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Now Ye're Talking - to a Commercial Diver

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  • Company Representative Posts: 26 Verified rep I'm A Commercial Diver, AMA


    endacl wrote: »
    http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cumbria-20066683H

    On the topic of odd things you might have seen, what do you make of things like the Wastwater gnome garden? Bit of fun, or downright silly? Would yoube bothered diving to see deliberately set up 'attractions' yourself? Ever left something funny behind for the next guy to find?

    IMG_3278.jpg

    Ah I don't really see the point, there is enough to see out there than to see something put there purposley. These kind of locations have been chosen due to how handy they are for divers to access etc. There are a lot of divers who love diving in man made sites like quarries and lakes and rarely dive to see something real, thats where the true beauty, the unknown and the undiscovered attractions lie. These sites are great for training or introducing new divers, as they have easy egress/ingress, safe against currents etc but other than that, one dive an you have seen it all


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,791 ✭✭✭Sir Osis of Liver.


    Did you get your inspiration from Jacques Cousteau?

    And how did you rate "The Man from Atlantis" as a series?


  • Company Representative Posts: 26 Verified rep I'm A Commercial Diver, AMA


    Did you get your inspiration from Jacques Cousteau?

    And how did you rate "The Man from Atlantis" as a series?

    Jacques Cousteau, some of the stuff he done was pretty epic, but thank god I don't have to dive using some of his equipment.

    Never seen the series, would you recomend? There is quite a few commercial diving related films, "Black Sea", "Pioneer" amongst others but they are woefully inacurate equipment wise, but give a decent insight for people not in the industry with added theatrics. A really good episode was made for BBC Real Men series on Saturation Divers, well worth a watch:

    http://youtu.be/B3BWSMrgi3I


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 675 ✭✭✭Dr.Sanchez


    Jacques Cousteau, some of the stuff he done was pretty epic, but thank god I don't have to dive using some of his equipment.

    Never seen the series, would you recomend? There is quite a few commercial diving related films, "Black Sea", "Pioneer" amongst others but they are woefully inacurate equipment wise, but give a decent insight for people not in the industry with added theatrics. A really good episode was made for BBC Real Men series on Saturation Divers, well worth a watch:

    http://youtu.be/B3BWSMrgi3I

    I've taught a few courses to the crew of that ship in the video - "Seawell" quite an old ship but still going. It was interesting to get the full tour of the chambers and bell by the dive supervisor, they also have two ROV's onboard.

    One of the sat divers was an Irish fella, can't remember where he was from tho - Offaly I think it was. There was another Irish fella from Cobh working onboard but dunno what his job title was. Just as we finished the course the divers were going into saturation so got to see the whole process from start to finish.

    I'm commercial scuba myself but have no interest in taking it further. It was just a requirement as part of my current job.


  • Registered Users Posts: 139 ✭✭ItsAnEasyGame


    Whats your typical day to day times? Like is it 9-5 with a couple of breaks?

    Do you ever have any problems equalising?

    What are your 3 favourite dive spots world wide?


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  • Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 12,584 Mod ✭✭✭✭blue5000


    Roughly how much would you have to spend maintaining your gear in a year, or how long would it be before you have to replace the most of it?

    If the seat's wet, sit on yer hat, a cool head is better than a wet ar5e.



  • Registered Users Posts: 1,580 ✭✭✭moleyv


    Describe a working week.

    There probably isn't a 'typical' week so maybe use a recent one as an example.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 746 ✭✭✭Starokan


    Whats the visibility like underwater around Ireland - are powerful torches etc essential for your work?

    How does the bad weather at sea affect diving, I don't mean weather bad enough to stop the dive taking place but rather how does a stormy day affect conditions below water - Is there a marked difference

    Cheers for doing this, very interesting read


  • Registered Users Posts: 6,827 ✭✭✭fred funk }{


    What gave you the biggest WTF moment?


  • Company Representative Posts: 26 Verified rep I'm A Commercial Diver, AMA


    Dr.Sanchez wrote: »
    I've taught a few courses to the crew of that ship in the video - "Seawell" quite an old ship but still going. It was interesting to get the full tour of the chambers and bell by the dive supervisor, they also have two ROV's onboard.

    One of the sat divers was an Irish fella, can't remember where he was from tho - Offaly I think it was. There was another Irish fella from Cobh working onboard but dunno what his job title was. Just as we finished the course the divers were going into saturation so got to see the whole process from start to finish.

    I'm commercial scuba myself but have no interest in taking it further. It was just a requirement as part of my current job.

