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IMCA Surface Supplied Air diver to 50M
Hi all, I wanted to take up the IMCA surface supplied course.Any recommendation?which country is better and cheaper?
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Fish_food on
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Hi Mike
INPP Marseille does do IMCA courses (LST, DMT, air support sup) but no Part 1's or 3's. They offer the French cert; Air SS Top Up Diver (French Certificate Classe II Mention A). The training is the same thing as in British schools.
I'm from France myself and went to Dunoon instead of INPP. Word of mouth said that was the better school and ticket. Now I know that is complete BS.
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Permalink Reply by Mark Askey on
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Hello i just was at IMCA course doing a dive yesterday, i am in my senior month at CDA
in Jacksonville, Florida. I also did the top side welding course before i started Air/Mix Gas
school, i have two more weeks in Jacksonville then i make the trip to Ocala Florida
for the IMCA cert which is a DCBC deal at my school, but the facility was awesome and the
food and surrounds was very nice, the diving side of it was very professionally set up. i should upload the shots of the Forty Fathom Grotto is where CDA deep water training facility is located. I would recommend my school as well, i am from Hawaii, so when i finish up i will returning back to paradise to dive, but i have been down here a total of 5 1/2 months from start to finish including the two weeks at IMCA. We go to school and dive every day
and including all day Saturdays sometimes, so you are wet and in class all the time, it is awesome..
i would recommend this school to any one want to step up and become a commercial diver.
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Permalink Reply by Borat on
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Fish Food unfortunately not always true that you pay your money and get the ticket. I went to the PDA Scotland and seen a guy get put off course with a day of his course remaining. I know people like something that is cheap but not always best option when making a start, this is a pretty tough diciplined training course that felt more like a job than a training experience and most of it is in black water conditions too. Plenty of tools and inspection work with the ships work really pushing you to the limits, anyone reading this who has used a brush cart inverted will understand! The instructors are top drawer and they do not let up from day one until the last day of the course. Luckily for me I passed and believe me when I hit my first inshore civils job I was more than ready for it. Was handed an airlift on day one, which I had used several times on course so went into the water with a wry smile across my face. Been working pretty steady since I left the school and really enjoying my new career. Its true that they are cheaper and give you all you need to get started such as an 03 drysuit etc but dont let that be the decision why you would want to choose them. There strong point is the training and how well prepared you are by the end of the course which is why you find so many PDA trained guys on jobsite in the UK. For sure the real training begins at the start of your working diving life and is a sharp learning curve for all of us, the one thing that was hammered into us was that the diving industry owes no one any favours and we would have to forge our own careers through hard graft and a sensible attitude. I took plenty of time and did my research before I chose where I was going to go for my diver training course including speaking with a couple of diving companies within a 2 - 3 hour drive away. My opinion is not to just go where the cheapest option might be but to go where your going to be best prepared for the beginning of your working career as getting a shot with a company and blowing it on day one could be a costly mistake!
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Borat,
I went to the PDA myself and the PDA like any other school want students first, what kind of training they offer comes second (never said it was bad or less than other schools). That's why they can and do run 3 courses of 12 students at the same time, when it used to be just 12 each 3 months. The only thing you know as a diver just out of school is how to get TO work. Getting the job done is something you can only learn on a job. You will never match a seasoned diver in the first 2 to 3 years. Be advised that once you're in the water the sup. is talking s*** about you, about how slow you are, what kind of stupid questions you're asking and what car you're driving etc.... no mather how many smiles you get on deck. You know why? 'cause you're the f***ing new guy that stood out between other crap over-priced diveschools s*** out nowadays. Because you probably have a bit of potential in you and over the long run even make some money out of you. You mentioned, they pushed us to the limits. Are you talking about that one time where everybody does a 24hr shift on the MV Sleath? (Do they still do that???) Everybody doing 2 dives of 1hr in 24hrs in brand new drybags and undersuits. Dude, if that is your limit or anywhere near it, you're in for a surprise in Civils or any shipping job. Good luck bru
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Fish Food, I agree that there is no way you are going to match a guy with 2 - 3 years experience and if you read my post I actually say the same thing that the real training begins when you start your first job. I was at the diving academy a few months back and they were running two diving courses at that time and had a coded welder program running in the indoor welding tank. When I talk about being pushed, I mean mentally as well as pysically they certainly got the best out of me to a point where I surprised myself. In that respect I am happy that I went to that school as I found the wh*** experience completly professional start to finish, especially as I had never dived before. The working scenarios that we had were akin to the first couple of jobs I was on and it got me off and running at the start of my career. I know it is much more structured now with the Scottish Quaility A****sment board now checking that the tooling side is to there standards as well as the HSE checking the diving side and I dont know if you will get the same training if you dont do the construction package? They were trialing this stuff out with us when we were there so we were pretty fortunate that we didnt have to pay extra. Sounds like youve been working with some right a****** sups since you started, not a great atitude to have for any new guys on site. Dont know if Im getting the same treatment doesnt feel like I have had the s*** youve had to suffer. As for the long dives in wet suits, had the first but fortunalely my drybag has stood up to the rigours so far. However its had a couple of cuffs and boots change in the last month and they say that its best just buying another when you have to replace! They had just swiched from N Diver to 03 shortly before I did my course and I was told that it was a better suit, seems to be lasting ok so far! The one thing I cant do is compare my training to elsewhere just my own experience. From that side I felt it was a good interesting course that prepared me for life as a working diver and everone of us on course had a really enjoyable time in Dunoon (apart from Helga gatecrashing one of our partys in the caravan park)!!!!
