r/commercialdiving

I will be attending the CDA in Brisbane, QLD. What dive boots do you recommend I get? The student handbook is very vague and just says "booties."

Just like the title says, I’m curious to know what/if any companies offer paid training or courses, maybe for an exclusive work contract or something along those lines?

I’ll try my best to be straightforward and to the point as I’m sure you’ve seen hundreds of these.

To give background I’m 19 in Florida and using GI Bill.

I’ve been researching what dive school is best for me and to maximize my GI bill use. The more I look the more I see that the dive school isn’t really important and that the company you work for will teach you the work they want you to do after tending for a couple years.

I simply want to know what anyone has to say about the different schools which might help me make my choice. The simplest choice would be FCDI since it’s in state however I’m still very interested in Ocean Cooperation, DIT, and SBCC. I also have personal reasons to attend a west cost school but they’re not a determining factor.

Any feedback, opinions or stories are appreciated.

Hi all, I’m looking to go offshore and am aware that C-Dive and Triton just came together.. If I could go anywhere it would be there. Please DM me I have a few years of inland experience

Just got brought on with an inland company and after my 10 day trial period ill need to negotiate my hourly rate, I don't want to ask for too much money but I also don't want to undersell myself. I have next to no diving experience out of school but Los Angles is also a very expensive place to live, if anyone who has worked in the area knows what I should be shooting for any advice would be super helpful. I'm pretty sure they work around 60-80 hour weeks but I'm pretty much clueless about what is good pay or not. Thanks

Hi Reddit!

Right now, I am safely on dry land, but for a large chunk of the year, my home is a hyperbaric chamber about the size of a service van, shared with three other grown men.

Because of the extreme depths of my commercial diving work (mostly maintaining oil rigs and pipelines 300+ feet down), my body has to be kept under immense pressure the entire time. If I were to come to the surface normally, the pressure drop would kill me instantly. So, we live in a pressurized chamber on the ship, get locked into a diving bell to go to work on the sea floor, and lock back into our chamber at night. When the job is done, we have to spend up to five days just slowly decompressing.

It is a bizarre, stressful, and incredibly claustrophobic world, and almost nobody knows it exists.

A few quick realities of the job:

We sound like Alvin and the Chipmunks: Because of the depth, we breathe a heliox mix (helium and oxygen). The helium makes our voices incredibly high-pitched. We have unscrambler microphones just so the surface crew can understand our safety reports.

The ocean is a void: At those depths, it is pitch black, freezing cold, and feels like you are walking on the moon. You are entirely dependent on your umbilical cord for heat, light, and air.

The food is tasteless: High pressure messes with your congestion and taste buds. Everything tastes like cardboard, so we drown all our meals in the hottest hot sauce available.

My Proof: \[Link to verified photo of my diving logbook and commercial certification next to my Reddit username\]

I'm chilling on my couch today with normal atmospheric pressure, so ask me anything! Whether it's about the psychological toll, the crazy marine life, how we use the bathroom in a pressurized capsule, or the pay—fire away.

AMA!

Hi everyone. I'm a saturation diver working offshore, mainly on subsea oil and gas projects. I live in a pressurized saturation system for several weeks at a time and travel to the worksite in a closed diving bell. Once you're saturated, there's no need to decompress after every dive—you stay at pressure until the end of the job, then complete one long decompression before returning to normal atmospheric pressure.

Most of my work involves underwater construction, pipeline tie-ins, valve replacements, inspections, and maintenance of subsea infrastructure. Every dive is carefully planned, and safety procedures are taken very seriously because there's very little room for error at those depths.

One thing people don't realize is how quickly a routine job can change. A simple hydraulic leak or a tool malfunction is enough to stop the entire operation while the supervisors assess the situation. I've seen dives called off after hours of preparation because something didn't look right. It can be frustrating, but that's exactly why the industry has such a strong safety record.

The lifestyle isn't for everyone. You're away from home for long periods, living in a small chamber with the same few people, but the work is rewarding, technically challenging, and the pay reflects the risks and specialized training involved.

Ask me anything about saturation diving, diving bells, decompression, offshore life, equipment, marine life, training, or the industry in general.

