Eric Girouard 0:00
This is Bucket weekly podcast where people who work in the trades and construction that aren't just trying to survive but have the ambition and desire to thrive. The opportunity to trade and construction is absolutely ridiculous right now. So if you're hungry, it's time to eat. We discuss what it takes to rise from the bottom to the top with people who are well on their way and roll up their sleeves every single day.
Jeremy Perkins 0:28
This is Jeremy and Eric here with Bucket Talk powered by BRUNT. This week we're here with our brother to the north up in Canada, Kendal Keating, Kendal is a commercial diver and welder, he goes by the Instagram handle @kendalkeating4 but before we jump in, Eric, what's been going on?
Eric Girouard 0:45
Awesome, awesome. So it's been a crazy few months and really a few weeks here. And I guess the big highlight over the past week for us, Jeremy's been one we did a photoshoot a few weeks ago that was up at your farm, Trinity stables and the good news. This time we were able to incorporate some of our sisters in the trade which was your wife and the manager of the barn Olivia. And that was a few weeks ago. And now we're brought to life. Our first women's work boot, the Mehran work boot that is now live on the site and big coordination Big Thanks for having us up to your farm for taking some time out of your guys's day to get the ladies into the boots. So super, super excited. And yeah, we're now in the women's category. So a whole new world for us. So we got to figure out how to navigate but excited so far.
Jeremy Perkins 1:35
Yeah, I've been doing a lot of winter prep. I'm up in Maine. And since the farms new to us, and we haven't actually been through a winter we're kind of looking forward to what is in store. So you know, me and my wife went out and got a snowblower. I've already got a plow truck and a whole bunch of other stuff. And just making sure everything's kind of winterized and where we're going to put snow how we're going to deal with the horses during that time period. We have an idea the the previous owners kind of clued us in but yeah, there's a lot going in getting all the leaves up and picking up stuff out of the ditches so that water can flow and everything. But it's been a lot. It's been a lot. So we're busy. And yeah, let's dive into this. All right, today we're here with Kendall Keating. Kendall Keating is a diver by trade your commercial diver,
Kendal Keating 2:25
is that correct? Yes, that's correct. I'm a commercial diver and Red Seal welder and a welding inspector as well.
Jeremy Perkins 2:31
Oh, nice. Nice. So Kendall. I mean, I checked out your Instagram. It's awesome. You got some cool stuff going on. But let's hear how you got your start and, and go way back.
Kendal Keating 2:44
Okay, no, I appreciate that. Yes, just a very small town boy. I'm from a town called New Brunswick up in Canada. I grew up on the outskirts of that actually go on a farm. So we have about 165 acres just on the outskirts. It's an old homestead type thing. We I like my next door neighbors. My grandparents crossroad is my uncle on the other side. Behind me is my other uncle and very, very tight knit type of family environment. It was be firm. And we also had a pole yard where we did all the pole for telephone lines, as well as my uncle owns a construction company. So that garage was there. And my father in the landscaping company, a lot of blue collar background going on in the very near vicinity. So you know, it was pretty much ingrained to me from a young age.
