Is it really practical? I mean you're diving in water that contains toxins from fertilizer, wear and tear on equipment, health, and the expenses like, air, taxes, license fees, maintenance, accounting, etc.
To make a modest living I would imagine that one would have to gross $1000. a week. That's a lot of golf balls. Is that real? How many underwater hours do you think that represents? Is it practical on SCUBA or would a raft/hooka make more sense in achieving $1K a week?
This is an excellent bunch of questions. This is also a reasonable assumption to why there is such a high turn over.
The water contaminates is the most frequently asked question. With the course I work with, I try and acquire the MSDS sheets for the chemicals used on the courses. This is for general knowledge but also safety information. The question then becomes, does the diver wish to assume the risk? That is part of this job is all about.
Wear an tear on gear - YES! Most dive gear is used for the sport of recreational diving, where you do not generally stress the gear to the limits like you would when stirring up the silt on the bottom of a pond. In true where and tear on gear it is the gloves that take the biggest beating. For obvious reasons, they are continuously running along the ground searching for golf balls. For almost all other gear, it is about maintaining your gear as you would with any dive. Wash, Rinse, Dry and maintain.
As for the expense, your right, if you are doing this FULL time, $1,000.00 a week may not seem like a lot, but there are resources to lower expense, and if you are truly doing this as a full time job, i.e. 5 days a week, 6-8 hours a day in the water, EVERY GB diver I know, averages more than $1000.00 but these are people that are trying to make a career of this.
In regards to volume and $ amounts and whether or not that type of money can actually be made, let me give you this example. The TPC Saw Grass in Jacksonville, FL has a very famous island green. This hole, not the course, just this hole, averages 120,000 golf balls a year. At $.10 per ball, working a single hole on a single course generates $12,000 a year for the diver. That is approximately 6 days worth of work. Not all courses are like that, and again it has to do with averages. In the end, it is about knowing some courses will yield the higher numbers, some will not, but all golf balls (minus practice / range balls) can make the diver money.
As for true under water time, I can only speak from personal experience, but I average 5-6 hours a day in the water.
The air set up varies from diver to diver as well as water hazard. Some will use typical scuba (bc, tank, reg), some will just do shallow water and muck around or use snorkle, and some will use some variation of a hooka system. I do not, I repeat DO NOT recommend free diving. I have heard of at least one diver a year for the pass three years dying while doing that.
Mean while, if you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to ask.