Does commercial ruin recreational?
- Thread starter Ready4Launch
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Wookie
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Depends on what you are doing. I work for the Government only, so I carry a buttload of insurance and write a buttload of diving plans, as every dive must have a Job Hazard Analysis and specific dive plan. I am a sole proprietor, so I don't have to follow OSHA exactly, but have to provide equivalent safety to OSHA and the Navy Diving manual.
So the type of diving I do is very expensive to the government, kind of like a $6,000 hammer. OTOH, if you are a sole proprietor scraping hulls in the marina, you're going to do it for a buck a foot, 3 bucks a foot for dirty hulls, and clean 2-3 a day, so you're looking at crappy (literally) work and making $2-300 a day.
I only get the jobs I want to do because I'm good at plan writing and paperwork and have a secret clearance, so I can know what the project is. Not because I'm the best diver on the planet.
What wookie said...
It depends on you. I came out of dive school in 1998 and took the first job offered to me at $12/hour. The job lasted two months and in the first week 10 of the 30 people contracted got fired (for five years) for blowing positive for alcohol on a nuke plant. They called me for the next nuke plant and I told them $20/hour. They said I was crazy and I reminded them that I was the guy who was never late and never drunk. They said okay. Within a year I was making $30+/hour. Most jobs were 84 hours per week, 1.5x over 8 hours, 2x for weekend and 3x for holidays.
Then I started working prevailing wage jobs. Same as above, but $85/hour. God I love unions, lol.
Then I started bidding water towers. I got a percentage of the work. If a tower cost $2k to pump and video, I got about $600. We'd do two of those a day.
Then I went off shore. That's when things got insane. We got a base pay. A new guy was getting about $20/hour and about $1.25/foot.
So, work a 12 hour day... $240. Dive to 272'? $240 + $340.
There's a reason that the Chevy dealership right outside of Houma LA would have a brand new Corvette ZR1 on the lot at all times. Because one of us idiots would get off of a 2 month stretch on the oil rig with 50 or 60k and buy it. But man, what a dangerous job. Several of my colleagues got dead.
Look up Chet Morrison. The day after I quit working for them, the SAT vessel pulled up an 8" pipe and cut into it without properly voiding it of Natural Gas. They sunk a ship in thr explosion killing a bunch of people. Explosion kills three from dive boat decommissioning gas pipeline - Professional Mariner - May 2008
If you have a family or morals it's a terrible job. It pays a lot if you are a hard worker.
There's a reason Divorce is right next to Diver in the phone book.
It depends on you. I came out of dive school in 1998 and took the first job offered to me at $12/hour. The job lasted two months and in the first week 10 of the 30 people contracted got fired (for five years) for blowing positive for alcohol on a nuke plant. They called me for the next nuke plant and I told them $20/hour. They said I was crazy and I reminded them that I was the guy who was never late and never drunk. They said okay. Within a year I was making $30+/hour. Most jobs were 84 hours per week, 1.5x over 8 hours, 2x for weekend and 3x for holidays.
Then I started working prevailing wage jobs. Same as above, but $85/hour. God I love unions, lol.
Then I started bidding water towers. I got a percentage of the work. If a tower cost $2k to pump and video, I got about $600. We'd do two of those a day.
Then I went off shore. That's when things got insane. We got a base pay. A new guy was getting about $20/hour and about $1.25/foot.
So, work a 12 hour day... $240. Dive to 272'? $240 + $340.
There's a reason that the Chevy dealership right outside of Houma LA would have a brand new Corvette ZR1 on the lot at all times. Because one of us idiots would get off of a 2 month stretch on the oil rig with 50 or 60k and buy it. But man, what a dangerous job. Several of my colleagues got dead.
Look up Chet Morrison. The day after I quit working for them, the SAT vessel pulled up an 8" pipe and cut into it without properly voiding it of Natural Gas. They sunk a ship in thr explosion killing a bunch of people. Explosion kills three from dive boat decommissioning gas pipeline - Professional Mariner - May 2008
If you have a family or morals it's a terrible job. It pays a lot if you are a hard worker.
There's a reason Divorce is right next to Diver in the phone book.
Wookie
Proud to be a Chaos Muppet
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I see Joanne, Kelly, and Caroline. Which one are you looking for?
Wookie
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Interesting. Service status is unknown, and there is no record of contacts for the past 5 years on an inspected vessel. Maybe the Coast Guard pulls that off when the vessel is lost and the investigation is ongoing?
Nope, the investigation of her sinking is completely redacted. But the vessel appeared to be a sh!tshow, with lots of marine casualties....
Nope, the investigation of her sinking is completely redacted. But the vessel appeared to be a sh!tshow, with lots of marine casualties....
I thought I remembered 8 people dying. But not according to the article. I know that the oil industry owns the media there. I also remember that the real cause was pulling 8” pipe onto the deck and cutting into it. Not an issue below deck.
EireDiver606
Contributor
Thanks for the info guys.
Heliumthief
Contributor
It’s generally different diving, to be fair. If you always enjoyed drifting along looking at little fish at the weekends, then just because you spend a month in a steel cigar, hammering bolts in a liquid seabed, shouldn’t change what you love about poking octopi..I think it’s more to do with ‘overdosing’ on the mechanics of diving at work. If you spend all week pissing in a dry-bag, then no one would blame you if you wanted to sit in the sun getting drunk instead of doing it all over again for ‘fun’...
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