    Ah very good, it is some ship but in fairness it is probably the exception to the rule, a lot more of them are pretty old and do show their age,.

    What is it that you do?

    There is more irish people working in diving than people would think, but manu are spread acrosa the world. A job is always a million times better when you have a fellow irish man to bounce off


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  • Company Representative Posts: 26 Verified rep I'm A Commercial Diver, AMA


    Whats your typical day to day times? Like is it 9-5 with a couple of breaks?

    Do you ever have any problems equalising?

    What are your 3 favourite dive spots world wide?

    Typical days are usually 12 hours,, generally starting at 8am, but dependa on the constraints, some times you are chasing weather or tides so starting in the middle of the night is perfectly acceptable to get the job done. Your day is dictated by the job and what it needs to get it done, so there isn't really a typical day, and everything is subject to change at any minute and most o the time does too.

    Yes equalizing can be a problem sometimes, because you are always subject to the weather you need to keep warm and make sure you don't get sick. When your self employed and get sick you don't get sick pay, so if you can't dive you don't earn money so even a simple cold that wouldn't generally stop you from working can mess up things big time for you in this game. Saying all that, without and sickness worries, because I am always in the water it means that equalizing is just a wiggle of the chin at the most .

    3 favourite recreational dive spots would be

    1. Scapa Flow, Orkney, Ireland
    2. Scuba Dive West in Galway
    3. Malin Beg, Donegal (I think)


  • Company Representative Posts: 26 Verified rep I'm A Commercial Diver, AMA


    blue5000 wrote: »
    Roughly how much would you have to spend maintaining your gear in a year, or how long would it be before you have to replace the most of it?

    My main piece of equipment is my drysuit, all other equipment is provided by the contractor (Well should be!!), so I put a set amount away each month and but a new drysuit every year. It may get a couple of hundred dives a year and will have more life in it with some repairs etc, but doing commercial work puts some serious wear and tear on a drysuit but you also need to be able to rely on it when you need it everyday. Wet dives just arn't acceptable in my book, especially not when it can be for hours every day of the week . So i spend around €1000 on a new drysut every year and keep old drysuts for spares or sell them and recoup a few pound . Other than that there is peripherals like knives, gloves, hat liners etc, they are just bought whenever they are needed but I always keep spares of everything, that day when its absolutley freezing ang you glove tears or your suit leaks, is the day you will be thankful you have a spare, it might only happen once a yea but will be worth very penny..

    Gloves last maybe a month, if your lucky and arn't pouring concrete or anything, knives and that get lost maybe every few months, but I am generally good at keeping them.


  • Company Representative Posts: 26 Verified rep I'm A Commercial Diver, AMA


    moleyv wrote: »
    Describe a working week.

    There probably isn't a 'typical' week so maybe use a recent one as an example.

    Your completely right, a typical week can be anything but typical.

    Generally I will have heard word through the grapevine of work coming up the following week and I will get a phone call maybe on a Sunday night to say be on the opposite side of the country at 8am, I'll hit the road maybe at 4AM, work my day, then things may become a bit more clear for the week, we will try gauge how long the job will take, lets say 3 days, wednesday will come an we will get word of anymore work and if so will hit the road to the next job. And this is just over and over, swapping between companies to get work can mean a lot of overnight travelling and long long hours, but that pay-check is what its all about !!!


  • Registered Users Posts: 375 ✭✭Meanaspie


    My main piece of equipment is my drysuit, all other equipment is provided by the contractor (Well should be!!), so I put a set amount away each month and but a new drysuit every year. It may get a couple of hundred dives a year and will have more life in it with some repairs etc, but doing commercial work puts some serious wear and tear on a drysuit but you also need to be able to rely on it when you need it everyday. Wet dives just arn't acceptable in my book, especially not when it can be for hours every day of the week . So i spend around €1000 on a new drysut every year and keep old drysuts for spares or sell them and recoup a few pound . Other than that there is peripherals like knives, gloves, hat liners etc, they are just bought whenever they are needed but I always keep spares of everything, that day when its absolutley freezing ang you glove tears or your suit leaks, is the day you will be thankful you have a spare, it might only happen once a yea but will be worth very penny..

    Gloves last maybe a month, if your lucky and arn't pouring concrete or anything, knives and that get lost maybe every few months, but I am generally good at keeping them.

    Do you always stick with the same brand of dry suit if so what one? Have you switched brands over the years and who do you find best?


  • Company Representative Posts: 26 Verified rep I'm A Commercial Diver, AMA


    Starokan wrote: »
    Whats the visibility like underwater around Ireland - are powerful torches etc essential for your work?

