scubajoe
October 19th, 2005, 12:59 AM
I went to Ocean Corporation in Houston last weekend for a commercial dive experience. It was great! I spent the weekend pretending to be a commercial diver.
Saturday morning we tried four different "hats" in the tank. The first one I tried was a Desco constant flow. It was a new experience. Next I tried a Superlight, pretty nice hat. The Gorskey 2000 wouldn't fit my head so I didn't get to try it. The other one was a neoprene hat, kind of different then the others but quite comfortable. We had plenty of time in the water with each of the hats. They ran us through all the normal commercial procedures, com check and bail out check. After lunch we bolted up a pipe and flange while breating 80/20 Heliox. Talking like Donald Duck we proceeded to pick up a couple hundred pound pipe and flange with a lift bag. My first experience lift, it was much easier then I imagined. My buddy and I guided the pipe into place and bolted it up reasonably easy. They shot video of us with an ROV. It was fun. When we finished our 3 minute stop at 10 feet we spent some time in the chamber. We had no deco obligation but they put us in the chamber to show us how it really works. The chamber ride was quite loud and uncomfortable but a great experience.
Sunday we welded...ok attempted to weld. My welding was quite poor but I think it was actually better then my last topside try. Welding was fun but cutting......now that was really cool. Kinda like an underwater light saber. The "torch" was electric. It used a hollow rod with magnesium rods in it. When you pushed the trigger O2 fed through the rod, then you touched the grounded metal and the fun began. It cut through pipe like butter. They told us it would cut what ever you wanted to cut. They made sure we were not pointed toward the side of the tank. I seriously assaulted a piece of pipe. We could use it as long as we wanted.....I had so much fun I did it again after the others were done. I'm sure the peices of steel in my luggage really confused the TSA guys.
We also tried some magnetic non destreuctive testing. That was pretty interesting as well.
If I was quite a bit younger I'd quit my job and take their 7 month program and become a real commercial diver. The weekend was well worth the price, I may do it again next time.
I will post info about the next CDE they offer.
We were told that there is 4 years woth of work in the gulf due to the hurricanes. And that doesn't include all the regular diving work. The diving contractors a begging for qualified help. Now would be a great time to get in the trade.
I'll try and post some photos when I get them
Joe
Saturday morning we tried four different "hats" in the tank. The first one I tried was a Desco constant flow. It was a new experience. Next I tried a Superlight, pretty nice hat. The Gorskey 2000 wouldn't fit my head so I didn't get to try it. The other one was a neoprene hat, kind of different then the others but quite comfortable. We had plenty of time in the water with each of the hats. They ran us through all the normal commercial procedures, com check and bail out check. After lunch we bolted up a pipe and flange while breating 80/20 Heliox. Talking like Donald Duck we proceeded to pick up a couple hundred pound pipe and flange with a lift bag. My first experience lift, it was much easier then I imagined. My buddy and I guided the pipe into place and bolted it up reasonably easy. They shot video of us with an ROV. It was fun. When we finished our 3 minute stop at 10 feet we spent some time in the chamber. We had no deco obligation but they put us in the chamber to show us how it really works. The chamber ride was quite loud and uncomfortable but a great experience.
Sunday we welded...ok attempted to weld. My welding was quite poor but I think it was actually better then my last topside try. Welding was fun but cutting......now that was really cool. Kinda like an underwater light saber. The "torch" was electric. It used a hollow rod with magnesium rods in it. When you pushed the trigger O2 fed through the rod, then you touched the grounded metal and the fun began. It cut through pipe like butter. They told us it would cut what ever you wanted to cut. They made sure we were not pointed toward the side of the tank. I seriously assaulted a piece of pipe. We could use it as long as we wanted.....I had so much fun I did it again after the others were done. I'm sure the peices of steel in my luggage really confused the TSA guys.
We also tried some magnetic non destreuctive testing. That was pretty interesting as well.
If I was quite a bit younger I'd quit my job and take their 7 month program and become a real commercial diver. The weekend was well worth the price, I may do it again next time.
I will post info about the next CDE they offer.
We were told that there is 4 years woth of work in the gulf due to the hurricanes. And that doesn't include all the regular diving work. The diving contractors a begging for qualified help. Now would be a great time to get in the trade.
I'll try and post some photos when I get them
Joe