questions for u/w welders

[The Enquirer]

1. Houston is the closest dive shool to me, but i want to join a school that offers underwater welding along with diving. I was wondering if Hyperbaric welders half to have underwater welding in the wet skills to work in an environment.

2. How many certs should I have before I go to any school?

3. I have a great relationship with my fiance' and want to know will it stay that way?

4. Would I be better off going with inland diving or offshore?

5. If I work off shore, is there good money staying in the gulf?

6.What are some af the schedules yall work?

7. Are you on call?

8. Is it easy to have a family?

9.Do you half to have your own equip.?

 

[TTOUPS]

Hope I can help with at least some of your questions. Get as many certifications as you can! Good underwater welders are much rarer than good divers. Wet welding has made some pretty good strides in recent years, but habitats are still the way to go for the highest quality welds. Guys with strong UW welding skills are still working while general commercial divers are sitting on the beach.
Virtually all commercial divers I've ever known can weld and burn to one degree or another, but the really highly skilled UW welding technician is a pretty rare animal.

Best regards
Doc

 

[MarkJ]

I went to the Ocean Corporation in '94. The trick is to be in the right place at the right time. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
U/W welding is definitely a whole other ballgame. I was a decent topside welder, having just learned. But wet, there's smoke, bubbles and sparks everywhere so it's a different experience trying to focus on the weld.
I cant speak much on the commercial industry because I didn't last very long. Out of school, our class had numerous offers from dive companies to choose from. A few of us went to one company thinking it had a bright future. We then found ourselves taping dive hoses and cleaning compressors at the inland shop for $8/hour 2-3 days per week if we were lucky. One guy we worked with had just graduated a basic tender class at a local school in LA for about $600. He was making the same pay we were.
Be prepared to stick it out through the hard times. Your personal relationships will probably suffer unless you have bottomless wells of trust between you. They will even tell you that at the dive school. Inland diving will let you stay home more but the
money is not as good.
All in all, it was a good experience, and sometimes I wonder how things would have turned out had I been able to stick with it, but I sure would like to have my $10,000 back.
Good luck!!!!

 

[DeepSeaDan]

Better to tap into the commercial diving sites for your questions; try:

offshorediver.com

There are many others you can access through the various search engines.

I've written several posts on commercial diving in this forum & you can access those & others by searching "commercial diving" at this site. Also, search my moniker "DeepSeaDan" for some sea stories that may shed some light on "the life".

Good onya, mate!

D.S.D.

 

[jbd]

for DeepSeaDan. Absolutely great writing! If you can't actually be there, then reading his accounts is the next best thing.