Dive Works began in spring of 2000 with the less than humble dream of becoming the largest underwater boat service company in Texas. Our goal from the beginning was to offer something much more than what was available prior to our arrival. The diving itself is just physical, but if that was all there was to it we would have never made a dent in the market since anyone who can dive, move their hands in circles, and follow a relatively simple pattern can clean a boat. Although there is a lot of experiential elements that build efficiency the job itself is basically a muscle event. Our edge has always been creativity. We knew early on what this company should look like, how it would behave, and most importantly how to build it. There were and are now some very good dependable companies out there doing dive work who have always had our respect for the ethics they maintain. We never had any inclination for being just another service and nor did plan to spring board to global domination by farming out every conceivable type of boat work. The companies success outside the services provided was due to a number of business strategies that either were not being utilized effectively or were absent all together.

Advertisements We sought to educate our customers rather coat tail on demand that previously existed. We periodically put up flyers on seasonal weather events warning about everything from line fouling hazards in the spring, zinc electrolytic dynamics with the heat & high salinity of summer, even safety precautions to help the do-it-yourself divers stay out of trouble. Hundreds of research hours went into creating a boaters information site (www.diveworks.org) that delves in wide array of concerns for general knowledge, weather, maintenance, and even local events for the Houston Bay Area.

Differences There were few companies doing the dive report so boat owners had little to no idea what went on down there unless a catastrophe demanded a haul out. Back then there were some small time divers that got by under the radar doing shabby work. The dive report at least offered some accountability for having to correctly describe the bottom of the boat and its parts. Underwater cameras were not being used at all which was a mistake judging from the demands of owners to see the bottom work. True the visibility is poor but almost never so bad that with a light you can not get basic shots of the hull and running gear. One common shortcut still widely used is the pad, basically a grill cleaner, that is used to scrub barnacles and algae off the delicate paint. As far as I know we are the only ones to use brushes. It takes a lot more effort to move the brushes through the water and so adds time to an already tough job, but the paint lasts nearly twice as long. There is never a cloud of paint around us, the hull does not get scratched, and it is possible to get into textured paint and small spaces. Most of the companies here are dock side. I just do not trust any boat bound operation to be serious since it seems a little back door and under the radar. They loose there parking lot presence, which is a key spot where the jobs find you, and the only benefit there could be is to avoid signing in for lack having the proper insurance. We went to the big truck not just for the ad space but to implement carts with topside air compressors. The tanks were ridiculous since it would take more than 30 of them to get through a work week. They are heavy and require more gear that makes actually doing underwater work quite difficult. Also we were finding that the tanks and especially the valves scratched the hull if you are not extremely careful. With the large carts we can set up in half the time, swim about freely, and enjoy cutting out about a third of our daily overhead. We offer free inspections for any reason to give us the chance to do something nice for boat owners and hopefully impress them to earn their business later.

Strange Things Under Water Most of the divers around here are bazaar in some way or another, myself definitely included. It may even be a latent job requirement. There is a diver for a big dive outfit here who tries to convince us every year to wear diapers in the winter with our dry suits, and he has his reasons though we have yet to adopt the practice. I spend most of my free time scrubbing hulls in darkness while trying to memorize different works. Last summer I put to memory about 2,000 lines of Hamlet, a couple poems, and tried to improve my Spanish. If you are a person that needs some mental preoccupation to carry on in a sensory void you have to find something or you will go nuts. There is just is not enough thought involved in making twenty thousand strokes to keep a person sane. There is one guy who admitted to counting pad strokes which invited some consul and jeers but that is the gist of the job. In the early summer I had a diver that would insist on filling out his dive summaries on a wet/dry slate while sitting Indian style upside down under water on a boat hull , claiming it was too hot to try to do it on land in a wet suit. We all enjoy the alligator scares and latest strange fish encounter (there are reports of Rays, Garrs, Alligators, an occasional shark outside the lake, snakes and the reports of a yet unidentifiable poorly described  monster that has managed to elude 8,000 boaters while living in five to six feet of brackish water) though we all know the only dangerous thing worth mentioning in our lake is bacteria. It annoys me that in six years of lake diving and the last three nearly everyday that I do not have even one good scary fish story to tell.

Our Latest Endeavor We have started a topside service that will eventually assume the name Yacht Works after it enjoys the name and reputation of Dive Works to get things rolling. It is not a move we had originally planned for but since nearly every topside cleaning company has dabbled in the dive services we decided it was time to launch a new company. The wax and cleaning company was the next logical step for us and it is one we would have taken in the next year or so. We wanted to solidify a few areas of the dive company before tackling a another giant. Basically that is why it will reside under Dive Works so that we do not have to split the advertising, and build a lot of secondary infrastructure. It will get all that in due time and we are extremely excited about it. With already a few dozen boats completed and a some high profile boats behind us, we are confident that we will be able to propel Yacht Works to the same level of operation as Dive Works in a just a few more years. It allows us to offer a more total package.