Jeremy Perkins 3:25
That's amazing like that. There's a lot going
Kendal Keating 3:27
on there. Yeah, no, that's I just started making a couple of bullet points before I got on the air with you just trying to see you know, what did get me to where I'm at, as I started writing it out. I was like, oh, you know what, maybe it does make sense that I am not where I'm at today from the the upbringing I had for sure. Yeah, I went to a very small school grade, kindergarten to grade six was together, there's about 200 students and then grades seven to 12 was together another 200 students. So graduating class was 30 people, you know, very, very small type of pay on some average senior Brunswick, the spot that I grew up outside of, there's a population there, but 18,000 back before a mill that was like the main, you know, job spots, I closed down and then everybody started moving out west and all that fun stuff. So the population only now it's probably about 10,000 people. And like I said, it's a pretty small spot. Nothing too much goes on there. When when I was there, I knew that I wanted to get out but I didn't really know what path I wanted to go on. So I was good at school, you know, an ID student and pretty much everything. But I didn't really like school, like I didn't want to put in the hours to study but I'd go into a physics exam still do very well on it, that type thing. So that being said, I got accepted into sciences, which is my original course of play. I just wanted to be a pharmacist with what I thought I wanted to be in grade 10 and grade 11 That was that was kind of partaking in, and then grade 12 Actually, I was in a shop class that was just a bird course because I already had all my credits to graduate and stuff. Basically my shop teacher one day brought up the thing of underwater welder and I was like wait, what what What was that? And it's something that really stuck in my head and it just seemed like something that was so cool but also very unattainable. So, a couple months pass, it's time for, you know, graduation time and everything. And I also applied to a couple background courses such as pipe fitting instrumentation and welding, just in case I didn't, you know, something happened. I ended up going for the welding and just took a nine month welding course version of runswick. At the community college, their parents were very, very supportive. Like I said, I grew up with a lot of blue collar background. However, my older brother went to university he has financial background now, as well as my little brother's a chemical engineer. Yeah, I have obviously I got the brains of the family being a welder. And I didn't get the nine month course worked in New Brunswick for four months after I graduated from that course and got my first pilot to Alberta, which basically in Canada's like getting the call to the big leagues, as far as a blue collar person is concerned. It's right on the road, then 2017 I got my red seal. I basically traveled all around Canada. I've worked in every province except for Quebec so far and the territories which I'm okay with not going anywhere northern than I already am. So let's just say 17. And that's what I kind of got back to me because the original like I said, I have heard about the underwater welding. That's something that was very fascinating to me, but again, seemed unobtainable, what did seem table was going for my welding, at least if I got my welding, Red Seal, that would always be a basketball, like the worst I could ever do after that, is that okay, well, at least I still have a red seal and a career that makes you know, a decent amount of money and there's work everywhere for it. So that was the game plan. It worked out great. 2018 is when I started really like feeling the pressure of being like, okay, kinda like, what are you doing here and you have your red seal. Now, are you scaling up? Are you going to start a contracting company, which was something I was really eyeballing at the time I was working with a got another guy. His name's Craig McCollum. He owns a fabrication company called Big cam. And he was basically took me under his wing and taught me everything there is to know about like fabrication, all that fun stuff, because I was a welder, and he was a metal trade fabricator. So at that point, in my career, I was welding, I would say, 20% of the time in fabricating 80% of the time, like building a lot of things rather than welding. So and that's what I'm passionate about, too. I don't want to be, you know, foot down the lid and blaze all day, every day, I want to be out there, I want to be building stuff, I want to see something going down the road, like a full trailer with a twin deck stream deck on it for rock crushing, and be like, I built that or something along those lines, right, I get a lot more satisfaction of building something than just welding something that somebody else put together for me.
Jeremy Perkins 7:32
No, that's great. And actually, one thing I wanted to touch on because I'm actually I'm familiar with it. And I'm sure some of our American listeners, what is a red seal? Can you dive into that a little bit?
Kendal Keating 7:44
Yeah, for sure. So basically, in Canada here, I think it's pretty similar to us apprenticeship program. But when I went to school for my nine month welding program, I came out with basically some given hours and also my block one welding. So I then had to go obtain more hours through an apprenticeship program, every 1800 hours, I would get to go back to school and write another block. So I go first block, second block, and then right after your third block, you write your journeyman and then you get your red seal the same time. So basically, a journeyman allows you to work in one province as like the top of your trade. But if you get your red seal, you can work at any province as the top of your trade. So it allows you to travel Yeah, it allows you to travel back and forth as well as it's recognized in a lot of spots like Europe and stuff. If you get your red seal, so I can head over you know, that Australia and go to Europe, all that fun stuff with a red seal and still be recognized as the top of my trade.
Jeremy Perkins 8:37
Wow, wow, that's actually that's, that's really cool. It definitely gives you some mobility. Now you split between, you know, underwater welding and fabricating. And I'd actually like to hear a little bit more about the fabricating. So you work out of a shop but your buddy and do that with him.
