High School students work towards Underwater Welding Certification

BIG SPRING, TX — Several Big Spring High School students are currently going through an Underwater Welding certification program. It began coming together at the beginning of the last school year, and has been operational for the last 3 weeks. Currently, several students are at different stages in the program.

Dennis “Milton” Woody, Welding instructor at BSHS, told KBest News that students start with safety and learning equipment before ever getting into the water. The course will take the rest of the year and potentially longer.

“It’s not only just welding,” said Woody. “We got piping and flanging that they’re gonna bring in. We’re gonna float them down with airbags. They’re gonna bolt the flanges up with gaskets and tighten the bolts up and just do a little bit of commercial diving because the welding part is a very small part of a commercial diver. They do everything, but underwater welding is definitely a part. [It also includes] Salvage with cutting underwater and construction underwater so it’s gonna take a little while.”

Woody has been diving since the 1970s, has welded his whole life, and even went through Ocean Corp, a trade school in Houston that prepares divers to pursue commercial diving. It’s always been something that he’s wanted to merge. After asking BSHS Principal Mike Ritchey for permission to bring underwater diving to Big Spring High School, he was given the greenlight to pursue funding. He approached industry professionals within the community, who gladly donated items and/or funding to see the program come to fruition.

Andrew Garcia, a junior, and Juelz Jones, a senior, are two students who participate in the program. They told KBest News that they enjoy the program and look forward to be able to use what they’ve learned in the future.

The certification at BSHS is a local certification. Woody is currently with a Certification Weld Tet company to get in under the American Welding Society (AWS).