Welcome to my blog site for Commercial Diving Careers

I started my commercial diving careers in 1984 and before that I was a Royal Navy diver for 9 years. I created this website to provide updated information on Commercial Diving careers and enlighten people who want to be a Deep Sea Diver. Here you will learn what you need to know about Commercial Diving and other topside related diving jobs.

Before you go spending your life savings on a commercial diving course, you need to be sure it is the right careers choice for you. Hopefully, the information on this website will help you decide.

Feel free to go through my website and get to know more about
Commercial Diving careers. If you have any questions, please go to the contact
page.

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There are two main categories of commercial diving careers

Firstly, Civil Engineering Diving / Inshore Commercial Diving.

Civil’s, as inshore diving gets called will normally be the first opportunity you will get to work as a commercial diver. Unless you know someone who is already in the diving industry, it is highly unlikely that you will get your first offshore diving job until you have served your apprenticeship as a civil’s diver. Sorry to burst your bubble but that’s how it is. Expect to be doing the civil’s circuit for the first 2 years of your commercial diving careers.

Although civil’s diving is not very well paid it can be great fun if you are single and a good way to learn the different tools and underwater cutting equipment that is used as a commercial diver. Depending on the job and location you will probably stay in a guest house paid for by the client or at least on a living allowance. For the first 2 years of my commercial diving career I worked as a civil’s diver in the Great Yarmouth area and had a fantastic time but alas spent most of my salary as quick as I was earning. So be warned, if you are married commercial diving careers are a fast track to the singles club.

There are various tasks you will be asked to perform as a civil’s diver, anything from hull cleaning, wind farms, reservoir dam repair, slipway repair and broco burning piles in dock yards. The diving schools will only teach you the basics, so any previous topside construction or welding experience is a plus because you need to be a Jack of all trades in the commercial diving industry.

Offshore Diving

Offshore Diving work is seasonal and depends on the oil company’s maintenance and inspection budget, which is influenced by the price of oil. So, when times are hard for the oil company’s they tend to tighten their belts and the first to suffer is ultimately the deepsea diver. Because of this, work wise it can be feast or famine.

Depending on your previous career skills you may want to specialize in something. The big bucks are in hyperbaric coded welding, but unless you are already a time served welder don’t think that you can just do an underwater welding course at one of the diving schools and you’re good to go.

An easier route to offshore deepsea diving riches is by doing the CSWIP underwater inspection certificate paper chase. First you need to do a 2 week CSWIP 3.1U course and examination, which will qualify you to do basic visual inspection and photography then after you have passed you can do the 3.2U course and exam for more advanced underwater NDT techniques. All in you won’t get much change out of 5 grand. You will also have to do a refresher exam every 5 years and prove you have done 100 hours of underwater inspection diving during that time.

Even on a construction diving job in the North Sea the commercial diving companies require most deepsea divers to have a 3.2U just in case the diving job requires some underwater inspection.

A diver medic is required on each dive team so doing a diver medic course instead of just the first aid course may help you get your foot in the offshore diving door.

Air Diving Supervisor

The next step up the commercial diving careers ladder is Air Diving Supervisor, when you have logged 100 offshore air dives you will be eligible to attend the IMCA trainee air diving supervisor course.
Before you can be appointed as an Air Diving Supervisor, you must fulfill the following minimum requirements.

• Logged 200 hours on the dive panel on a minimum of 100 offshore surface dives over a period of 60 days working as a Trainee Air Diving Supervisor.

• have completed a total of 200 offshore commercial air dives.

• Passed the IMCA Air Diving Supervisor examination

Saturation Diver

After a couple of years air diving you will probably want to do a saturation diving course to further your commercial diving careers to the big money. On completion of the saturation diving course, you will also be qualified as an assistant life support technician at no extra cost.

Life Support Technician

The life support technician certificate is worth getting, just in case for some reason you lose your diving medical and your commercial diving careers come to an end.

As a sat diver you will only need to do 360 hours on the saturation chamber panel to qualify to do the life support technician exam, whereas if you only do the assistant life support technician course you will have to complete 2400 hours on the panel.

Closed Bell / Saturation Diving Supervisor

After 3 years as a saturation diver with a minimum 400 lock-out hours in your diving log book, you will be eligible to do the trainee bell diving supervisor course.

Before you can be appointed as a Saturation Diving Supervisor, you must fulfill the following minimum requirements.

• Acted as a Trainee Air Diving Supervisor on a minimum of 10 offshore air dives.

• Have done 360 panel hours working either as a Life Support Technician or as an Assistant Life Support Technician.

• Done at least 350 supervised panel hours on a minimum of 50 bell runs as a Trainee Bell Diving Supervisor over a period of 90 days.

• Been recommended by a diving company following satisfactory reports confirming competence in accordance with the IMCA Competence Assurance and Assessment Scheme.

• Passed both the IMCA Air and Saturation Diving Supervisor examinations.

You can also upgrade from a qualified Air Diving Supervisor to Saturation Diving Supervisor

Having supervised a minimum of 100 offshore air dives you can progress to Saturation Diving Supervisor and do not have to re-sit the Air Diving Supervisor examination module, but you must fulfill the following minimum requirements before being appointed as a Saturation Diving Supervisor.

• Have at least 360 panel hours working either as a Life Support Technician or as an Assistant Life Support Technician.

• Done at least 150 supervised panel hours on a minimum of 20 bell runs as a Trainee Bell Diving Supervisor over a period of 45 days.

• Been recommended by a diving company following satisfactory reports confirming competence in accordance with the IMCA Competence Assurance and Assessment Scheme.

• Passed the IMCA Saturation Diving Supervisor examination.

PLEASE NOTE:

Application to sit both the IMCA supervisor examinations must be made within 3 years of successful completion of the training course and at least half the required panel hours logged within the 2 years prior to the application.

So there you have it, the full commercial diving careers pecking order. Once you reach the dizzy heights of Saturation Diving Supervisor and get some supervising experience, you can go on to become a Saturation Diving Superintendent in charge of the whole diving operation.