My brother is interested in becoming a commercial diver/underwater welder. He is considering going to the Commercial Diving Academy in Jacksonville, FL. Does anyone know anything about this school? What is the best way for him to go about becoming a commercial diver? Any opinions are appreciated.

4/29/2008 7:39:05 PM

Ryan I don't know much about it, but I would direct him here:

http://www.scubaboard.com

Someone on there is bound to know someone who went, or went themselves.

4/29/2008 8:10:29 PM

Thanks man, i appreciate it.

4/29/2008 8:14:27 PM

reminds me of a kid on Spring Break in the Bahamas...

got in a fight with some sorority girl, then responded with "you don't know me, i'm an underwater welder bitch!", and all the snobby kids laughed at him til he got arrested

4/29/2008 8:27:49 PM

Beware of commercial diving. While commercial divers make something equivalent to $400/hr to perform job duties, the long periods of high-pressure atmosphere can leave your bones brittle by the time you're middle aged. A master diver once was telling us about one man who was already on a cane by 47 because of the erosion of his bones from the nitrogen purging and taking calcium with it from the tissue or some such process.

Just know the risks involved.

4/29/2008 10:50:07 PM

plus you can't see your hands in front of your face and the accident risks of your crew dropping something on you and you not being able to know or get out of the way.

4/29/2008 10:57:13 PM

Quote :

"Beware of commercial diving. While commercial divers make something equivalent to $400/hr to perform job duties, the long periods of high-pressure atmosphere can leave your bones brittle by the time you're middle aged. A master diver once was telling us about one man who was already on a cane by 47 because of the erosion of his bones from the nitrogen purging and taking calcium with it from the tissue or some such process. Just know the risks involved."

Don't go passing on something you aren't 100% sure about. Hearsay isn't the best of things...

4/29/2008 11:01:37 PM

I would assume it has a good amount of merit, this was my dive instructor. I'm just saying, because I haven't researched it, I know nothing more than what my instructor said.

4/29/2008 11:05:32 PM

haha, just because they are a dive instructor doesn't mean they are all that knowledgeable about diving

4/29/2008 11:06:26 PM

Ol' "SCUBA Joe" was a pretty knowledgeable guy, ran a shop out of Laurinburg, NC. He did private instruction and ran the classes at St. Andrew's Presbyterian College. Got my open water certification from him.

He wasn't much the "resort" type dive instructors you see in some hot vacation places.

[Edited on April 29, 2008 at 11:12 PM. Reason : .]

4/29/2008 11:11:37 PM

While I certainly don't want to discount what your dive instructor said, the first thing I learned during training is that most instructors don't know much about diving.

My point was that you need to have references if you're going to say something like that. Hearsay and "he said she said" just doesn't cut it. A good place to start would be here:
http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/dspace/index.jsp

Something like this:

http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/5280

Quote :

"Abstract: Radiographs of the long bones (humerus, femur and tibia) of 1830 commercial divers, mainly British and American and working in the North Sea, have been collected in the Registry over the last 5 years. Although in 1971 only 127 sets of films were received, by 1975 the annual intake had increased to 1302. Three or more sets of annual films are held for leach of 213 men (11.6%). Each set of films was examined and assessed by at least two of the MRC Decompression Sickness Panel's advisers+ Definite lesions of bone necrosis were found in 35 men (1.9%) and suspected lesions in another 42 men (2.3%). There were 21 definite juxta-articular lesions and 46 definite head, neck or shaft lesions. Only one juxta-articular lesion was in a femoral head but there were 21 such lesions in humeral heads. The distal femur was the commonest site for necrosis (33 lesions). There were 11 lesions in the proximal tibia. The proportion of men with definite and suspected lesions combined rises both with age from 1.1% (18-24 years) to 7.9% (40 years and over) and with diving experience from 2.5% (5 years or less) to 7.1% (more than 20 years) . +Radiographs were examined and reported on by Decompression Sickness Panel observers Drs. J.K. Davidson, P.D. Griffiths, J.A.B. Harrison, P. Jacobs, R.I. McCallum and C.K. Warrick."

Note this study was published in 1976 by the Undersea & Hyperbaric Medical Society. I'm sure there have been more recent studies done.

[Edited on April 29, 2008 at 11:17 PM. Reason : ]

4/29/2008 11:16:54 PM

http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/commercialdiving/more.html

There, are you happy Charles? A tiny sliver of government fact. I didn't want to be an end-all do-all. I just wanted to be semi-informative to encourage more thought and research into the issue. I'm tired, I'm drunk, I have to wake up for work in the morning and I just want to enjoy this buzz I have right now, Mr. Buzzkill Buzzkillington.

I too have seen many instructors that are not knowledgeable about different aspects of diving.

So OSHA says bone lesions are reported in 6.3% British divers, mainly for those who go below 100 ft.

Am I mad at you Charles? I think not.

[Edited on April 29, 2008 at 11:32 PM. Reason : Anger and rage.]

4/29/2008 11:29:00 PM

Quote :

"government fact"

THERE'S an oxymoron if I've ever heard one.

Quote :

"Mr. Buzzkill Buzzkillington."

You sound like Seth MacFarlane.


Thanks for providing actual information. I just didn't want someone to come into the thread with "My best friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who's going with the girl that said..."

4/29/2008 11:42:59 PM

well actually my best friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who's going with the girl that said that diving is fun, but commercial diving is dangerous, but at least they let you go fishing every now and again.

4/30/2008 8:29:47 AM