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The Roat Deal
Each month John Roat will furnish this page with a new column. Feel free to email him with your questions,
comments, or accusations. This guy's the real deal and he definitely has his very own groove.

Born 11/16/42. I am currently a working diver, surface air/gas and a saturation supervisor. I was a member of Underwater Demolition Teams 21, UDT 11 and SEAL Team 1. I went to work for Taylor Diving and Salvage the end of 1969 as a tender and broke out at Taylor Diving in 1970. I have also worked for Sub Sea, Comex, J. Ray McDermott, Tennessee Valley Authority, Global, Martech, Offshore Petroleum Divers, Cal Dive and too many small companies, some of them very good, to name. Taught rigging, open tanks, harbor and burning for one year at the College of Oceaneering. I authored “Oxy-Arc Underwater Burning Class”, a 90-minute training video and manual, for Oceans Technology.

If I were evaluating myself in this business it would be: good divers, that will leave the next diver well, burn with the best of them. I am proudest of having never bent or injured a diver. I have been running dive’s from 1969, when the tender did the job. I have been supervising since 1977.

I do believe there are more then one good way to do things.
The following are a couple of my opinions, let me know what you think:

Not Tending the Diver
To many times the divers hose is not tended while the tender does something else. Below is the Federal Regulation and my thoughts.

Department of Transportation, Coast Guard, Commercial Diving Operations General Provisions. 197.432 (c) Each Diver is continuously tended while in the water.

The way I see it, it’s about the only unequivocal regulation dealing with diving. If you are instructing others to put down the divers hose or are putting down the divers hose and leaving the diver untended, you are not only endangering his life but making yourself and the company subject to legal action.

Poor Communications
Where we, as a diving community come up short is in verbal communication, topside and in the water. In the water the dive radio is our only way to communicate with our divers. Let me list two ways the radio is commonly used in our business that will make my point.

1)    The diver reports something. Topside keys the radio twice to indicate they understand.
2)    The question will be asked: Are you on the right risers? The diver will reply: Roger.

Neither of the above are good practice, they lead to miss-communication. Good practice would be:

1)    You repeat what the diver has told you. Then if you miss-understood, it can be cleared up.
2)    Facing the risers, counting from the right, you should have three 4” risers and a 6” riser. You should be on 4” riser closest to the to the 6’’ Riser.   “Roger topside I’m on the 4”riser closest to the 6”.

There are two other practices, and one condition, that cause miss-communication.

1)    Little or no training on how to use a dive radio.
2)    The third diver running the dive before he becomes Stand-by Diver, instead of the Supervisor running the dive.
3)    The condition is: TO FEW GOOD RADIOES with headsets.

JSA, JSA, JSA, we all get training on JSA's but changes of plan during a dive, can only be communicated verbally. I don’t care how well you write a JSA, if you can’t communicate it verbally, you have poor communication.

As to # 2: One of the Dive Supervisors main jobs is to tie each divers effort together. How do you do that, if several other people are running the dives?

When I asked my company, they gave me a good radio and headset. It goes on jobs with me; it might not hurt to ask. As a matter of fact I don’t think it would hurt to talk with your company about any work issue that bothers you. I’ve never lost my job for it.

R E S P O N S E:

Posted 10/25/2003

Below is a couple of opinions from guys that hire and work divers, I think all of us should think long and hard about their comments.---jcRoat

MESCO / Stroud Diving
Will F. Hux Engineer

John,
I like your article and I believe it would be of service to divers and diving companies. We have back-slid into a position where the diving tender's minimum qualifications require graduation from a diving school. This leads "fat headed recent graduates" to believe that the tender's job is 'beneath them' and very little attention is given. That's a shame. In the old days the tender was a professional and many were career tenders and happy with that. Look at the old diving photographs and you'll see the tenders proudly standing behind their divers.

I've been the expert witness on diving accidents where the diver had trouble and no one would pull on the umbilical to free the diver......not that they would even think of that, because of the "I'm a diver not a tender" attitude, but it became a situation where afterwards when they were asked "Why didn't you just pull the diver over to the ladder?" and they'd look blank and stammer "I wasn't the tender and the tender was over on the other barge looking at whatever.....)

Communications is another good point.

I applaud your initiative and wish you fair winds and seas.

Will Hux
USMC 69-79
SF 79 - present (Reserves)

and...

Encore Underwater Inc.
Hank Fannin

John,

I'm still an active diver- 33 years in the business. Worked the oil fields all over the world. I have my own small company now, 9 divers working full time but I still do my share.

I agree 100% that divers aren't taught how to use a radio. I insist that they do actually what you say - repeat every transmission. Saying "Roger" means nothing.

I hire a few divers each year and the one glaring problem I find is that few of them have any water skills. They aren't taught squat about buoyancy control and most know little to nothing about how to handle themselves in the water. I've had divers suit up and not be able make it 50 feet across the surface to the work site. All they are taught in school is to go up and down. Without a tender to pull them most could not even make the surface on their own. I've addressed this with Ross Saxon but that's like throwing pearls before swine.

I personalty think the schools are a waste of time. If they are teaching diving skills why is it that it takes we except it as normal that it will take 2 or 3 years of tending before anyone can be called a diver?

One of the main reason is that we no standards for the instructors.
Consider some other profession that requires schooling and a certificate and you'll see what I mean. SCUBA diving, you know those sport divers we all look down our noses at- Their Instructors must work their way up through several levels of practical experience then complete a formal course before they can teach diving. They are taught how to teach. Just because you've been sport diving for years does not mean you can certify others. The same with many, many other professions. I've been driving a car all my adult life. That doesn't mean I'm qualified to teach and certify others to drive. The same goes for pilots, truck drivers, barbers, school teachers, boat captains, and endless list of others. Not so for teaching commercial diving. A couple of years in the field and you're qualified to teach others.

If i had my way - all instructors at commercial schools would be required to at least have a Sport Divers Instructor Rating. At least the students might at least be taught basic diving and water skills.

We know none of them are taught anything except the very basic welding, burning, rigging etc. Hence the years as tenders. Why not require the schools to at least teach diving skills.

Won't to know where I find my best divers? Advanced SCUBA divers, especially Tech and Cave Divers. I can take most anyone of them, put a helmet or bandmask on them and they will dive circles around any recent commercial school grad. I've done it, several times. Why is that? Simple-basic water skills, the ones the commercial schools never teach. Why don't they teach them? They don't know them. Their Instructors are teaching them things like " real divers don't wear fins", a quote from a diver that couldn't make it across a canal to check rip rap on the other side. My SCUBA only trained tender made it with absolutely no problem -the first time he'd ever had a commercial rig on in his life. I see this over and over.

Anyway - I'm off my soap box on this subject.

Hank Fannin
Encore Underwater Inc.

On several occasions I have had divers tell me they do not use fins! As if all work was on the bottom.
jcROAT

What do you think?

click here to email Roat

Sincerely,
John Carl Roat

I will do my best to answer any response to the things I say. That is, if you put your name and e-mail address with it. If there is no name and e-mail address, I won’t post your e-mail and I won’t respond. If you just want to let everyone know how you fell about what I say, without putting your name on it, post it on the discussion board.

John has also authored a book on his experiences in SEAL training.
Click on the cover image to read reviews and order the book .

Real Deal SEAL Team website: <http://sealstrike.com