Kendal Keating 8:52
Yeah, exactly. So like I said, I bounced around jobs very, very often in my welding career. It was never a layoff or a quit or sorry, a fire situation. It was always like, hey, this other company is calling them they're paying former dollars now are like okay, when can I be there tomorrow, that type of situation. So, yeah, bounced around quite often. That's how I got to work in every province. And basically, I had my buddy of mine that Ted kind of grew up the same hometown, but he's about 10 years older. He called me and said, Hey, I heard you're, you know, going to be in Alberta. We're looking for another guy would you care to come up to this shop I'm working at and I said yeah, man, I could be there literally next week. So went up there he was contracting out the time he had two welding trucks fully rigged out all set to go so I came on as an employee of the main company, but I ran his other welding truck for him. So we feel does the two of us keep gets sent up to BC somewhere and I'm getting sent to Saskatchewan somewhere, but we're based in Alberta. We just had rock crushing plants all over Western Canada. And anytime anything broke it was you drove say eight hours. One way you got to the middle of the woods, middle nowhere. And all you had was the tools in your truck and there's like a conveyor belt that It's 40 feet long snapped in half. And you're just like fix up stuff, you get the you know, you get pretty good at what you do, as well as like learning how to use nut things that aren't tools as tools, basically. So other other tricks in the trade come at it, I actually, I was just doing a handrail here today. And they came over and I had a pipe all coked out to fit the other one perfectly. So there's no gap around it. Three inch pipe going into three and five. And they're like, How'd you do that? I was like, Oh, I have like a bunch of welding rods and a Sharpie, like, like little things that you've picked up over the years of how to get things done without much in your truck, right, lots of things like that. One of the cooler fabrication stories, there was a screen deck, it was a double screen deck, which is basically what a rock crushing it goes through a bunch of different variants of like smaller and smaller size rocks until it gets to your screen deck. And that's what's gives you they like a half inch rocks here, quarter inch here, whatever smaller and smaller. So that screen deck itself about a million dollar piece of machinery a company I was working for one at one but just to buy the blueprints alone cost about $120,000 Just to get the blueprint your shop. So instead we went to a company down road that allowed us to come in they we paid them way less than $120,000. And me and Craig the other guy went there with to hell right notebooks and measuring tape and pens, and we measured the entire thing got drugs, the entire thing with our pens, and we came back and we built for $400,000 instead of a million. So save the company sticks out. Okay. And then we just I still have the blueprints actually in my drawer here. So it's one of those things I can look back on when I'm older. And that's kind of cool things I did when I
Jeremy Perkins 11:36
started building them and put them on eBay.
Unknown Speaker 11:38
Yes, exactly. $80 Because they're around so
Jeremy Perkins 11:44
Alright, so let's switch over to the underwater welding. That is huge fascination to me. I actually know, two hardhat divers, one I grew up with, and then one I was in the Coast Guard with. And that was one of the trades that I wish I went. And did I know that it's time away from home. I know it's a lot of traveling. So like, that's one of those things that, you know, you kind of want to do it, but I wouldn't be in the family situation that I am now if I did do that. So it's like I can't wish that away. But it is one of the coolest things. I mean, I weld currently, you know, in a shop, and you know, I get to do like 20% of my time is welding we do, you know, fixing cars and repairing frames and what have you and I'm just a MIG welder. I never actually got to the TIG. What do you do on a daily basis there?
Kendal Keating 12:32
So when I went and did my commercial diving, but school so basically like, back to the underwater welding part when I was younger, I thought I was going to be an underwater welder. As I got older and looked into it and got more information, I realized, no, I'm going to be a commercial diver that underwater welds. Like it's not its own trade, you become a commercial diver. And then you're a jack of all trades, basically. And yeah, so my first company I worked at was called subsea global solutions I was based out of Halifax with them and we did what was called ship husbandry. So with them it was a lot of inspection we were doing things called a UL which has a acronym I just don't know where it is right now. But basically it's like a motor vehicle inspection for a huge shipping container boat and any boat that's above a certain size certain class like cruise ships I know big tanker vessels I think they have to get this you wild which every five years those large boats have to get pulled out of the water and put in a dry dock which costs the company that owns that boat millions of dollars so if they go to you while they can keep that ship in the water for one more year without having to go dry dock so we go in the average day there I know we show up there whatever time they get into on load or whatever they're doing, we pull up in a small boat beside them diver gets in the water but the camera on our head, we start back at the rudder and the propeller do measurements on everything that has any type of fine tuning anything finicky measurements on everything. And then you start doing a swim out which is exactly what it sounds like I am looking at the entire hall the ship of some of the ships are four meters long. So it's it's it's a lot of swimming. It's it's that was the part that in school, we