Diary of a Commercial Diver in Training
“Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god…” We’re all pretty nervous when we arrive in the morning. Official examiners from the regional Andalusian government are going to be overseeing and grading the theoretical and practical part of the exam. IDs and phones on the corner of the table, pencils and calculators ready. We…Continue Reading “Day 23 – Final Exam”
“Diver One, Receiving Loud and Clear” Ronan, John and I, having worked the control panel didn’t go in the water yesterday. It’s our turn today. I can barely contain myself, I am so excited. This is so cool! Having learnt how to do it yesterday, it’s on my colleagues to get me dressed, connected and…Continue Reading “Day 22 – “Heavy Metal””
All the Cool Toys at Once Today is the day, finally we will all look like real commercial divers. When Gautier and the instructors ge the kit ready, we’re all teeming with excitement. The Gas Control Panel comes out and we ready the umbilical. Blue hose for air, yellow gives us the depth of the diver…Continue Reading “Day 21 – Band Masks, Surface-Supplied… Now we’re talking”
The F*$#ING Saw again… We will be taking turns today using the different kinds of equipment we’ve gotten to know so far, while completing the now familiar exercises under water. I’m paired up with Toto and it’s our turn to use the umbilical, through which air will be supplied to us from the surface. Tenders…Continue Reading “Day 20 – Some more surface-supplied diving”
Back out on the Boat We’re back out on the boat today and the ones who didn’t do the deep dive yesterday get to go to 30m today. As we’re headed to the dive site I can barely believe my eyes when I look at the sonar. 137m and all the way down to 145….Continue Reading “Day 19 – Currents and other Annoyances”
NOG or no NOG? After we (hopefully successfully) complete this course we will be trained and legally allowed to work at depths up to 30m. So, today is the time to go deep. For most of the guys, yesterday’s 20m was the deepest they’ve ever been. Ronan and I have had deeper dives in our…Continue Reading “Day 18 – Deep Dive”
Back in the Open Water After giving my sinuses a few days of rest I’m more than ready to get back in the water. Today’s task is training search patterns at 20m depth. The thermometer shows 7 degrees this morning and the fact that the water is twice as “warm” is little consolation. But we’re…Continue Reading “Day 17 – Search and Recovery”
Putting the “Commercial” in our Diving I’m not the biggest fan of getting up early, but today is different. We’re going to use a surface-supplied air source for the first time. This it the part of commercial diving everyone’s seen before, in movies and documentaries, even without knowing anything about it. Everyone’s excited to get…Continue Reading “Day 16 – Diving Surface-Supplied”
Today we spent most of the day in Malaga getting some administrative paperwork out of the way. Nothing too spectacular happened today… So instead… Spectacular Sunrises Since the start of the second week, part of our morning routine, designed to keep us in shape for a physically challenging job, is running. [metaslider id=”995″] And while…Continue Reading “Day 15 – Administrative Stuff…”
Open-Water Orientation for most…. “No-Water” Situation for some… Today, most of the Commercial Divers in training will test their orientation skills in the open water, out in the ocean. I however am banned from the water due to my cold and the trouble I had equalising yesterday. Ronan has to sit this one out as…Continue Reading “Day 14 – First Day out in the Ocean… for most”