International Marine Contractors Association

Australian Diver Accredidation Scheme

Commercial diver training PDC tasks Flanges

Commercial Diver Training School

Inland Diving and Surface Decompression

Wet Bell Deepworx

Diving Training Off DSV Deepworx

Deepworx Training Vessel

Sea Safety

Wreck Survey

Diving as a Commercial Diver

The biggest asset you can give to any dive company is have more than the minimum training for many reasons including safety and to be a practical person with your hands which are used more than your brain and be a hard worker and safe as well as an efficient diver in the water.

Over the years I have trained a fairly large number of divers who are still employed as divers and supervisors. They are financially stable with families who accept they will be away from home for 60-90 days at a time. They are all hard workers and almost all are happy to be with their children and wife between work. All divers can dive or they would not have a commercial dive qualification, it's the teamwork attitude and a person who is willing to do more than his share of work that succeeds. Knowing the procedures that need to be followed and fitting in with a positive attitude are all part of the requirements, needed to succeed.

Some divers spend half their wages on drink etc. before they fly home after a job then moan about their wives, divorces and companies actions and no future work. You can not blame diving for your own actions.

If you were a company director or supervisor what would you want in a diver? Someone who arrives on time, sober, ready to work, without hang-ups about his life, etc and who is hard working, safe and efficient in the water, a diver who produces and is willing to go the extra mile when needed. Cowboy actions cost companies money when accidents happen and are generally not accepted or wanted on site.

The best info I have found at present is what Mark Longstreath has on his web site about starting a career as a professional diver. Below is a small extract from Mark Longstreath - www.longstreath.com

• Firstly you need to ask yourself a few questions:
• What background do you have that may be useful in diving?
• Have you any previous diving experience?
• Do you want to spend long periods away from home?
• Do you mind living in confined spaces with a small group of people?
• Do you mind being broke one day and 'rich' the next?

Some backgrounds that may be useful in the industry are:
Rigging, Welding, Electronics, Pipe Fitting, Engineering, Inspection. These are just a few of the sort of backgrounds that might help you get work, especially if you are just starting out. If you don't have a background in any of these fields, don't worry, you can still get work.

Have you got any previous diving experience? Have you ever been Scuba diving in adverse conditions? A lot of commercial work is carried out in cold, shitty black water with very little, if any, visibility. If you spend a lot of money on a diving course, you really want to be prepared for the sort of work you might be asked to do. So find out if you are suited to it first.

You will spend a lot of time away from home, so if you have a wife and kids they will suffer. There are a LOT of divorces in the diving business, so think carefully about the effect it will have on your home life and if your family can handle this.

Do you mind living in confined spaces with a small group of people? Almost all offshore work is carried out by small crews on small vessels. If you can't get on with all different sorts of people, you might find life difficult. Divers are pretty close knit when working, you have to depend on other people with your life, as they have to rely on you, so if you don't get along, it becomes difficult.

Diving is a very fickle business, it has its ups and downs. Sometimes there is so much work around that you will be spoilt for choice about where to go. Other times you will be hurting for work, phoning companies and just hearing that they don't have anything at the moment. I personally, have had periods where I've been out of work for up to eight months at a time. It can be hard sometimes.

If, after all that negativeness you are still sure you want to go for it, you need to get trained to a recognized standard. Choosing the right school is important, you must check to see what type of certificate you will be issued after completing the course. If you want to work in any country in the world you need to get an HSE, IMCA or equivalent certificate. These include the Canadian, Australian and South African certificates as well as some others.

If you don't really want to try for work outside your own country, then the local standard is probably enough, though again check into it first, by asking a few local diving companies what standard they require. Do not go to the nearest school if it doesn't give you the certificate you want.

Once you get to school you will learn the physics and physiology of diving, it might be an idea to get hold of a diving manual and study up on these first so as to give yourself a head start before going to school. Pay attention to the different physics laws and the formulas.

Together with this you will learn about different types of diving equipment, decompression chambers, and some of the tools you will use once you start working. No school can teach you every aspect of the trade, so once you have finished school your training really begins.

Once you have finished school, you need to get work. This can be the hardest bit, a lot of companies want only experienced divers, but how do you get experience if you can't get a job. It's the old catch 22 situation. The only way to get a job is to keep trying each company that you want to work for. Don't get despondent when you get a brush off, bug the shit out of the companies until they get fed up of hearing from you and decide to give you a job just to keep you quiet!!

When you get your first job, LISTEN to what you are told by the supervisors and other divers. Most divers will be happy to tell you what is the best method to do a job if asked, DO NOT be afraid to ask about something you don't know about, you will only look stupid if you go in the water to do a job and once you get there you screw up. So if you are not sure about anything ASK.

I have been diving for over twenty years and I still have to ask about some things!

So lets assume that you've done the training and your first job, and that the company is happy to employ you again. What can you expect out of a career in diving.

Well it impresses the women, until they find out that you are away working most of the time!! But besides that, the pay is not nearly as good as it used to be twenty years ago, the saving grace is that whilst you are working you are generally not spending, especially if you are offshore where drinking is forbidden. If you are working on land, in civils jobs you can end up spending everything you earn.

I can't say what the likely earnings will be as they vary so much from job to job and country to country. You will be fairly comfortable IF you get regular work, but the best advice I or anyone can give is to save, and to take out a loss of earning insurance policy.

Offshore life can be pretty boring sometimes so you can end up reading a lot of books, take a correspondence course or spend your spare time daydreaming about being home. You usually have to work twelve hour shifts, seven days a week whilst offshore, though you may have a lot of stand by time. Sometimes you will be flat out for the whole job, it varies.

After you have been diving for a while you might want to get extra qualifications such as an CSWIP inspection ticket, a saturation diving certificate or an IMCA Medic Diver Course. It is all extra expense but will give you more chances of getting work.