 130 per year, £3 per session at the pool.

You are taught by qualified experienced diving instructors and although the training is not as quick as it would be with a more costly but quicker PADI course the benefit is that you gain much more experience.

Look for a club that has the use of a pool with a dive pit(6m ish) so you can get feel for it. Good luck!

i’ve got a taster day at the training centre in fort william this week so i’ll get a good nose around and some time in their purpose built diving tank.
i plan to ask them a lot of questions. i’m fairly certain i’ll enjoy it but it costs a hell of a lot of money and i don’t want it to feel like a gamble! if there’s a fairly good chance of a job at the end i’ll feel a lot better.

Sounds like a good approach shark…Is the training center in FW based around commercial diving?

this is they… http://www.theunderwatercentre.co.uk

they offer almost any kind of training you can think of. they also do some tailor made packages to get you tooled up with the most useful skills

i’m thinking that something like this would nicely fatten up my CV and make the job hunt easier; Premium Career Package

but they make it sound soooo easy! all exotic travel and huge pay cheques etc… i imagine the reality is quit e different but as i said i don’t know any divers.

A few years back there was a fly on the wall type documentary about a training company for North Sea divers. I seem to remember it had ad’s so possibly STV? Anybody remember that – or even have have a link for sharkattack?

I only watched a few episodes – seemed like proper hard work.

Davesport who posts in here is a North sea Diver and all round decent guy , Im fairly sure he would give you advice If he see’s this thread.

Davesport who posts in here is a North sea Diver and all round decent guy , Im fairly sure he would give you advice If he see’s this thread.

that’ the kind of thing i’m after.

anyway, cheers for the pointers so far people. i must retire as i have an early start at the job i’m trying to escape from.

Did somebody call 8)

Sharkattack, I’ve been diving for 25 years, the last 20 doing saturation in the North Sea.

If you PM me you email addy I’ll get back to you in the next few days. If you’re serious about this we can have a chat on the phone….possibly some time next week if that suits ?

D.

I’d be keen to hear too. Spotted the training centre, but damn it’s expensive! I start at college in a couple weeks, to do engineering. Main idea is for heading offshore in the oil industry.

Ok. Give me till later in the week simply-oli-y & I’ll CC you the mail I send to Sharkattack. Can to PM me your email address ? If my PM’s not working please let me know via this thread…ta.

D.

I’ve just asked Mrs Gti who has over 500 dives, mostly in Scotland, to her credit. She says you’ve got to be very tough mentally and quite detached, a bit like for the SAS or being married to you…. er, I mean me…. er, what do I mean? Blimey.

I Qualified Xmas 2010 I posted this in response to a similar q last year

I qualified about this time last year after 10 years in construction. It took me 3 months to get my first job on a fish farm west coast Scotland did four weeks then got a job for the last 2 weeks of a long moorings job in Plymouth as the regular guys went offshore. Since been on shipping and some long civils jobs all in all fairly busy once I got my first surface supply shout. I’ve done 94 working dives not earnt that much compared to my old earnings, but it’s like an apprenticeship I suppose. I still fall back on building work when I’m available but it is hard to adjust and keep up with contacts. The other divers you work with are your best contacts and with their info tend to get you work, unfortunately the fish farm guys don’t have the contacts to get surface supply work and experience wise it’s not that great. I have no other big tickets except my CSCS and confined space. My advice to anyone dead keen to get working ASAP is to live/move close to any of the big inshore civils/shipping companies then they will offer you work eventually. Always ring companies aswell as e-mailing CVs. Be an ace reliable tender, standby and tea maker and you should stay in work.

About a year later and I’m now very busy still not made it to the north sea, I’m on the windfarms saving for my inspection tickets, feel free to pm me and then give me a bell, I can give you any further advice I may have.

Diving is between distillery and divorce in the dictionary…..and for a very good reason.
I gained most of my qualifications and experiences in the military (Royal Engineers) but done a top up at fort bill for my wet bell shenanigans. From a military background I was massively let down by the way divers are trained at fort bill – slacker than a nuns chuff.

