Another question about Commerical Diving :-)

[john7891]

Okay Men (And Ladies!!!)

Im a qualified Royal Marine Commando, Navy Ships Diver, Landing Craft Specialist, In the future I am planning on going down the commerical diving path.

According to the HSE crossover table my Navy Ships Diver qualification is equal to the HSE Scuba Course, therefore when I carry out my commerical diving courses is it necessary to do the HSE Scuba part of the course? (I know that I will have to redo the medical as the Military medical althrough just as intense doesnt cover you for civilian commerical diving.)

I also dont intend to complete the necessary courses until Im forty, so Ive got my 22 year military pension to fall back on as I know how unpredicatably the lifestyle can be. Are there many newbies who start at 40?

Does my military background and experience help in the buisness, (Im used to working in Harsh conditions, Good team player, Used to long times away from loved ones in potentially dangerous and isolated environments, Qualifed boat coxan, ect ect.)

On a seperate issue, the female commerical diver called penny whom one of the guys worked with in dublin,, I meet her abroad this year and she is chilling out working in the scooby doo diving world the now living the warm sunny dream :-)

All the best

John

[resting rifleman]

welcome aboard john, andy the commie is the man to talk to ! as an ex bootie and a commie diver he's the feller with the answers for you, pm him!
regards, mike.

[iand1967]

hi there no you will not have to do the full course but if you go to fort bill they will do there best to sell you it, tell them to go float, 40 is ok and yes military training will help, most importantly get your pension before hand you are going to need it good luck

[Andy the Coastie]

Originally Posted by iand1967

hi there no you will not have to do the full course but if you go to fort bill they will do there best to sell you it, tell them to go float, 40 is ok and yes military training will help, most importantly get your pension before hand you are going to need it good luck

Basically .... Ditto to what Ian said ........

[john7891]

Cheers guys

Thats pretty much what I thought the answer was.

I think il finish my time, hopefully get the military to pay for as much of the courses as they can and then see what the future holds :-)

[resting rifleman]

Originally Posted by john7891

Cheers guys

Thats pretty much what I thought the answer was.

I think il finish my time, hopefully get the military to pay for as much of the courses as they can and then see what the future holds :-)

presumably there are still pre-release courses available? find out what you can get the mod to support, before i left there was absolutely nothing to do with my chosen path, so with a bit of rgj ingenuity i was able to organize a course (and 6 weeks of summer) on the boats with a boatmans licence at the end to justify the investment!
hth.
mike.

[nelson]

John,

I think I can give you some advice on this having some years ago completed my HSE Pt 1 at Fort Bill. You are obviously already qualified in many areas which will assist you in any comm. diving career, however if you are going to be 40 when you train and then banging out cv's to prospective employers I think your age may well work against you, you will then be looking at doing a minimum of 2 years in uk civils jobs ( unless you drop very lucky or have offshore contacts already), the money is pants, and the jobs very much hit and miss with weeks of sitting on your arse by the phone and then a couple of weeks work.

You will then be into your 40's and looking to go offshore into an industry which will be dominated by other divers the same age as you or younger who have maybe 15-20 years experience in it, and heaps more quals including SAT,NDT, Lloyds codings etc.

Its alot of cash to lay out on something which may come to nothing, i'm not saying it's not possible but it will take a lot of work, money and luck, and you will be into your 40's and after 22 years in Royal you may want to be following an easier route to earn money, which i'm sure there would be for a man with your skills. However if you do go for it, I wish you the best of luck.

[doff]

I posted this a while back but you might find it answers some of your questions:

A few notes on 'how to':
First - to be a commercial diver in the UK you have no choice but to be an HSE Approved diver. This means an HSE Approved Commercial diver course. However you can economise on this if you are ex-military diver by undergoing an Experience and Comptetence Assessment at one of the HSE Approved schools (I'd go for the new one www.professionaldivingacademy.com).

Second - look at the IMCA website for guides to careers - this is the International Marine Contractors Association which is the trade body for all the major diving compamies arounfd the world www.imca-int.com

Third - surprisingly times are good to get a job after your course due to diver shortage in the Gulf of Mexico following the Hurricanes and the price of oil making every oil co. in the world desperate to get it out of the ground - the same cannot be said for diver rates which are still 'mixed' - especially if you get a non-UK job as a 'baby' diver. They will take advantage of you as you are desperate to prove yourself and need the experience for your cv.

Fourth - look a the www.longstreath.com website as a good indication of the wonderful people you may end up working with....if you don't like what you see stay at home.
Fifth - if anyone tells you you will earn £1000 per day they are not quite all there.... some jobs do pay well but it will take you years to get the. If you are prepared to hang in you are one of the few.
Six - if you are just doing it for the money - become a plumber.

[Ron Mahoney]

John, don't know where your based and just picked this thread up but..

As someone who had inside knowledge of Fort William and the people who previously ran it - let's just say if you had a pulse and a cheque book then you too could enter the high-flying world of the commercial diver: and hey if you couldn't even f****n swim (you would not believe the number if your pension depended on it) then we'd switch you to an ROV course - "refund the difference?" - a'hem I think your a long way North for that Sanjib.

If you fancy earning a reasonably decent days wage (well compared to what they tell you) I'd maybe look towards aqua-culture or maybe start to stear yourself towards sport-diver training (take a look around at some of the so called instructors and you'll p"ss yourself) and you can still earn a decent crust for a good days work. But do yourself a favour - keep the £8-10k in your arse pocket!

[Chriz]

Originally Posted by resting rifleman

presumably there are still pre-release courses available? find out what you can get the mod to support, before i left there was absolutely nothing to do with my chosen path, so with a bit of rgj ingenuity i was able to organize a course (and 6 weeks of summer) on the boats with a boatmans licence at the end to justify the investment!
hth.
mike.

What drink 10 pints and tw@t it?


Chris/z