practice a lot on bottom, you know, sometimes you're an open water, but you get to the workforce, especially in the ocean, you are swimming so you better have some good cardio on or you're not going to do what I'm doing now. I'm actually based out of a Ontario right now Ontario, Canada with a diving and I'm through a perfect reunion, which has divers in the union as well. And I work for Yeah, it's really different. There's actually only two unions in Canada that have divers. One of them is a part of the revenue union based out of Vancouver, and the other one is this carpenter University of Ontario. So I work for a company that we basically contract directly to OPG which is Ontario Power Generation. So we work in other hydro dams. So average day now I come into work basically if I come in for a 10 hour or 12 hour shift, I'm usually in the water for about three hours that day and then the rest of your days you're on surface you know you're throwing lines you're tending umbilicals and umbilicals thing that we breathe through right there's no work going on. You're on standby, you're just waiting, making sure nothing goes wrong, you know, if something does go wrong, somebody is like a standby diver. So they'll jump in the water and save whoever's in the water. So the job I'm currently on, we're actually doing like refacing of an old dam, the dam was built in 1950s. And all that concrete on the upstream side is kind of getting washed away. So we're going down, we're chipping everything off. And then I'm putting like steel plates on it, almost like an armor, welding all those plates on and then refilling, where we ship with new concrete. So now instead of water hitting concrete and hitting the steel, they're bolted on. And this is about, I think we're about 25 feet deep, up to about four feet deep. So it's like a 13 foot pipe kind of thing that I'm building on. And yeah, the entire length of the dam. So they've been here for four years, I just got on with them in June. But we'll be here for the next probably six years completing this job with the background and the skill set that I do have, I'm kind of the the call boy now for this company. So we have five different jobs going on around Ontario. So every week, every weekend, I'm in a different spot, wherever they need underwater welding or surface modeling. So it's, it's one of those periods, you're gonna get out what you put in, right, like, if you want to be a commercial diver, that's, you know, that's all you do. And you're the guy that ships the steel or three tips to concrete, you're the guy that you know, turns wrenches, you can go do that you make a decent career out of it. And that's gonna be all you do. Or you can go and you can start getting certs you can, you know, try to try to see where the ceiling is with this trade in general. And you know, you will be that guy for that call guy. Or if you don't want to be you can be that guy in sight that, you know, when something goes wrong, and they're like, Hey, we're so and so we need to like instruction, we need to know how to do this. I
Jeremy Perkins 16:33
think that leads me into my next question is your career now seems pretty full? It seems like you're kind of at the top, where do you picture your career going? Basically,
Kendal Keating 16:43
something I've always thought about since I got into welding was welding inspection, which at the time seemed to me more as like a retirement job. You know, what I mean? Like is that I don't really like school. So I don't like being at a desk. I don't like being in front of the computer. I don't like that type of situation. So that's why, you know, I literally go underwater every day for where, so yeah, so the physical. So I said, you know, especially with comedy, but however, whenever COVID hit, I went from the first time of my life, instead of working 80 hour weeks, I'm now working 40 hour weeks, when I had all that time, which you know, to, I guess the average person isn't a lot of time off, but I just was so much. So used to go go go that I actually started studying on my own time, I studied for 27 days straight, and I challenged my CWD level one welding inspector. So I got that now. So in the next six years, I need to get 1000 hours every six years to basically keep that certification, I can get what's called endorsements throat that so I have an endorsement in a W 59 and a W 47.1. Which means I can do inspection on carbon steel here in Canada. As my driving career goes on, I'm actually studying for a couple more endorsements right now in my like, after hours afterward. And I'm just gonna keep getting endorsements throughout the next couple of years that when I do come out of diving and go right into the welding inspection, I'm going to be able to certify to do you know, X ray on pipes, I can do anything in nuclear plants, I can do all that kind of stuff. So I'm setting myself up for a welding inspection. I say retirement, but you know, more like 35 Go into welding inspection, and then continue on from there type thing. So that's the prayer, as well as definitely something entrepreneurial. My older brother already has two companies, my younger brother and I have been talking about stuff in the, in the meantime, as long as I'm staring at a business plan that's written on a whiteboard in front of me right now. So there's the, you know, sky's the limit, right? Always try to see where the ceiling is, and see if you can push past that with everything. So that's kind of so yeah, I definitely the more I get into the underwater industry as well, the more I realized there's a lot of things that makes sense, but aren't quite there yet. There's a lot of gaps in the industry as far as like you've been, you know, material products that the divers winter and all that kind of stuff. So always always on the lookout for the next big thing and you know, keeping a lot of notes and a lot of pictures along the way. So kind of see where the money is to be made after this.
