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Comment by Don Barthelmess on September 25, 2009 at 10:15pm

Hi Lisa- thanks for the update on Travis. Glad to hear he is doing well and thanks so much for your kind words. Nice to see his hard work paying off.

Comment by Lisa Iversen on September 25, 2009 at 2:41pm

Hello Mr. Barthelmess,
Thanks so much for the add. I am Travis Smith's Mother. He graduated from SBCC's Program May 15, 2008. I'm so glad to be part of this group. Travis loved your program, and we (my family) love telling all our friends what a great program SBCC's is.
Travis is working for C-Dive, a small company out of Houma, LA, and he loves it. (the work, Louisiana....not so much.) C-Dive is a relativly small company compared to Epic, and some of the other larger companies Travis was looking at when he got down there, and was looking for work. He has been on several rig fixes, and because it is bad luck to shave while off shore, he has gone a little "Grizzley Adams" on us. Anyway, he was working as a Tender, and doing some scuba work in one of the bayous down there. As a matter of fact, one of his first jobs with C-Dive was moving 500 bouys, and 1000 feet of pipe. They worked in teams of two divers. One in the water, and one on the deck of the boat looking out for alligators and snakes. I told him that was a bit TMI for mom, and said that when he does that sort of work he didn't need to tell me. I would probably be the first notifyed if something happened.

They were off shore ready to work on a rig (I think) but the dive boat could not get to the platform because of some pipes or something in the way. The wind came up so they came back on shore for 8 hours. While on shore, one of the divers was injured, and Travis' Supervisor called him, and asked him to come dive. We think its great. He just got back from being out 20 days. He has been cleaning out pipe with a high pressure hose. We think its great that his supervisor thinks enough of him to have him start diving so soon.
Your program, truly tranformed Travis, from a young man with no real purpose, to a young man who now knows he is the bright, thoughtful young man we all knew he was. He set a goal when he went to SBCC, and worked very hard to reach it. Now he is putting his new skills, and work ethic to good use. My family and I, want to thank all of the instructor's there in SBCC's program for helping him realize his dreams. I told him about this group on c-diver.net, and I see he has joined. I joined the network to meet, and talk to other divers about what they do, their families and their lives in general. I have met some very nice divers on this page. I have asked questions, and someone alway sends an answere. Its great. This is the first time that Travis has lived out of CA. As a matter of fact, he lived here in Morro Bay since he was 1 year old. Louisiana is a bit of a culture shock, for a surfer dude form CA. :) He has connected with several of the guys in his class, and get together with them when their schedules allow.

Well, I'd better go, I tend to write short stories instead of just a quick comment. I just wanted you to know how much appreciated you, and your fellow instructors at SBCC are. You are the bomb...as they say.
Sincerely,
Lisa Iversen (Travis Smith's Mom)