The 50th Anniversary Address

THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS

By Dick Long
Presented at DUI’s 50th Anniversary Celebration November 16, 2013

DUI is a result of and exists because of the dreams and efforts of a lot of people. Tonight I will share with you some of the highlights of our 50 year history; describe to you where we are right now; and share with you some of the lessons I have learned along the way. Then I will ask you to continue the mission that we have started. I came to San Diego in 1963 with $2800 in my pocket, a used air compressor, an old truck, a relatively new car, and “far more guts than brains”. Soon after arriving I was introduced to the U.S. Navy Underwater Demolition Teams and given an opportunity to build wetsuits for them. I applied the lessons I learned from diving in the cold waters of Monterrey, California to the designs which were far more effective at keeping divers warm. That put me in touch with the research and development arm of the UDT operation. At the time R&D was primarily focused on swimmer delivery vehicles; which, in turn, were assigned to the standby diver’s for Sealab II. I was part of the team, as by that time I was solving many of their technical problems. I then met Walt Mazzone and participated in the preparation for Sealab III. Walt encouraged me not to become an aquanaut but instead to continue working on keeping divers warm. Insulating divers breathing helium was an impossible task; we needed to have an active rather than a passive insulation. From this realization came the development of the DUI hot water suit in 1964. One of the first companies to recognize the importance of this invention was World Wide Divers of Morgan City, Louisiana, owned by Mike Hughes and John T. Johnson. The company was working on a natural gas line crossing the Mississippi River in the middle of winter. The hot water suit made that dive job not only possible but successful. The success of this venture launched the company forming Oceaneering International, Inc. To this day, Oceaneering is one of the most successful companies in the underwater construction business. To further address the offshore oil and gas industry DUI opened an office in Aberdeen, Scotland to support our hot water suits and heaters used in the North Sea. I worked with Ted McDowell whom I had met on one of the first saturation diving jobs in the Gulf of Mexico salvaging an oil platform. Ted was responsible for helping me to refine our equipment and approach for diver thermal protection. However, there was a major collapse in the oil business in 1978. At that point it became obvious that in order for us to stay in business we would have to find other markets to apply our knowledge and expertise. While at a DEMA show I realized that we had perfected the understanding of applied thermal physiology to the underwater workplace. Further, that there was a need for modern designs in the drysuit business. That launched DUI into its major market today. As both the company and I matured I began to study other businesses to avoid potential pitfalls. One of the lessons I learned was that most entrepreneurs kill their own business as they get older. Therefore, I laid out a plan to identify individuals that I could bring into DUI, train, and have them develop the kind of infrastructure that DUI would need to survive in the future. So for the past 25 years my primary function was to be a talent scout and recruiter for DUI. Further, to mentor and guide others, as I had been mentored in my development. Shining examples of that process was when I taught Bob Cranston and Bob Stinton to dive when they were approximately 13 years old; and then to have them come to work for me after graduation. I recruited Faith Ortins after discovering her running her dive store in Danvers, Massachusetts. Their successes have confirmed the wisdom of this approach. Each of them has far surpassed any of my accomplishments and I am most proud of their successes. Many people have asked me what motivates me the most in guiding DUI’s efforts and business. I have been given the incredible opportunity to work with explorers and innovators operating under the sea. And every time they go out they take my suits with them. In doing so they take a part of me with them as well. And when they achieve their successes I feel that I share a small piece, for without my suits they could not accomplish their mission. I believe most of you can understand that concept. Therefore, I want to invite you, DUI’s longtime supporters to view the accomplishments of DUI and accept your involvement as a contributor to our success. And, as such, you share in a piece of the action of DUI and rightfully so. I want you to feel proud of your investment of time and effort in DUI. Together we have made a major difference in the world and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for making all of this possible. Today DUI does about $7 million annually serving the militaries of the free world; the commercial and industrial diving industry worldwide; the search and rescue teams; the scientific divers; along with the movie industry; and the largest of all, the serious recreational diver. Today DUI employs 76 people and if you add in our representatives and distributors the total is more than 100. Of those 76 people 37 have been with DUI for over 10 years; 25 have been with us for over 20 years; and four have been with us for over 30 years. The average is 13 years and for a manufacturing company that is most unusual. All the assembly workers get paid by the hour and not by the piece. Part of the quality and consistency of the suits you wear come from the fact that each person takes ownership of each suit. Bob and I may have a designed the suits but these are the people who built them and they will accept nothing less than perfection. That is supported by a customer service team that has no equal. Annually one third of the company profits is distributed to the employees. Any time I get a report back on our wonderful service my only comment is “you would almost say they are unlimited wouldn’t you”. Further, we are able to train our customers at our DemoTour events, during which we have put over 38,000 divers in the water over the last 14 years trying our different suits. Three to five people come out from DUI and from 30 to 60 volunteers are needed to run each DemoTour. They pay their own travel and expenses, and in turn, get a free t-shirt, a hat and all the hot dogs and hamburgers they can eat. These volunteers are dedicated to diving. In response to suggestions and requests from our customers we have innovations such as ZipSeals, dry suits designed specifically for women, and now BlueHeat. We are constantly expanding our product line. We have three full-time engineers in our engineering department plus their support technicians. So you see from my perspective DUI is full of superstars and I believe at this point I am leaving DUI in good and capable hands. I would like to share with you some of what I have learned over this past 50 years. First I believe each generation stands on the shoulders of the previous generation, and each generation serves as mentors for the succeeding generations. It has been my job to pass on what my mentors taught me as I stand on their shoulders. Then I take what I have learned add to what they taught me and pass that on to the generation that now stands on my shoulders. Bob, Susan and Faith and the rest of the DUI team in turn are advancing a new young and eager generation to stand on their shoulders. They will add their creativity to the richness of our history. Each generation will exceed the accomplishments of the previous generation. If they do not, then we did not do our jobs. Let me describe to you how I view the world. I view the world as a big clock that has guided us through the thousands of years in spite of wars, plagues and pestilence. If you open the back of the clock you will find it is filled with thousands of tiny little gears all of which keep the clock moving forward in a positive direction. If you remove any one of those gears the clock is no longer as accurate and effective. DUI is simply one of the many thousands of gears in the clock. Each of us are the teeth on those gears; and if any of those teeth are missing the gear does not perform its function as well. So each of us must continue to do our part so our gears function, which in turn, allows the clock to function and makes the world a better place. You and I working collectively together are simply AWESOME! The ocean is my first priority. It controls our planet; without it mankind will cease to exist and the planet will cease to exist. We must take care of it as farmers tend their fields. We must maintain everything we do in a sustainable fashion. Diving is an art form, not a science. Diving is the most intimate form of contact between the human race and the ocean. We are in it. It is all around us. It permeates us. We are part of it. Divers are the human beings that do the diving. The diving industry is merely the organizational structure that supports the divers, nothing more. Our industry is very good at recruiting people into scuba diving classes. However, we have a terrible diver development program. This makes people into “people who dive” most of them never learn very much about the ocean. My challenge to you is to convert the “people who dive into divers” and then for you to convert all the divers into evangelists for the ocean. Why evangelists? Because evangelists go out into the world with little or no resources and face incredible odds. But because of their strong belief and dedication they overcome all obstacles and in the end impart knowledge, understanding and respect of the ocean so others learn to love and protect it. When this goal is reached, mankind will flourish and survive on this planet. Thank you.