Jeremy Perkins 19:01
So I'm actually gonna go off the script here a little bit as we're going through this, I'm getting all jazzed up about this conversation. And for people that are listening your job it can be one of the most dangerous jobs out there. I know there's a lot of safety protocols there's a lot of personal protection stuff and it does make that job safer but you got to have at least one story or you've got to have seen something cool down there that you tell at the bar every now and again.
Kendal Keating 19:30
Knock on wood so far I've been doing really good as far as safety is concerned. I like you said there's so there's so much safety but I actually feel safer as an underwater roller than I do as a surface water. Because every noise is surface water, any job load walking up the street grabs up cotton, go blow their hand off or you know, like you'd like to keep them stuff or whatever right so before you before you can get in the water in Canada with one of the hats that we wear. You have to have a minimum nine months in school as well as like an understanding of physics the physics theology and how the human body reacts to pressure, hyperbaric environments, and all that kind of stuff. But the videos they are showing you, that's something that, you know, I bring up the bar and all that fun stuff, like you're saying, it's what's called delta p. So delta p is basically the differential pressure that when you get between, say, a dam, for instance, like me working on hydro dams, you have the high side and the low side, the pressure that is built up from the high side. So for every foot of water, there's about a half foot of pressure psi. So if you have, say, like a 10 inch hole, for example, that would have almost like 100 square inches of psi that pulls down, say, 40 feet, you got 20 psi, over 100 cubic inches, so you got 2000 psi going through that tential. So there's, there's lots of stories about divers getting stuck through holes that are you know, the size of your fist basically, type thing, depending on the level that you're gonna. So there's actually a video you can YouTube right now. And it's called that delta p e crab. And it's one of the ones that they show in school. And basically, there's a pipeline getting put at the bottom of the ocean with a little bit of cut, which are normally I think they're 564, seven inch thick, and an entire crab walks by and just gets pulled through a 564 hole. So it kind of shows what delta T can do. But like you were saying, like the dangerous ones, like I said, I don't really have any of those. But it's the you know, those moments like I tell my buddies and stuff like this all the time, especially other welders that are looking into the underwater side. And they're like, whoa, like, what is it that what, what's different? Why do you like it? And yeah, there's times where I'm underwater, say I'm 40 feet deep middle of nowhere in Ontario welding, basically a big armor plate onto a bull nose on a dam. And I'm there in like a bass lens by my face as I'm welding. So I can't see for a second and I'm like what's happening? And then I lift my lid, and there's just a bass looking at me. And I'm like, how many other people that have either walk this earth or ever will walk there are going to have that experience, right? Like, you kind of sit there first I can think like, oh, this is this is surreal. This is this is crazy that this is what I do for a living, right. So it makes waking up in there in the morning a little bit easier every day, when you go to work, and they go something like that could happen or you know, something dangerous could happen. Something crazy could happen. Right? So it's it's a pretty, pretty cool way to make a living for sure. Yeah, that's
Jeremy Perkins 22:17
awesome. I'm sure you've seen some pretty cool stuff down there. I've been on those ships before too. And, you know, we had our ship pulled out of the water down in Baltimore in the yards. It's another level. I mean, the boat just gets that much bigger. It's insane. And we're doing the haul inspections. And then you realize, like, there's certain parts of the haul that are almost paper thin, you know what I mean? And that's why you guys got to do those haul inspections for cracks and what have you. Exactly, yeah, I've
Kendal Keating 22:42
heard stories from my old instructors about going down with like a chipping hammer, but you would use for welding, trying to find like a thin area and putting the chipping hammer through the hall. Like you said, you know, there's millions and millions of dollars plus countless lives on that boat. And it's being held on by a piece of paper. So the instructions are definitely I see where they're needed for sure.
