Working Underwater: The Story of the Commercial Diving Industry

MARINE
DIVING
TECHNOLOGY
CLASS OF
1973–SANTA
BARBARA CITY
COLLEGE
Marine Technology Program Instructors:
Bob Christensen, Jim Parker, and
Ramsey Parks.
Friendships forged and lessons learned
forty-five years ago still bind the 1973 graduates
of the Marine Diving program at Santa
Barbara City College. Twenty-six of the original
forty-four classmates in the Class of 1973
entered the workforce immediately after graduation.
As many as fifteen are still active in the
industry and a number have developed their
own companies, ranging from a tourist
submarine business in the Asia Pacific to a
civil engineering diving firm in San Francisco.
Graduates of the Class of 1973 have
managed the deepest dive ever recorded in
the Gulf of Mexico, developed underwater
welding and nondestructive testing technology,
and participated in the top-secret mission
to recover a Russian nuclear submarine.
“Our class was unique because of the close
bonds created together at the MT Noble Street
shop playing volleyball, building Jorgie’s Reef
on the beach near SBCC, learning to operate
Otto’s boats out of Santa Barbara Harbor, and
making dives in the ADS IV bell system offshore,”
says Tom Belcher. Another graduate,
Gary Kane, notes that, “Our instructors were
legends in the industry and became a major
influence on all of us.”
Three of the instructors best remembered
by the Class of 1973 are Bob Christensen, Jim
Parker, and Ramsey Parks. They conducted
classes for the two-year program that included
everything from physical oceanography to
fundamentals of marine engines and compressors,
and from underwater construction to
marine law and economics.
“We couldn’t ask for any better and they
certainly trained us on how to act, figure out,
and defend ourselves and to develop our
abilities and skill sets into what we were to
become,” comments Belcher.
“We were trained professionally by our great
teachers and we owe them big time,” adds Pete
Metson. “They provided us with the opportunity
to have a successful career, make a lot of
money, and work with a lot of great people.”
Among the graduates who went on to successful
careers in the industry are Gary Kane,
John McClure, Pete Metson, Tom Belcher,
Tom Ulrich, Ray Chamberlain, William “Billy”
Robinson, and Greg Bryant.
Ulrich grew up in Santa Barbara and
had his scuba certification by the age of
fourteen. His early career took him to many
locations including the Gulf of Mexico, the
North Sea, Mexico, Japan, the Pacific Basin,
and his current home in Alaska. He has made
it through the ranks to become Alaska
Regional Manager and Vice President with
American Marine International.
Chamberlain has spent forty years offshore
working in diving internationally, ROVs, and
as a client’s representative. Chamberlain
believes that the marine technology program
at SBCC gave its graduates the skills and confidence
to pursue their ambitions. “I have
fond memories and lots of gratitude for our
instructors,” he says.
Metson went to work for SubSea
International soon after graduation and wasted
little time in rising up the corporate ladder,
eventually becoming the number two man.
Metson was involved in building the first
permanent North Sea fixed platform jacket
installations in the BP Forties Field. He
obtained his MBA from Tulane and completed
his dive career by helping build SSI into a
mega-firm that is now a major part of SubSea
Seven, one of the largest underwater contractors
in the world.
Kane left Santa Barbara and spent the
next ten years establishing himself in the
industry, working with Metson, Belcher,
Ulrich, Robinson, Chamberlain, and others
in the North Sea. After returning to the Gulf
of Mexico, he continued working offshore
where he supervised a working saturation
dive to 1,073 feet, a record still today. Moving
on in his career, he opened his own consultancy
company in 1996, which he sold in
2015. An active writer, he has written over a
dozen articles for Underwater Magazine.
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