Nick Parish grew up in New Mexico and yet even as a boy felt connected to the sea. When he was as young as 4 or 5 years old he would go to the rigs with his dad and thought it was a great place to be. During summers in both high school and college Nick worked in oil fields. While in college he majored in psychology. When he was one semester away from graduation, he dropped out. It was a natural decision for him to return to the oil field, a life long dream.

For 30 years Nick worked all over the world in the drilling industry. During that time he took a couple years off to spend time with his daughter. He wandered into a tattoo shop and became interested in the art and process of tattoo. For a year he worked as a tattoo artist. Then one day he was watching the Discovery Channel and saw a program about seafloor drilling for scientific research. After 12 phone calls, he found a person that asked for his resume. He was interviewed on the phone, offered a job and two weeks later he was on his way to meet the ship in Hawaii. Since then, he has been with the program for 4 years.

Nick’s job is to keep the drilling apparatus relatively stable, even though the ship may be heaving from side to side or up and down. Working with a different drill every expedition, there is always something new to learn as a driller on the JOIDES Resolution.

Although Nick finds his job challenging, he likes the life of the seafloor drilling because he enjoys the solitude. He works 12 hours and has 12 hours off, 7 days a week for two months at a time. This gives him time to read and study topics that interest him.

Staff Name: Nick Parish

Education: High school diploma

Courses: General education courses with an interest in drilling

IODP Experience: 4 years in ODP and IODP

Interests: Oil drilling, oil rigs

Life Experience: 30 years working in the drilling business

Interests: tattoo art (Nick was a tattoo artist for a year), watching television, visiting children and grandchildren

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