Jeremy Perkins 23:03
I actually did that I didn't put it through the hall. But I did put it through our potable water tank because you know, you get down there and you use the needle gun and you get up all the paint so that you could repaint it. But yeah, we went right through the potable water tank. And that was something to explain.
Unknown Speaker 23:18
Wow, yeah.
Jeremy Perkins 23:23
So new guys getting into the trade, what would you tell them? Where's it good start? And, you know, what kind of mentality do you need? What kind of level of physical fitness what kind of level of education would you need to start a career and or trying to pursue a
Kendal Keating 23:36
career in commercial diving? Awesome question. This is what I get literally daily on my Instagram, DMS. It's kind of like, I'm glad that I'm sitting here speaking on a bigger pot from now. So you know, maybe you kind of clear up all these questions. But so I went in very naive to your physical condition. I thought it was you had to be, you know, military grade, you had to be lifting weights everyday or life. I was running five gear every morning, I got the school. And I was definitely like, the best day of my life. But then I went there. And you know, there's couple guys that I'm like, okay, like, did they know that they had to do this, like what's happening here? So I definitely went a bit above and beyond for that, because like I said, I just I didn't really know. And I was the guy that was on Instagram DMing. Everyone beforehand, trying to be like, hey, what do I do? What do I do? And not a lot of answers back. Right. So basically, you as a commercial diver, and even to go to commercial diving school, you have to get what's called your diving physical. Basically, a physical doctor has to go and tell you Okay, your body is able to go underwater to pressures that are up to what we're allowed to go to which in Canada is 165 feet. So your body has to be able to withstand that. That's through long bone X rays that's through heart condition. That's your long expansion. That's everything. They do a very thorough physical of your entire body. And then you have to do that every two years until you're 40 years old. And then you have to do it every year if you're 40 years old. for which there aren't a lot of divers that over 40, but the ones that are still going to Florida you're using like saturation divers, and they're the boys that are out there making the big money, thing, right. So it's like that. You don't have to be you know, jacked Almighty or anything like that. But you want to have good cardio, like I said, if you if you get to work in your first job is going to be swimming on a 340 meter boat and you throw off halfway through, the company is not going to want to keep you around. So it's, it's, you know, it's do for you at this point to like I said, you don't have to be, you know, going on a bodybuilding show that the week after you work or anything, but you also don't want to be that guy that's like, oh, we have to do this job, we can't put him in because he's not able to do it, right. So it's the same thing as any job, you're gonna get out what you put in, right, so why not put your best foot forward and just really go for it. And as far as the education, I didn't really know about those? Well, I knew that there was physics and physiology and everything involved with the first time in program, which is obviously there. But you'll actually need a great fall here in Canada to go to your commercial diving site, same as any other trade. So we were in there, during our physics, I was tutoring the physics to like a couple of guys in the class. And some of them just had their basic math to get into the course. But then they had to take physics when they're there. So like, you know, obviously, if you come in with a bit of a math background, I think it's going to help you in the long run, but it's not needed. And as far as like having a trade coming into that was another thing, I get the question a lot. It's like, do you have to have a trade? Or do you have to be a welder before coming underwater welder, which, again, I thought that maybe you did. But I also thought, okay, having at least a welding background is gonna help me in the long run, let's do that. First I came in, there was one other guy in my class that was a tradesman. And everybody else was either fresh out of high school, or like divers from before I had a couple guys that worked in metal shops, but didn't have any trade shows laborers, just, you don't want to take the next step one, something bigger, but it's definitely not needed. But I can tell you for a fact, it's going to help if you have any type of background, even such stuff, mechanical welding, all that kind of stuff, that's going to put you with such an upper hand on the competition that's applying for the same jobs you are that it's pretty wild, the difference of ACE because just the fact knowing you like say how have you loved Turner Ranch, how to read a measuring tape, all that kind of stuff. Yes, it's great on land, everybody can do it. But when you get underwater, and it's pitch black, and you're looking for a three sixteenths wrench, or a three quarter inch wrench and a 516 socket, something like that. It's having a little bit of background knowledge, it helps you when there's no lights on anymore. And it's like you can't even tell if your eyes are open or closed. You're trying to Blink and you're like, that's insane. Like, I don't know what's happening. So that's where you notice the big difference between the trade people that take diving and the guys that are divers and just go into it.
