Divers Needed - Golf Ball Diving

[Sasquatch]

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?

 

[frothchild]

I understand your question, but you don't seem to see the big picture. While there are poachers, they generally only effect one course. Hence why it is about the numbers and managing many courses. I can not presume to know what you do for a living, but lets say you are a mechanic that runs an upstanding repair shop business. You maintain excellent relations with your clients, and you pride yourself on the standards of service you present and provide. Your clients have come to expect prompt and timely service. Now suppose your own employees take parts from your business because they can sell them on eBay or use the parts themselves. On a small scale it is more of a nuisance but on a grander scale it can jeopardize your lively hood.

You ask, why then do I or PG seek divers, it is because in volume we can make up for the small loses. Just like in renting apartments, you don't make money until you have numerous properties, otherwise, just a small handful can be more effort than it is worth.

I never say that this is a career opportunity. Can it be? With the right efforts and structuring as in a business model, this can be a career. But all the PG offers is offering is an opportunity to make money working in a water environment that utilizes scuba skills.

Being that you are located in TX, I would suggest, even encourage you to speak with the crew from PG Professional golf services. It is impressive what they have managed to do. Taking one expensive hobby to clean up after another expensive hobby and turn it into a $50 million a year business.

As for recruiting divers, the fact is, there are SO many golf courses that need servicing, there is no way I can service all the courses in my district alone, hence the recruiting of others.

Do I expect people to do this for a life time, NO, I don't even plan on doing this for a life time. But I can tell you that it rather relaxing, there is a direct and immediate reward for your efforts. For the people that work with me, they find it is a lucrative part time gig, quick cash, that doesn't require nights or weekends.

Any other questions, just ask.

 

[frothchild]

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.

 

[Thalassamania]

Here's what I find confusing. At $0.10 per ball, $1,000 represents 10,000 balls. If I am to pick up 10,000 balls in say 30 hrs (6 hrs a day, 5 days a week), that's 333 balls per hour or 56 balls per minute, on the order of one per second. Frankly I think most people would be hard pressed to do that on the surface.

 

[frothchild]

Here's what I find confusing. At $0.10 per ball, $1,000 represents 10,000 balls. If I am to pick up 10,000 balls in say 30 hrs (6 hrs a day, 5 days a week), that's 333 balls per hour or 56 balls per minute, on the order of one per second. Frankly I think most people would be hard pressed to do that on the surface.

I have no doubt that pulling 60 balls a minute would be a lot, but as it stands your math is off.

For the most part you are correct down to the 333 balls per hour, but when divided by 60 minutes per hour, that equals 5-6 balls per minute and not the 56 you noted above, and that is VERY manageable on land or under water.

 

[Thalassamania]

Woops, Schrödinger's Cat stole my decimal point (again).

 

[frothchild]

Woops, Schrödinger's Cat stole my decimal point (again).

So are you saying that depending on the situation the cat may or may not have taken the decimal depending on whether or not the cat is alive? If that is the case, then I would suggest securing the decimal point in a paradoxical case.

 

[Thalassamania]

Possible Probable, my black hen,
She lays eggs in the relative when,
She doesn't lay eggs in the positive now,
For she's unable to postulate how.

 

[frothchild]

Possible Probable, my black hen,
She lays eggs in the relative when,
She doesn't lay eggs in the positive now,
For she's unable to postulate how.

are you referring to - Frederick Winsor "The Space Child's Mother Goose",1958

I have read it, but not really familiar with it.

 

[frothchild]

The folly of mistaking a paradox for a discovery, a metaphor for a proof, a torrent of verbiage for a spring of capital truths, and oneself for an oracle, is inborn in us.