Company Profile:
About North Coast Divers
Founded in 1991, North Coast Divers, Inc. provides its clients with a full range of diving and marine construction expertise. Since its inception, NCDI has built a solid reputation for excellence in the field and efficient project management, compiling a flawless safety record along the way.
As a full service diving company, NCDI has a proven background of reliable, professional underwater construction, maintenance and inspection. But our expertise doesn’t end at the splash zone. Structural repairs of piers and support pilings, installation of floating security barriers, floating docks, vessel mooring fields, and marina rehabilitations are just a few of the topside projects carried out by our construction teams.
With a 17 year record of reliability, integrity, and customer satisfaction, NCDI offers the best in marine contracting. As member of the International Association of Diving Contractors, a signatory to the Piledrivers, Divers, and Dockworkers Union Local 34, Oakland, CA, and a firm commitment to regulatory compliance, prospective clients can be confident they are receiving the professional service they deserve.
Rick Heaslet – President
Rick began his diving career in the U.S. Navy, followed by 15 years experience with large international diving companies as a saturation supervisor, diver, and technician in the offshore oilfields. Working in the North Sea, Middle East, South America, Southeast Asia, New Zealand, and the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, Rick was involved in a large variety of challenging offshore oilfield projects. Supervising and diving on deep pipeline repairs, platform installations, subsea tie-ins, drilling support, and similar work provided Rick with a strong background in offshore construction techniques, technology and systems. This experience was supplemented by subsequent work in the specialized inland diving market, working on the Exxon Valdez salvage diving crew, large underwater burning projects in Panama, an emergency wet weld ship repair in the Marshall Islands, and long pipeline penetrations on the U.S. east coast. The broad based work experience gained through the military, offshore oilfield, and inland marine sectors enabled Rick to successfully found NCDI in 1991.
Steve Holmquist – Vice President
Growing up in the San Franciso Bay Area, Steve Holmquist was a dedicated surfer, diver, and waterman. Steve continued this attraction to the sea by choosing the marine industry as a career, graduating in 1974 from Santa Barbara City College Marine/Diving Technology program. Steve subsequently worked 10 years for Submarine Engineering Associates in Newport Beach, California, meeting and working with some of the early pioneers and innovators of that special era of west coast commercial diving. As a diver and supervisor, he was an integral part of SEA’s waterfront construction team, performing a variety of harbor and coastal infrastructure improvement projects. Other work included long pipeline penetrations and containment diving at the San Onofre nuclear power plant, construction and maintenance of an experimental deep water kelp farm, a large channel deepening drilling and blasting project in Florida, and oilfield pipeline installation and tie-ins in Southern California.
In the mid 1980’s, Steve moved back to Northern California, joining Podesta Divers in San Francisco; one of the longest established commercial diving firms on the west coast. While working for Podesta, Steve earned a stellar reputation as the “go-to” hand for specialized ship service activities, marine construction, and inland hydroelectric projects.
Since joining North Coast Divers in 1995, Steve has developed AWS qualified underwater welding, ship service, and pile rehabilitation programs. With over 30 years of experience in civil engineering diving and construction projects, Steve has expanded the NCDI’s capabilities in the inland market.