Jeremy Perkins 27:41
So that brings me to another question. I mean, I guess some values you need to really succeed in commercial diving, I would assume that there's got to be some level of mental toughness. I mean, and I'm sure you wouldn't necessarily know it until you got down there. But you're down there by yourself in the depths for hours at a time. I mean, by yourself and you have nothing but your mind.
Kendal Keating 28:06
Yeah, that's the big thing that I found different to come from welding as a welder. I always had music and I was always listening to a podcast music ebook something was in my ears going underwater, you could just hear yourself breathe. So if you're not okay with being with yourself, or like my longest time so far was when I was in Halifax and it's six and a half hours. And you know, if you're not okay with being with yourself for six and a half hours doing physically intensive work, and you know, not knowing what's behind you the entire time. It's definitely not the trade like it's not the thing for everyone that's plain and simple. But, you know, the odd people that do want to get into it's so rewarding in the long run. It's amazing. You're down there by yourself, but you can talk to topside, which is like you're calm. So all the hats that we wear, we have communications and then so you have two headphones and a mic in royal nasal. Yeah, so you're always in communication with topside, you know, you're down there, you're getting chilly, you have to go number two in the bathroom, whatever. You can talk to them. And usually, you know, depending on who your supervisor is, they'll get you out in a hurry or you know if you're addicted them yes thing and we'll get you're pretty slowly kind of thing, right. And so it's one of those industries and it's a very tight knit industry. So in Canada to legally have, you got that four guys at all times. You have to have your supervisor you have to have your guy in the water, you got to have a standby neither which is guidance ready to jump in the water. And you have to have one tender who basically gives the tools takes up the tools gives them slack takes up slack, whatever they need done basically. So you know that for people you're with them every day, I'm fortunate enough the company I'm with we have quite a few divers, so my crews like usually like seven to eight people. And you know, but then without any people we have two or three in the water at the same time. So you're all kind of doing different jobs and you're crossing umbilicals and there's a lot of communication that goes on but yeah, that's a that's a thing that a lot of people don't know if you can talk to outside, but it just we can't like hear music or anything else while you're down there. So I know my stuff myself. All Firstly, when I was doing say like prop polishes, which is like a propeller polish on those huge vessels, so you guys would have like seen, like coming in via therm. So they have like usually like 10 meter props like a 30 foot propeller from tip to tip. And you're like doing a propeller polish on the blade. And like, I've been staring at the same blade now for like, an hour and a half. And I'm just following what's behind me. So I'd be doing a quick peek at what's back there. But it's usually nothing, but it's just the thoughts in your head, especially the ocean, like, you know, there's definitely a shark right behind me right now.
Jeremy Perkins 30:33
I mean, it's, it's wild, the unknowns of, of the ocean, I mean, spending all that time on the ship out to sea for like two months at a time. And I have close to four years sea service. So it was cool, because it was like, I'm glad I'm on the top side of the water, because like, we'd see some pretty funky stuff at night. And so
Kendal Keating 30:53
and getting into the industry, literally, anything that either bumps something, or you catch the corner guy is. So that's, you know, the first couple days are definitely a little sketchy. But after that, you you really kind of, you know, lean back and hone into the process. So it gets easier and easier. I say that now as a river diver who the biggest fish I've seen in the last five months, probably 14 inches long. So you know, it's easier to say now than when I was starving to the ocean. So it's
Jeremy Perkins 31:19
taking? What's the biggest challenge you're facing? Now? You know, it seems like you're at the top of your diving game, there is room to move elsewhere. What kind of things are you facing now?