    How does the bad weather at sea affect diving, I don't mean weather bad enough to stop the dive taking place but rather how does a stormy day affect conditions below water - Is there a marked difference

    Cheers for doing this, very interesting read

    Contrary to popiular belief, visability can be really good in Ireland. The east coast is hit or miss, bad weather brings vis to zero but settled weather can bring up your vis, typically around 1-2m,. The west coast on the other hand is typically 5-10m vis, with tonnes of life and things to see, people think it is all bad but thatt ain't the case at all. Working in rivers, canals abd lakes etc. is generally pitch black, so you got to use your imagination, its simply down to the sheer amount of rain causing run off into our rivers and then our peat rich land and rivers running over these surfaces creates our black rivers. Its not dirt/sewrage that causes our Liffey water to be so dark its where the water begins and the land it travels over (Generally speaking on that one, the Liffey soes have its secrets but thats a story for another day).

    Torches are generally good for when working and to light up somethjng specific, for recreational its good to bring up the colours in the water. The main problem with torches is not that its dark down there because the light can't get through but because there is so much suspended particles in the water blocking out all the light. The use of torchs then just causes backscatter and are sometimes just more a hinderence than a help.

    Bad weather affexcting underwater can be noticable but mainly just in the splashzone, between the surface and 5 meters where the surges can cause difficties for ingress and egress. Underwater (Sub 5m) you can feel surges of water, thiis can be like working in a washing machine sometimes, but just makes the job more interesting.


  • Company Representative Posts: 26 Verified rep I'm A Commercial Diver, AMA


    What gave you the biggest WTF moment?

    Probably when I lost all lights, communication and air on a deep dive in Scotland. Plunged into darkness with no air gets your heart pumping, I was in an overhead environment too so couldn't swim up, had to rely on my training, keep my cool and transfer onto my reserve air. Got to surface nice and safely and all went well, you have all your back ups , reseves and safety procedures in place for that one time you might need it but funnily you never want to have to use it for real. That day was an exception to the rule and was a result of several human errors, needless to say a few strong words were had back on deck.


  • Company Representative Posts: 26 Verified rep I'm A Commercial Diver, AMA


    Meanaspie wrote: »
    Do you always stick with the same brand of dry suit if so what one? Have you switched brands over the years and who do you find best?

    I have tried all the drysuits and there are some great brands out there. The best off the rack brand for me is the Otter drysuits, I don't rate Northern Diver, Scubapro or O'Three while others swear by them, they are probably grand for receeational diving but commercially your looking for reliabilty, comfort and the perfect fit, leaks are not an option and they need to stand the test of time and takw a fair beating. Generally you will see a lot of commercial divers wearing O'Three or Northern Diver but thats just because they get them free at college.

    Saying all that I feel a drysuit is a personal thing and off the rack drysuits just arn't good enough when you wear it every day of your working life, I find the Otter suits fit my bulld well and can take a beatiing. The best of the best though is made in a small ex-lifeboat station on the orkney Islands north of Scotland, they take up to a year to come and geneally come in at the same price as the off the rack drysuits, they are made by Scapa Scuba and genuinly are the best. Any major repairs on my suits are shipped up there, all suits are now bought from there, simply because their repairs last, all are handmade and using the best materials. If you can afford one and will get use from it, get a tailor made one from this place, won't regret it. If your looking for an off the rack, Otter are the best. All of the above is obviously my own opinion and everyone is different, so take advice on these things as you please


  • Registered Users Posts: 782 ✭✭✭Reiver


    What advice would you give to someone interested in the profession?

    Have you ever done wreck diving?


  • Company Representative Posts: 26 Verified rep I'm A Commercial Diver, AMA


    Reiver wrote: »
    What advice would you give to someone interested in the profession?

    Have you ever done wreck diving?

    To someone interested in taking the plunge I would say, look at it as a parttime career in Ireland which will hopefilly develop into something more full time, don't think your going to earn the big bucks and you won't be dissapointed. If your looking to do sone interesting stuff and travel the country then yes jump on it but be under no illusion it costs a fair wedge to get into the game.

    Wreck diving is what I do when I go diving recreationally, some seriously epic wreck dives around Ireland you just got to hunt them down


  • Boards.ie Employee Posts: 12,597 ✭✭✭✭✭Boards.ie: Niamh
    Boards.ie Community Manager


    Good morning everyone, I'm going to close this one up now. Thanks for all the questions and answers, this was very interesting. I didn't even know that diving could be a full-time job so there you go :D

    Keep an eye out for our next AMA later today.


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