Meet Richard Phillips of Commercial Divers International in Goodyear

Today we’d like to introduce you to Richard Phillips.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Richard. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I obtained my commercial diver certification and began working in the industry in 1991. Growing up in Kansas I was eager to travel and was employed in the Gulf of Mexico working on offshore platforms for American Oilfield Divers in 1992, shortly after Hurricane Andrew. After becoming certified as a Mixed-Gas Diver, I also worked on oil platforms off the coast of Nigeria.

Throughout the 1990s I worked for several inland commercial diving companies performing inspections and repairs on hundreds of bridges, hydroelectric dams, nuclear power plants, and other infrastructure throughout the United States. Between commercial diving jobs I also worked on fishing boats in the Bering Sea, Alaska.

In 1999, after years of heavy construction, commercial diving, pile driving, barge & tug work for other companies; I started my own Commercial Diving operation in the Pacific Northwest completing public works projects. Though starting small, my company grew to specialize in heavy marine civil construction with an emphasis on offshore/ocean outfall pipes all along the West Coast. In the past 5 years, Richard Phillips Marine also completed several heavy infrastructure repairs on Alaskan waterways.

After employing hundreds of divers in my company, I frequently encountered newly trained commercial divers lacking the training and knowledge necessary to excel on the job site. I founded Commercial Divers International to develop a training program that is geared directly toward the industry’s needs and to improve the preparation of the next generation of divers.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Building the school, developing the curriculum, and establishing the equipment for the facility went according to plan for the most part, but there have been many unexpected obstacles along the way. Our biggest challenge has been finding funding for our students and being in bureaucratic limbo before being able to open our doors. As we’ve reached out to bring awareness to our program, we’ve found out that a lot of people don’t understand the need for commercial divers everywhere, or wonder why anyone would choose Arizona to open an underwater construction school.

Nearly every city needs commercial divers to maintain potable water and effluent systems. Every bridge over water must be inspected at least every five years by federal rules, and some with poor ratings have to be inspected every year. Unlike most other construction jobs, you won’t see divers working even though they are working in every part of the country, including the Phoenix area. City water tanks here are cleaned by divers, and I have bid on diving jobs cleaning the intake screens in lakes around the valley.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Commercial Divers International story. Tell us more about the business.
Commercial Divers International is a technical school that trains and certifies entry-level surface-supplied divers to enter the workforce. We are the only commercial diver training school in Arizona and are known for our new, clean training facility and program based on recent industry experience. After over 25 years of extensive work on inland and offshore projects, I want to guide our students towards the high-paying, travel-based jobs they are looking for when they come to our program.

When we designed our training program, we placed a heavy emphasis on US Navy training materials for the theoretical aspect of diving because of its very developed history and expertise in the field. US Navy Divers are the pioneers of the industry but run different types of diving operations than the commercial world, so we take that approach in the practical training using plans, materials, and equipment from real commercial diving jobs.

Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
My career in commercial diving and starting Commercial Divers International wouldn’t have happened without the luck of having my family, friends, and past/present employees. Diving is never a one-man job, and luckily, I have been surrounded by hard-working teams that have been able to get the job and keep everyone safe. Without my wife working with me to build our companies I would never have been able to grow our operations to what they are today. Don Moore, my co-founder at CDI, has worked with me in the commercial industry and has been a major influence on our training program bringing his years of experience as an instructor for the US Navy. The whole team at CDI has brought a lot of input and help to make the training program even more than what I had imagined when we began to build it. I am very grateful for everyone who has been a part of my journey in the commercial diving industry and look forward to the opportunity to pass along my successes to the next generation.

Pricing:

• Commercial Diver Program Tuition: $24,500
• Underwater Helmet Experience (open to the public): $239

Contact Info:

• Address: 4055 S Sarival Avenue
• Website: www.divecdi.com
• Phone: 6238823483
• Email: info@divecdi.com
• Facebook: facebook.com/divecdi
• Twitter: twitter.com/divecdi

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