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Borat
I'm very lucky I had those a******s as supervisors because they teached me all I know to this day. Why I'm so sceptical towards divingschool is simply because I didn't start my carreer in school like you. I started out with 2 guys wanting to start their own diving bussiness in France, now 10 years ago. After a couple of months, the workload and demand got up and I started to dive aswell but with no certs. So I was allready a diver before I went to school. This gave me a pretty realistic picture what inshore was about instead of what they project at school. That tools a****ment course you're talking about is a joke and I hope you don't mention it on your CV. You don't get tools experience in a couple of hrs but in weeks, months and even years.
Another thing, you buying a new suit every time you need to change the boots and cuffs. Well that's a very expensive habit. Cuffs you can change yourself and it's pretty easy too. All you need is good neoprene cement or glue, spare cuffs (pref. rubber bottleneck or heavy duty seals) and a big round wooden plugg or coffee tin. Boots on the other hand dont wear that quickly. Learn to fix your own suit!
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We were actually told not to put anything about our tooling experience on our cvs as it was carried out in a training enviroment it doesnt count. However that is possibly the difference between us, you were a diver before you went to school. I came from a shirt and tie background and had no prior experience with hydraulic or pneumatic tools or with welding of any sort, so it really helped me out to gain some experience in school. Like I said they didnt charge us anything for it so how can I complain? They brought one of the supervisors in from there sister diving company sheerwater for a couple of weeks on our course and that was a real kick up the ass for many of us. Really depends on your backgroiund I suppose and no doubt it helped me immensly getting a realistic training experience like the other guys I trained with. Unfortunaterly we all have to make a start somewhere and my point is that its an important decision on where you are going to go and it shouldnt just be down to whats the cheapest. If you count the equipment and tooling and inspection work that we got for our outlay, then PDA has to be up there for value for money, but it was actually the reputation for training that swung it for me in the end. For me it was a good choice and I dont regret it for one minute.
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Permalink Reply by stuart anderson on
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I don't want to start sounding like Joseph(!) but NYD. Norway.
http://www.nyd.org/cgi-bin/nyd/imaker?id=538&visdybde=1&akt...
Everything that Dunoon and Ft. Bill give you, with more emphasis on Tools, Rigging, etc, in a longer course (more learnin' time) PLUS TUP operations, for NOK 32000. That's around about £4k last time I looked. It's a Noggy cert, so it's respected pretty much anywhere you'd want to dive, and you will probably get waffles.
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Permalink Reply by Erik Golub on
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Just started my course at NYD. If I can help you with any suggestions, feel free to ask Danny.
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Permalink Reply by Danny lim on
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thank dude, but decided not to take up any courses right now as o just join a salvage company..wanted to gain some experice before going for part 1..
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Hey Erik
I was thinking of going to NYD but theres not much on what they train during the 16 weeks. Do you get training in welding, NDT, tools? In brief do you get the same training at the construction / premium packages as offered in PDA / UDC?
Also how come NYD is so much cheaper than UDC or PDA?
Cheers for any help
Nick
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Hi Nick. I'm actually a little dissapointed by the time and range of tools used but still we used them throughout the wh*** course. We worked with big and small drills, jackhammers, HP and LP cleaning tools, airlift pipes and we got to work with baloons a lot. We did also oxy-arc cutting for a couple of days and only the most basic welding during two days. I can not compare it to the premium or any other kind of package at any other school simply because I don't know how things work at other schools. I wish there was more work with tools. Apart from that I was satisfied. The school comes cheap since it's financed by the norwegian government but I think things will change for future foreign students in some time. You also have to think about living in Norway for 4 months. A beer in a pub is around 10 dollars, a s***ty pizza around 30 USD, a pack of cigarettes around 15 USD.
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