Kendal Keating 31:30
Something that actually my older brother and I talked about quite often because like I said, I do plan to start a business in the upcoming years. And that's something that obviously you need to be close to computer for, you need to have your phone available, you need to be able to get processing, and you need to have, if you're shipping products, for example, you need to be able to do that. So my thing is like a lot of the sites I go on, they don't want you to have your phone, which is very obvious for safety reasons. And then I'm in the water of now with his union three to four hours a day. So it's a lot of blank areas where I can't be working on other stuff, which you know, it's getting harder and harder. So right now, like I said, I'm just studying after hours to get more endorsements from a welding inspection if I could, but the best goal for me right now my future would be to like welding inspect for nine months and dive for three months or for any kind of thing around there. Because I don't want to lose the diving, I love what I do. And I locked in pretty early to get a very well paying job up here too. So in four months, I can make basically what I would make the welding or whatever, in no double the time. So I'm doing well in that aspect. But it's the time thing for me now it's, you know, there's not enough hours in the day and I have a lot of goals I want to choose. So I know that they will happen, but the rate that they're happening at is a little bit too small for my liking. That would be my biggest challenge right now. And I know that's a very first real problem to have. And like honestly, in the grand scheme of things, it isn't a bad problem to have. But it's the one I definitely think about the most and want to talk about the most for sure.
Jeremy Perkins 32:55
So because you're doing all this stuff and it you know, it seems like it's very time consuming. What do you do online?
Kendal Keating 33:02
I guess so right now my older brother lives in Toronto, as I'm sitting here in this room. I'm four hours from Toronto, but last week and for the two weeks prior I was about an hour and a half away. So anytime I can I used to try to get in to see my brother will go hit up a Blue Jays game we'll do all that kind of fun stuff. Big golf fanatic. I like golf that into that during the pandemic. So this year, I was lucky enough pretty much everybody on my dive through golf, so we were golfing like three to four times a week afterward. Basically, you know that kind of stuff. I learned that just travel if you're gonna miss out on so much travel during this pandemic that whenever I came out here and started making the bigger money and there was a little bit of restriction like let up I basically went from New Brunswick to Ontario, the Ontario to Alberta but to Kelowna and BC all within three weekends. So I'm just kind of make up for a bit of the travel but I lost this winter I plan on going actually like Thailand for a month or two just to kind of go get some work done and also you know be on a beach somewhere I'm pretty sick of the cold.
Jeremy Perkins 34:01
Just just probably be the big one. Where's the best place you've gone so far? So far. We have a couple buddies down
Kendal Keating 34:07
in Bermuda actually because it's tax haven for like a pharmacist and accounting all that kind of stuff for one of our buddies just reinsurance which is like the people that insurer the insurance companies. And so they're all down there living their best life and we get the invite every year basically, but we never really made the time and last year my older brother, his girlfriend and me we all went down and just did the tourist thing and got the scooters at the first week paid like $30 for a scooter for seven days and just absolutely rip the island. That was great. You know, I've had all the experiences you know the the all inclusive data Mexico and all that fun stuff. And that is great, but definitely the most members came into Bermuda so far.
Jeremy Perkins 34:43
Cool, man, man, that's awesome. So, you know, high level it's definitely a challenging trade but a rewarding one. Definitely. You are one of the few I don't know how the brotherhood of hardhat divers if they're a big bunch, but I assume it's kind of a tight knit community. And there's not too many out there. And then you're looking to spread your wings with entrepreneurialship you got your hands in a lot of things right now. So it's pretty cool. So this is the time I want you to take some time and, and either plug something or mention your Instagram handle or anything that you do any outreach or whatever stage is yours.
Kendal Keating 35:22
Yeah, guys, just go ahead if you want to have a look and kind of see what I do. And also, you know, go ahead and DM me like I said, I try to make myself available very often because as I was trying to get into this trade idea and countless people, and I rarely rarely got an answer back because like, as I'm sure like myself included, they're getting so many DMS every day with the exact same question. It does get a little tiresome, but I have the mentality where I didn't get answered. And that kind of made me upset at the time. So I'm gonna try and answer everyone Instagram is paddock eating fuller. And as far as the first upload, I'd like you to go to my my older brother's company, actually one that I'm very tight knit with. It's called fosh posh watches, but we do wallets right now as well. So the wallets, the big seller, and that's kind of the product range that they're using right now and use a little bit of their infrastructure for whenever I come over my products. And we'll be working on things together. And I appreciate you guys having me on as well. Like I said, to have a bigger platform to kind of struggle with awareness. You got to give people just a better better overview of what it actually is that we do for work here. You know, they see it all the time or you know, a little bit of time. Nobody really understands what it is that we do on a day to day basis. That's awesome to get the opportunity to talk.
Jeremy Perkins 36:29
Yeah, I'm glad you came on and thanks for taking the time. I really appreciate it.
