Quote:
| Originally Posted by A. Berk The 'norm' has been that a qualified air-diver should have a year of commercial diving under his/her belt (preferably offshore) and at least 100 dives in the log-book before doing a saturation course. To my mind that is about 'half' of the experience you should have. I heard a buzz that a French school was looking at doing a fastrack course from 'zero to sat' but really didn't believe it could happen. Such a thing would be madness, you could liken it to going from learner driver to F1 in one course. On a saturation course you'll learn the physics and physiology involved, the hardwear (gas reclaim, bell set-up etc) and do loads of emergency drills like diver recovery and loss of services etc. What you won't learn on a sat course is how to do the job in the water - this you should know before attempting sat. I have seen a bunch of guys rush into their sat courses 'cos they want the big bucks... but in the water they're practically useless as they don't have any experience. People tend to lose sight of the fact that putting a yellow bucket over your head and jumping in the 'oggin is merely a means of getting to the job - it's what you can do when you get there that counts to oil companies - and I can tell you that completing a commercial air-diver course does not provide you with all the skills that are required offshore - they come with on-the-job experience. I would really like to know who is offering an 'air-to-sat in one go' course.
Berko  |
The old saying "its easier to teach a welder how to dive, than a diver how to weld" still applies!
Geez the price of these courses have sky rocketed, guessing they reflect the amount of work and interest there is at the moment. Shit, for 8000.00 pound (whats that, about $20K AUS?), I'll have to start offering commercial training as well!!