Talk to me about commercial diving.

Talk to me about commercial diving.

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snowdude2910

Original Poster:

754 posts

163 months

Thursday 24th July 2014
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I've really fancied commercial diving as a career for a while now and have lately started to look into it a bit more. I currently work in transport (directing shunters and arrivals/departures) earn £33k for 32hours a week give or take, it's not particularly challenging but I go home early every day and it pays too much to leave for any equivelent job. The main thing that attracts me to diving is the fact that many offshore workers seem to get their hours in in big chunks and take long periods of downtime inbetween, infact I was first put onto the idea of it when reading on this forum about someone who works 3 months a year or something similar although not as a diver. I've done quite a bit of reading up on it and am left with a few questions that I can't seem to find the answers to can anybody help me out?

- Are the rates of pay I've come across realistic? I've seen figures quoted from £100 a day upto £1400+ a day for saturation diving on 28day stints the former would be a paycut but I'd happily take it for an interesting job with prospects of it increasing with experience, the latter sounds too good to be true I'd only work a month a year if that were the case.

- Possibly the most important question due to the cost of training how easy is it to find work as a diver? I have seen a few courses for around the £12k mark which claim to offer you all of the qualifications required to work as a commercial diver but is employment easy to find straight out of dive school? Are there agencies for these sort of things?

- Is it as flexible as you like can you just work a month on several off or would it be more a case of having to take permanent employment and follow a strict rota?

Also I'd love to hear from anyone who has worked similar shift paterns on how it has effected their personal lifes, I have a girlfriend and 2 young kids 6 & 3 having briefly mentioned it to my partner I think she has passed it off as one of my fads but they are a big part of the reason for wanting months off at a time.

XJSJohn

15,959 posts

218 months

Thursday 24th July 2014
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I am not in this industry but i know alot of guys that are.

Surface air diving much lower rates that saturation diving, its very hard to get work with out experience but how do you get experience???

Scuba diving experience is considered worth zero mostly.

some of my bubblehead mates that have been working in sat for many years are starting to suffer possibly related illnesses like osteoperosis, although thats less of a risk these days as i dont think they do more than 28 days in sat now

Going by my mates there is also a risk of serious alcohol poinsoning on your month off hehe

I don't knwo what the tickets etc are for getting offshore but the guys i know seem to have started as surface air diving working in port doing hull inspections etc to get experience, then gone offshore again as surface air before grabbing an opertunity to go sat.

This is all knowledge gleaned over excessive alcohol in bars so please wait for someone who actually knows their st before relying on anything i have said!


anonymous-user

53 months

Thursday 24th July 2014
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Hi John! Like John got loads of mate's who were into it, but they all started years ago, and were either ex navy, ar started in dodgy places, know a few people who got into it in Angola after the war when if you had a padi cert you could get involved, but all the people I know now are ex Navy.
You also need a skill, welding, inspection etc. There actually doesn't seam to be as much work around today, which I assume is due to automation, loads of inspection appears to be automated these days, for example the days of pipe line inspection is largly gone these days as you can get so much info from inteligent pigs etc.

XJSJohn

15,959 posts

218 months

Friday 25th July 2014
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very true Berw, 2 ex-diver mates of mine set up a company that specialises in under water cctv and ROV's - they saw that automation was the way to go, much safer and always on.

not so good for someone wanting to break into the business though!

dingg

3,974 posts

218 months

Friday 25th July 2014
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I started offshore as a diver in 1984 , worked Arabian gulf and N Sea (I was lucky and was sponsored by the government at the time ), still work offshore but have drifted into operations.

some facts for the OP

1 - its a hard industry to break into unless you have someone already inside who will get you the first step on the ladder , OR you have some particular skill set that is in demand ie NDT inspection engineer , coded welding certified , GOOD qualified mechanical or fabrication engineering background.

2 the schools churn out lots of people who never get jobs offshore

3 the schools churn out lots of people who never get jobs offshore

4 the schools churn out lots of people who never get jobs offshore

(get the idea?)

the rates of pay are better than you quote , but you have an unrealistic idea of only working one month a year if on top rate , why would an employer allow you to do that? IF you're in demand you're working and raking it in and you have no real choice in the matter , if you want to keep getting work.

Starting out its easier to find work abroad which pays less than uk rates , and will be most likely an unfavourable rota ie 3 months on 1 off so family life will suffer.

If you're still keen , I would advise the best way in would be do a coded welding course first , it will be the quickest easiest cheapest way to get a skill that may be required.

Then approach all the companies with a view to them giving you a start once you get your air ticket (its still a huge gamble that anyone would be interested tbh there's lots of people in the market ahead of you)

IT IS a hard industry to get into.



Edited by dingg on Friday 25th July 08:40

trickywoo

11,705 posts

229 months

Friday 25th July 2014
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IMO you'd be better off looking into getting something like ROV Pilot or even crane operator qualifications and working on offshore ships.

The traditional Officer route is also a good one but I think takes a lot longer than just going for ROV / crane ops.

You'll do a 4 to 6 week tour on those ships with the same off again if you do a normal rotation. Quite a lot of day rate work is available and its not uncommon to do 8 weeks at a time then have a good chunk off before you go for the next contract.

If you are clever about where and when you work there is also the possibility of not having to pay any tax. Demand and money at the moment is good.

joeg

122 posts

174 months

Friday 25th July 2014
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Dingg what coded welding certificate would you recommend? I was under the impression that the only real welding was done in hyperbaric conditions and this is done to a very high level (ie not realistic to get qualified in quickly) also is it true there is no shortage of work due to De commissioning in North sea

dingg

3,974 posts

218 months

Friday 25th July 2014
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get coded to asme ix 6g and you'll find work.

should be doable in 3 months of training if you have no welding experience.

decommissioning hasn't really had an effect as far as I know - it most likely will in the future though.


joeg

122 posts

174 months

Monday 28th July 2014
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Ok thanks, do you know what type of welding is done mig, tig etc?

Edited by joeg on Monday 28th July 10:34

dingg

3,974 posts

218 months

Monday 28th July 2014
quotequote all
joeg said:
Ok thanks, do you know what type of welding is done mig, tig etc?

Edited by joeg on Monday 28th July 10:34
you'll find this guide useful

http://www.gowelding.org/Pipe_Welding_6G_SMAW_Cert...

joeg

122 posts

174 months

Monday 28th July 2014
quotequote all
Thanks a lot for that page, very comprehensive! I have phoned around a few welding training centres and appears the 6g could become pretty expensive and times consuming to obtain

snowdude2910

Original Poster:

754 posts

163 months

Thursday 31st July 2014
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sorry guys I thought I'd responded to this thanks for all the replies, it sounds like it's not quite the untapped gold mine the schools would have you believe but if I didn't mind taking a punt and did the welding bit I might one day get a job. Sounds like it wouldn't be enough for me to gamble £13k+ on and leave my current job especially if like you say it's likely when you do reach the big money you become to much of an asset to just work when you feel like it which was my main aim from the whole thing. Do the rov's do the welding too or do divers still do that?

joeg

122 posts

174 months

Thursday 31st July 2014
quotequote all
I think you will find rovs even harder to get into...plus you prob need a electrical or mechanical background so you can fix them while away. Although they are set to get union pay rates in North Sea which will mean pay rise