Chris Guise has made a career out of patrolling roads and waterways. He patrolled the roads for more than seven years as a Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s Office deputy. Since he joined the Sheriff’s Office Water Patrol in 2004, he’s kept watch over the parish’s teeming waterways and wetlands. The amphibious deputy is on call 24 hours a day. When he’s not on the lookout, though, you can likely find him in his welding shop.
“Welding gets my mind off everything. I can get in there and get lost in my own world.”
“I’ve been welding since I was 16,” the 46-year-old Schriever resident said. “That was my first love you can say. He won’t single out any particular welding project he’s completed as his favorite or most memorable. “All welding jobs are important to me because what I make is made from my hands and mind.”
Guise began welding with his older cousin, who taught him many of the basics. Back then they welded skimmer frames and other smaller items. Guise learned the art of aluminum welding in vocational school. He finds this particular form of the craft much easier than the others. “I would get home from school at 3:30 in the afternoon and weld in my shed until midnight,” he said. “I like the challenge of building something for people that’s never been built before. There are a lot of techniques, obstacles and alloys, but the challenge of seeing if it could be made draws me to it. So far I’ve never encountered anything that I can’t make.” Guise claims to have welded everything from barbecue pits to boats. These days, he’s welding fuel tanks, a transom rebuild on a boat, shrimping net frames, barbecue pits, and seafood burners, to name a few of the items.
Though he loves welding, Guise concedes that his employer pays him to do another job. “My first job is a sheriff’s deputy, so if I’m welding on my day off and get called out…, I still have to go.” But he delights in picking up a blow torch to weld and thus recharging himself after a long and sometimes stressful day at work. “Welding gets my mind off everything,” he said. “I can get in there and get lost in my own world. It really brings me back to reality and eases the mind. I’m not much into alcohol. When some guys get home after a hard day they hit the bottle, but I hit the welding rods.”
I feel just as Chris when I’m welding – my wife often comes saying who knows what but since I’m lost in my world, I rarely hear her and she gets annoyed. I wish she could understand what this means to me and to not get so upset. Anyway, I personally like arc welding since it seems easier and quicker. My father taught me and I remember loving that time we spent together. So many wonderful memories. Unfortunately my son isn’t into welding which is a shame really, but I tried to get him to like it but won’t force it upon him. Nice to hear other people would also rather weld than hit the bottle. Good job, Chris!