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location of reservoirs. You can’t buy water from New Haven if you live in Norwich… and they all talk because they need to help each other when they have a problem. If they required a dive team to fix an issue they would recommend me and it was literally that word-of-mouth which grew my business.”
“For years the only place to buy or service diving gear was your local dive shop. Then around 1986 mail order started killing small retail operations. I saw the early onset coming and decided to restructure my business.” From 1986 to 1990 Jay transitioned from recreational diving to the more lucrative commercial diving. Since college Jay had maintained relationships with local water companies that required his unique set of skills. “Water companies don’t compete with each other due to the geographic
During the early days of his burgeoning commercial business Jay started a family and wanted to be close to home. In the commercial diving industry most divers have to travel for weeks or months at a time but he found abundant work in the region. The applications of his skills would be tested over time as each job had its own unique set of obstacles. Jay found himself working on Connecticut’s river dams to ensure their structural integrity. “There are over 3,500 dams located in Connecticut. Some date as far
back as colonial times and many are from the turn of the 19th century.” He explains, “Back in the spring of 1974 we saw heavy rain and flooding throughout the state. Six dams blew out so Connecticut starting a dam safety and repair program. Today Connecticut is way ahead of other states in dam safety and Shoreline Diving has been a big part of that.” Jay found himself working under the water in all types of public water situations, however, it was salvage diving that he found most intriguing. “The salvage work that we do, well each job is different. We’ve salvage cars, trucks, motorcycles, boats and airplanes. We’ve raised them all up from as shallow as 10 feet to a depth of 130 feet of water. For me those jobs are the most interesting.” Over the years Jay became proficient in underwater demolition, cutting, welding and ships husbandry. He also worked on Navy nuclear submarines. Jay recounts “We were in fact the first civilian dive crew to work on the Seawolf Submarine. We dove on it right after it was delivered to the Navy from
Photo by Shoreline Diving
