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The unique and adventurous program making commercial diving accessible to the next generation

A diver scales a wharf.
Caroline Feraday
/
KCLU
A Santa Barbara City College Student scales Sterns Wharf as part of their Marine Technology Program

Santa Barbara City College offers a unique Marine Technology program.

Passersby on Sterns Wharf probably don’t notice this small group of divers on one side. They're scaling the side of the pier, in full commercial diving gear, and all we can hear from the wharf is the sound of them breathing underwater, because the microphone in their helmet is wired to a box on the surface.

Bubbles rise above each diver as they descend underwater. A couple of minutes later, there are some flashes of light, and the bubbles change color. These divers are learning how to weld and burn underwater. It’s part of a marine diving technology program offered at Santa Barbara City College.

"Those bubbles right there right now that are clean, those are just regular oxygen. But the brown ones that you see with flashes of light, those are hydrogen actually catching on fire and little explosions," explains underwater welding instructor David Calvert.

"We're using an exothermic rod that we need 150 amps to burn," he explains.

Two people work with several pieces of electronic equipment, which allows divers to communicate through their helmets.
Caroline Feraday
/
KCLU
The students can communicate via a microphone in their helmet

Calvert was a commercial diver for decades and says that for this next generation of divers, this educational program is unique.

"Santa Barbara City College is the only one that offers underwater welding, underwater cutting, as well as the path to the A.S.," said Calvert.

A career in commercial diving can be lucrative, but it also comes with opportunities for adventure, which appeal to student Joshua Bryant.

"I'm from Louisiana. When I was in high school, I was coming across the road of how I got out of my town," he explained.

"What we're learning right here is pretty much commercial diving at its finest. Underwater burning, underwater welding, non-destructive testing, everything that a commercial diver does, that's what we're here to do. My plan after this is, go straight to work. I just wanna chase that check, you know? And my goal is probably to hit up the Pacific Ocean, go for Mexico, and go to the North Sea and the Arabian Sea," said Bryant.

Bubbles swirl in the water below a pier. A diving tether line snakes down from the pier and into the water.
Caroline Feraday
/
KCLU
Students practice their underwater welding and burning techniques

The course’s instructor, Emma Horanic, is an alumnus of the program. She said that while the job is rewarding, it's also dangerous. Getting the right training is critical.

"There are a lot of safety precautions that go into it, and yeah, sometimes you do get shocked. I mean, it's sort of part of it," said Horanic.

"A lot of people come in and they're like, 'Oh, I wanna be an underwater welder.' But what a lot of them don't realize is that there's way more to commercial diving than just underwater welding. We have classes in seamanship, hydraulics, diving classes, scuba classes...there's hyperbaric chamber operations, diving first aid, rigging...everything that goes into becoming a commercial diver," she said.

"The cool thing about commercial diving is there's so much versatility in the careers and jobs you can do. You could be a nuclear power plant diver, you could be an inland bridge inspector. You can be an offshore pipeline installer, a ship's husbandry welder or repairer. There's so many different components and aspects," said Horanic.

Santa Barbara has a close history as the birthplace of deep-sea diving—it was in the Santa Barbara Channel that a way to dive to a deeper setting was developed—using helium mixed with oxygen to bypass nitrogen narcosis.

"You have this really great history here for diving and then the local community, too, who's also aware," she said.

It's a fitting setting for training the next generation of underwater workers.

Caroline joined KCLU in October 2020. She won LA Press Club's Audio Journalist of the Year Award in 2022, 2023 and 2024.

Since joining the station she's also won 10 Golden Mike Awards, 6 Los Angeles Press Club Awards, 4 National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards and a Regional Edward R. Murrow Award for Excellence in Writing.

She started her broadcasting career in the UK, in both radio and television for BBC News, 95.8 Capital FM and Sky News and was awarded by Prince Philip for her services to radio and journalism in 2007.

She has lived in California for eleven years and is both an American and British citizen - and a very proud mom to her daughter, Elsie.