I am the Head Diver for the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office Dive Unit, south of San Francisco. We are losing folks; they are aging out and retiring. We are not tough guys, but many recreational divers don’t want to do this type of dirty water diving. We need volunteers and a few paid divers.
We are a NAUI Public Safety Diving Training Center and Lifeguard Systems rules operation. The problem is simple: Do you want to dive in freezing temps in black water at night in 20 kt winds under the San Mateo Bridge on a vehicle off the bridge? We require a minimum of 100 (prefer 250+) dives + Rescue Diver and then a PSD cert (which we teach and can certify you). We walk the line between Rec diver and serious diving nasty things. We offer graduated training and only put our divers into situations they can handle. My job is to look at each dive and say, “No way, too dangerous.”
We have four boats, including a 35′ dive vessel, RIBS, and two jet skis for surf rescue. We teach Kirby hard hat, Subsalve Vehicle Recovery Systems, lift bags, etc.
We cover the south end of the San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Coast from San Francisco to Santa Cruz with USCG. Over the decades, we have hundreds of cruise and freighter hull searches, drug drop recoveries, weapon recoveries, downed planes, US Navy torpedos, capsized boats with junkies inside, murder weapons, cars, guns, recycle bins with victims inside, even reservoir surveys. No one seems to care. We are at our wit’s end to recruit folks. Email me if you’re interested in working with us. We train.
Geoffrey Baehr
Email me
PS: I have been diving since 1968 and have been an Instructor since 1983. I dived with Amos Nachoum, who was my UW photo teacher; he is the best. I love Undercurrent and all your work.
Hello Geoffrey,
I empathize with your plight. I did 10 years of commercial diving – some construction, but mostly oilfield, then segued to Professional Firefighting, scuba Instruction & EMR teaching. I agree that most recreational divers would balk at the kind of diving you describe. I’m 66 now, thus a little too long in the tooth to run down there and help y’all out!
Have you approached the Firefighting community? Seems to me there should be some good numbers of folks there that would be interested. Is there any remuneration for these volunteers? Our part-time Firefighters up my way earn about $20.00 / hr. for responding. I know money is tight, but you’ll likely need to find some somewhere to sweeten the experience.
Best of luck to you.
DeepSeaDan