What struck me the most was that, as divers, the guys were just being taught how to get in the water and get out the water safely and nothing about what particular job they are going to be doing under water. It’s a bit like teaching a plumber to open a door to a house but not how to solder pipes, or look for a leak, or replace a washer, or….you get my drift.

Worked commercially for a couple of years after leaving the military both off shore and inshore civils and it’s not as glamorous or as exciting as it sounds….I think 30m of poo in a local sewage plant was a particular low point.

Saturation in the North Sea is where you want to be or else pay isn’t going to be all that good for the risk/time away. It’d be an adventure mind, just not a particularly good/lucrative career.

Davesport/sharkattack

Could you possibly cc me in to the email, I’m a qualified civil engineer and after cycling across Africa I have decided that this is what I want to get in to.

I would email you but neither of your emails are in your profile.

Many thanks

Ian

davesport at fastmail dot fm

wow loads of info to go through, i just got in from work. nice to see people with real life experience sharing the knowledge.

humanbean- nice to hear from someone starting out as a beginner
seanoc- nice to hear a more grounded opinion of it all. most people try to talk it up quite a lot in terms of adventure and money etc.

PM’s now sent to everyone who has asked for them

humanbean, it might sound like a really odd question but are u doing your 3.1U – 3.4U etc for offshore inspection or wot?

Im offshore all the time doing Rope access / Inspection. Just rang a bell is all. If u need any help email me bud 🙂

Cheers mac…. I’m doing my 3.1 October.ish and 3.2 in the new year may well do my rope access too if it gets me work, tho looking pretty busy currently.

The underwater inspection and rope access don’t really go together to be honest. I am usually found up derricks and off the side of rigs.

But again if you decide to go that route drop me a line. 🙂

just bringing this thread back to life to say that on wednesday i was at the underwater training centre in fort william and actually had a bit of fun.

it was nice to have the different types of diving explained by someone who knows all about it and be able to ask as many questions as i could think of. they also talked about the typical career route and where to find your starting point i.e. local diving contractors.

no panic attacks when getting into the extremely heavy and restrictive kit. even the helmet which you can hear being bolted tight around your neck.

so yeah, an interesting day looking around at loads of expensive, complicated hardware in a rugged highland environment. they didn’t give it the hard sell, it was a lot of facts and figures and they understand that some people will simply not be able to hack it so they help you work out if you can or not.

i’m about 90% sold on the idea now but i still want to speak to some of the local diving contractors to see what the job market is like. if i still feel optimistic about it in a couple of months i’ll be trying to get on the last course of this year which starts in november.

thanks for all the input so far

Years ago I looked into it seriously and had advice from one chap who had done it and one who was still doing it.

They both put me off in the end.

The reality of shite work, shite places to do that work and inconsistent work put me off. I started out with images of working in exciting places in great water – unblocking pipes in a harbour in zero vis in Feb for **** all money put me off.

If you actually enjoy the diving part just go diving as a hobby. You might like riding your bike, but working in a bike shop is not the same.

Hopefully you will prove me wrong and really enjoy it and earn money – good luck.

My neighbour and part time EX8 rider used to teach diving for a living. The vibe I get from him is that it has a life-span, or at least teaching does. He was out on GBR in ‘Oz and shagged around, met his wife and had a thoroughly good time. That part is easy – people are there to have fun, but the repetitive nature can get to you, as can the increased H&S along with the occasional pillock who tries their best to drown.
It’s similar to what I do for a living in many ways, which is hot air ballooning. Customers enjoy themselves, you see amazing things and occasionally things go slightly sideways and you revert back to your training in a split second! But I could never work in an office or do 9-5, so it suits me.
If you go into it informed you’ll have fun and take it for what it is.
Good luck!!!

Good luck sharkattack, i hope it all works out for ya.

So in the words of a man much more eloquent than myself – “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the tradewinds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover” – Mark Twain