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12/16/2024 12:52:32 AM EDT
I have an opportunity to get into the business side of commercial diving in salvage, inspections, demo, surveying but I don't know much about the diving  aspect of it. The business side I get, but I've never been on the wet side.

This isn't GD so we can spare the jokes, but does anyone around here do that kind of work?  Does it pay well?  I understand that there is a ton of training involved, the work is hard, you're away from home a lot, and it's dangerous. I've seen conflicting evidence of people making truckloads of money and others making basically laborer wages.
12/16/2024 1:29:06 AM EDT
[#1]
I have done some salvage dives.  Will add another response in a minute when i get the kids down
12/16/2024 1:32:20 AM EDT
[#2]
The pay can be good, especially when the matter is urgent, or an insurance company is involved.  You'll need to have everything set up and ready to go beforehand, and not just dive gear.  Possible grid search equipment, underwater drawing board, perhaps a surface support crew who can help liase with the client while you're underwater.

My brother and I did salvage dives back home in alaska, usually on boats or around canneries.  Zinc inspections, barnacle scraping, winching up lost gear from the ocean floor etc.  We'd set a price, then as we're getting geared up would get a lot of "while you're down there..." requests, be prepared to toss out ridiculous prices.  They'll usually take it.
12/16/2024 1:34:09 AM EDT
[#3]
The wages were usually determined on the spot, and changed based on how much a pain it was for me to leave to go dive right then.  

The training?  basic scuba cert.  Nitrox experience was nice, but I didn't take a class for it.  I was a sea cuke commercial diver, which gets you into people's phones for emergencies.
12/16/2024 9:44:48 AM EDT
[#4]
Paging @Marie
[007]
Rogers. FREDMAN Rogers
[\007]
12/16/2024 10:01:44 AM EDT
[Last Edit: HELOBRAVO][Edited] [#5]
Thread title is weird.
You want to be a guy with a basic, open water cert, a flash light and a barnacle scraper?
Or, you want to be a commercial diver who actually can ".... salvage, inspections, demo, surveying"?
I went here in Morgan city.
You can pay much more, but it'd be a waste of your money. You get wet just as fast as you would have at a more expensive school.
"A mass production economy can neither be created nor sustained
without a leveled population, one conditioned to mass habits, mass tastes, mass enthusiasms,
predictable mass behaviors." John Gatto
12/16/2024 3:11:56 PM EDT
[#6]
Quote History
Originally Posted By HELOBRAVO:
Thread title is weird.
You want to be a guy with a basic, open water cert, a flash light and a barnacle scraper?
Or, you want to be a commercial diver who actually can ".... salvage, inspections, demo, surveying"?
I went here in Morgan city.
You can pay much more, but it'd be a waste of your money. You get wet just as fast as you would have at a more expensive school.
View Quote
Yes, this is a weird thread that apparently needs clarification. I'm not a diver and do not plan on becoming a salvage diver. I have an interview on the business side of an existing operation later this week. Honestly my skills and other experience make an excellent fit with their needs but I would like to be able to speak somewhat intelligently about their work. I've spent my whole life as a construction/demo guy but never an underwater construction/demo guy.

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