Was thinking of going offshore and wanted to see how busy it is

I am fresh out of dive school with my ADCI cert and just got my IMCA DMT cert which I was expecting to hep me find a job. I would prefer to go the inland route but really I'm just trying to follow the money. It doest seem like my DMT is helpful in the inland job market whatsoever, do I need to go offshore for that to mean anything or what do I need to be doing differently. All I have gotten is offers from companies that offer some abysmal pay with a lot of them either not willing to dive me without me buying my own hat or companies that I hear only horror stories about after doing a little research. If anyone knows somewhere in need of DMTs or just any advice would be really helpful.

I am 19 in Minnesota, was wondering what certs I should get before going to one of the out of state dive schools and if I would be able to get all the needed certs to work as a diver without having to leave my state?

Hey everyone,

I've been doing a lot of research on commercial diving lately and I wanted to reach out to people with real experience before I make any big decisions.

A bit about me: I'm a mechanical engineer with about 3 years in the aerospace industry, but I've always struggled with office life. The jobs I've enjoyed most were physically demanding ones — construction sites where you're constantly doing different things, unloading trucks, carrying materials, that kind of thing. I also worked in greenhouses for a while and loved being active, but the repetitiveness killed it for me. I'm the kind of person who genuinely enjoys feeling physically wrecked at the end of the day from doing something productive, not just lifting weights at the gym for the sake of it.

I'm also really into scuba diving, especially cave diving where visibility is basically zero. I know that sounds strange but there's something about it that I find genuinely peaceful rather than scary.

So commercial diving started making a lot of sense to me on paper — physically demanding, underwater, but I have a few questions I'm hoping people here can answer honestly:

1- Is 28/29 too late to start, especially for the offshore/North Sea sector?

I've read it's not a dealbreaker, but I'd love to hear from people who started around that age. How competitive is it really when you're up against 22-year-olds fresh out of school?

2- Can you actually make a living in the first few years?

I keep reading that entry-level commercial diving pay has dropped a lot and that a skilled welder or electrician might actually earn more. I'm okay earning less if I'm doing something I love, but "less" has a limit — I need to be able to cover rent, eat, and travel at least once a year. What does realistic income look like in year 1–3 as a surface supply or air diver in the North Sea?

3- Should I do a welding or NDT course before diving school?

My thinking is that coming in with a trade skill would make me more employable right out of school. Is that actually how it works, or do companies care more about your dive hours and certifications at that stage? Would a coded welding ticket or an NDT Level 2 actually move the needle?

4- I'm looking at NYD (Norsk Yrkesdykkerskole) in Norway, aiming for November 2026 or March 2027.

Has anyone gone through their program? What's the quality like compared to other IMCA-recognized schools? Is it well regarded by North Sea contractors, or is it just "good enough"? Are there better alternatives in Europe for someone specifically targeting offshore work in that region — places like the Dutch Diving Academy, Comex in France, or any UK schools — and if so, what makes them stand out? I chose NYD partly because of the location and the fact that it already puts you in Norway which feels like a natural foot in the door for North Sea work, but I don't want to pick a school based on geography alone if the reputation difference is significant. Would love to hear from hiring managers or working divers on whether the school on your CV actually matters or if certifications and attitude are what get you the job.

And following that — how much does the specific school actually influence your chances of getting hired? Is there a noticeable difference in how quickly graduates from more prestigious schools get their first contract, or does everyone more or less start at the same level once you have your IMCA ticket and it just comes down to hours and attitude?

5- What do you wish you had known before starting?

Anything about the lifestyle, the waiting around between jobs, the physicality of the course itself, the culture on dive vessels, or just general stuff nobody tells you until you're already in.

For context on location preference: I want somewhere cold, grey, and harsh. Ireland is honestly too warm and sunny for me (yes, really). The North Sea feels like exactly the kind of environment I'd thrive in.

Any advice, brutal honesty, or even discouragement is welcome. I'd rather know the reality now than find out after I've paid for school.

Thanks in advance.

Any UK divers who could share their experience of wind farm work in the UK? Is there much of it, do you enjoy it, and how does it compare to offshore oil and gas?