'I repair things underwater': He braves sharks, stingrays for a living

In this series, people from all walks of life offer an inside – often unfiltered – take on their livelihoods and what keeps them going in their jobs. In this instalment, hear from commercial diver Nicholas Ng as he dives deep into the high-risk yet fulfilling elements of the job, as told to The Straits Times.

I am 35, and I have been a commercial diver since 2021. As a freelance offshore air diver, I help to repair and replace underwater structures for oil and gas companies. I dive to depths of 30m to 50m, with an umbilical connected to the surface for air and communication. My assignments have ranged from seven days in Songkhla, Thailand, to three-month stints in Qatar.

I also do inland diving jobs, which mostly involve ship husbandry in shallower depths of up to 30m, starting with cleaning and maintaining ships and propellers. After 1½ years, I moved on to underwater construction work, doing repair and maintenance.

Then I dabbled in salvage work too, which involves recovering wrecks and underwater debris.

When I tell people that I work as a diver, they often think I teach diving or I am a scuba instructor. I tell them that I repair things underwater, and they often think it’s cool.

People also often think all commercial divers get paid a lot, like $200,000 a year. But it all depends on the type of commercial diver you are. Inshore divers may start out at about $36,000 a year.

Ironically, I never liked the water or swimming. My sister, who’s a diver, used to encourage me to dive, but I wasn’t really interested.

But I was at Sentosa beach one day and saw a group of people jumping off a boat with ropes, hoses and big helmets. I wondered what they were doing. A Caucasian guy who happened to be standing beside me explained that they were commercial divers.

I learnt from him that he was a passionate recreational diver and wildlife conservationist. He invited me to his house, which was like Batman’s Bat Cave – full of brightly coloured diving gear and equipment. I felt like a kid in Toys ‘R’ Us.

His stories about his adventures and his commercial diving friends were fascinating and truly inspiring. I later went online and registered for a commercial diving course, which I took unpaid leave to attend. I was a property manager for a condominium back then, and an infantry specialist with the Singapore Army for six years before that.

I never expected to be a diver, but it’s grown on me. And I have brought at least 12 people into this industry, and five into offshore work with me.

I now call the friendly stranger who changed the course of my career “Uncle Botak”. His actual name is Dan, and he’s been my mentor and life coach. Every year, we organise diving lessons for the kids from children's homes.

I signed up for training and certifications at KBA Training Centre, which offers four levels of inland/inshore commercial diving courses in Singapore. I also took the additional International Marine Contractors Association-approved diver medic technician course here.

The Level 1 Commercial Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus certification and Level 2 Surface Supplied Diving Equipment certification entailed 240 hours of practical and 80 hours of theory over about 40 days. Singaporeans and permanent residents can offset up to 70 per cent of the course fees with their SkillsFuture credits.

There is a lot of maths and science involved in diving, and we also have to understand the laws of physics, such as Boyle’s Law (air volume) and Henry’s Law (the concept of gradual ascent in diving).

We also needed to learn to recognise the signs and symptoms of diving injuries. Some are silent injuries, so you must be able to tell from the colour of someone’s skin and pupil dilation.

Not everyone is cut out for the job. Some people have a fear of drowning and feel claustrophobic wearing a diving helmet. Others may have panic attacks underwater and start hyperventilating or, worse, try to remove their diving helmet in their panicked state.

Another diver enjoyed the diving portion of the job but quit after encountering a moray eel which scared him, while others realised that commercial diving was not for them. Some divers quit after a few weeks on the job because it is too gruelling. The hours can be ungodly and irregular, with inshore jobs that can start as early as 2am, and the work requires a lot of physical stamina and strength.

With the commercial self-contained underwater breathing apparatus level 1 certification, I was able to apply for jobs at fish farms and benign water projects – such as in reservoirs and ponds – but these opportunities would be hard to come by.

Most companies require level 2 certification, which requires surface-supplied diving, for operations within Singapore waters. I furthered my training and got my offshore diving certificate in Scotland, which has enabled me to do commercial diving internationally.

I prefer to work offshore, or far from land, as there are fewer distractions when you don't have to think about bills, food and daily expenses.

The best thing about the job is the silence. No one can see me, and the fish cannot judge me or say anything. As long as I follow my supervisor's instructions and do the job safely, I get paid for it.

