Visited a dry dock in Portland last week and saw something wild on a hull

I was down at the waterfront in Portland checking out a dry dock job a buddy was on, and I noticed one of the welders had taped a GoPro to his hard hat and was filming the whole thing like he was making a movie. Turns out he was livestreaming it to his girlfriend who works at a dive bar in town because she said she wanted to see "what the fuss was about" with all the grinder sparks. Has anyone else run into weird side gigs or distractions on a job site that almost made you lose focus?

3 comments

3 Comments

west.casey10d ago

Kind of feels like a lot of fuss over a guy with a GoPro on his head. I mean, people livestream all kinds of boring stuff from their desk jobs, so this is basically the same thing but with more sparks. Not sure it's that much of a distraction unless he's letting go of his grinder to answer chat questions or something. Most welders I've known can tune out just about anything, including a literal fire alarm. Probably just a cheap way to impress his girlfriend without springing for dinner. Way I see it, if the work gets done right, who cares about the camera.

baker.holly10d ago

Isn't it funny how we're fine with people filming every mundane thing but the second it's a hands-on skill, suddenly it's unsafe or showing off? Feels like we just love to nitpick anything that breaks the norm.

roberts.leo8d ago

Totally hear you on this one @baker.holly. It's like the minute a guy tries to make his boring shift a little more interesting, everyone acts like he's juggling torches. I've seen people play music loud enough to rattle the scaffolding, or some guys even prop up their phones to watch sports while they're waiting for paint to dry. The livestream thing actually sounds kinda smart if it keeps his girl interested in what he does all day. As long as his grinder stays in his hand and not on the deck, I'm all for it. A happy welder is usually a safe welder in my book.