Not sure what is going on with the Commercial Diving Schools for the last few years, but there is one thing for sure, the quality of divers they are putting out leaves a lot to your imagination. Maybe the bigger commercial diving companies can get by with just a back-bone with papers, but the smaller diving companies, like mine, needs that back- bone to have more experience to go with the paper work.

Yes, I am ripping the commercial diving schools and the way they operate. Not all of you, but you know who you are, laughing all the way to the bank with very little product to show for it. I have seen more under experienced so called commercial divers just out of school, looking for work, that I wouldn’t hire to push a broom. I will admit that the diving industry is a strange world. Either you like diving or you don’t, commercially or recreationally. If you like diving, some of us get ate up with it like me. It is my life and what I live for, maybe that’s why I get so disappointed when I see a commercial or recreational diving school put out less than quality divers.

Come on guys, “Schools, Instructors, Dive Shops, and yes you want to be Divers”, there is more to being a diver than being a card carrier. You need time in the water, you have to get wet or you are going to be a burden to all who cares about the business. Mainly the schools out there, you need to care about the product you are producing! I know some of you are going to use the old excuse of teaching the Minimum Standards. But think about it, what does Minimum mean, just enough to get by or be legal? Some of us need more from you!

And for you guys that want to be a commercial diver with no diving experience, “none”, it is just as much your fault. Get wet, dive for a few years before taking a commercial diving course. These schools don’t have a problem taking your money and putting out inexperienced divers. Anyone can blow bubbles from a hard hat, but can you dive and get a job done at the same time?

To sum it up, the commercial diving industry is risky enough. That the last thing you need is having to worry about a commercial diver on a job site that never dove a lick in his life till he went to commercial diving school. Would you want this guy to back you up or be your stand-by diver if you get in trouble? 

Let me know what you think.......................  

Mike Jackson
uwsrvcs@msn.com
www.uwservicesllc.com