I work in darkness with a limited field of vision half of the time. Sometimes, there are sediments from the seabed and millions of jellyfish eggs that can prevent you from seeing clearly.

We typically have 12-hour shifts that could start at 5am, with teams typically comprising one supervisor and six or seven divers on dive support vessels.

To prevent overwork, I set a 40:60 ratio for work and rest. This means working a maximum of five months a year on offshore jobs.

I’m now on a strict plan to save up for a £36,000 (S$62,000) saturation diving certification course in the United Kingdom in 2027.

This would let me progress to doing prolonged underwater work at depths of up to 300m – usually for construction, inspection and repair work for oil and gas, and renewable energy companies.

Saturation divers are trained to undergo very deep or prolonged dives. This entails living in a hyperbaric chamber on board a barge or ship for the length of an assignment, which can be up to 25 days. A pressurised diving bell, which connects directly to the living chamber, takes divers down underwater and up, like an elevator. Saturation divers must decompress for three to four days at the end of the assignment.

Because the job is so demanding, saturation divers are the best paid, earning about US$1,200 (S$1,550) a day.

I work at the Jasmine Oil Field, an offshore oil and gas asset in the Gulf of Thailand, every three or six months for cyclic inspection and maintenance.

Marine life is abundant there, with sperm whales, whale sharks, hammerhead sharks and dolphins. I once saw a 2m-long hammerhead swimming below me as I was hanging onto an anchor chain, and I quickly climbed higher. Luckily, it swam away from me.

There’s no “manual” on dealing with wildlife attacks, but most experienced divers will tell you to punch a shark in the nose. But marine life is usually not hostile and they are just hunting for fish or other prey.

It’s common for divers to encounter jellyfish. Barracudas also tend to attack the reflective surfaces of some shiny tools I carry, such as the carabiners, mistaking them for prey.

Once, I was working in the waters off Thailand when I noticed a thin needle sticking out of my right leg. I thought it was a sea urchin spine and pulled it out.

But my supervisor at the dive control container had spotted something else on the camera. He told me to get out of the water immediately, saying, “That’s the whip of a stingray!”

I then realised that I had stepped on a stingray. Sharp pain hit me five minutes later.

A chopper took me off the rig, and when I reached the hospital, the doctors gave me many types of injections, including a tetanus jab and rabies vaccine.

That’s the worst thing that has ever happened to me. I felt it was an act of God. As long as I stick closely to safe working procedures and stay within the permitted risk margins, the job is relatively safe.

As a freelancer, I buy my own insurance for inshore jobs in Singapore. When I do offshore work, the hiring company covers my insurance.

I’ve also worked overseas, such as in Norway and Harbin, China. Weather and climate can make work conditions very different. For example, I can be holding a small hammer, but in cold water, it can feel like 100kg.

In Harbin, surface temperature dropped to minus 14 deg C. The water temperature was almost constantly minus 1 deg C. Even though I was wearing a special diving suit with hot water pumped into it, my fingers and neck were freezing.

In such extreme environments, your body cannot function normally. I try to avoid jobs involving cold weather, even if I’m offered higher pay.

Other hazards are strong winds or large waves. When you are working at a depth of 30m, 1.5m waves change the effective working depth to 31.5m. This reduces how long I can safely stay underwater.

Other risks are usually human error, such as a wrong table reading or a miscalculation. When that happens, someone’s going to get hurt.

Diving is a physically demanding job, so I hit the gym to keep in shape. There are some days when the work requires a lot more physical stamina. We literally work in an assembly line, taking turns to do heavy lifting. I have to watch my own back and the others’, especially if there are inexperienced divers.

The job is really about teamwork. I may do the same job next time but with a different team, so I have to build trust with new people. If you are too introverted, it will be difficult, as communication is key.

I like that offshore jobs in territorial waters let me meet different types of people from all walks of life.

The oldest diver I’ve met is a 72-year-old who told me that he used to dive for the money. But now, it’s just to die doing what he loves doing. It sounds morbid, but it reminds me that this job is very passion-based.

Got an interesting job to share? Write in to us at ssharon@sph.com.sg. Catch up on the rest of our On The Job series here.