Is It Boring Being The Only One On A Dive With A Dpv?

[dreamdive]

It's only boring for those who don't have one! We just did a scooter class on the Spiegel and it was lots of fun. Usually we go "treasure hunting", taking the scooters away from the wreck and looking for stuff others have lost. That reminds me, if you have contact information on your camerals/gopro's, then people who find it can contact you! Here is a picture of one of the students:

 

[Nwcid]

I use mine on most of my shore dives, I even travel with it.

As others have said just getting one to do a "normal" dive seems kind of pointless. Now planning your diving around a DPV makes good sense. We usually shore dive so we spend 5-15 min scootering out to the end of the reef or dive site where people don't usually swim too. During this time we have a VERY low SAC giving us lots of time to spend diving.

Once we get to the location, I clip off my scooter and explore the site.

Once it is time to head back, we deploy the scooter and get back to the starting point.

 

[driftwood]

Found a great deal on Ebay earlier this year and got two Seadoo VS Supercharged for less than $250 shipped. We use them to clear algae form the bottom of a local lake. Turn them around, engage and swim like hell. Loads of fun, great exercise and you can do a hour's work in 10 minutes.

 

[Father]

Everything Jon said nailed it.

Once you see what a good scooter (not a Sea-Doo) costs, you may change your tune. A Sea-Doo Explorer will run you about $700. That's the pool toy. I've seen quite a few new ones lately and the QC has gone down. They are more prone to flooding which, even for $700, is unacceptable in my opinion. I had bought two used Explorers before I had enough of the problems and bought a DiveXtras Piranha P1. The P1 price is considerably more, but you're getting a quality scooter with great customer service. I rarely kick dive. I've probably put about 100 dives on my 2 in the last year with no issues at all. The only problem with the P1 is the Lithium Ion battery is not cleared for travel on an airline. They have since started selling a NiMh, but I think that's anadd-on. You'd have to ask DiveX if they plan on selling a scooter with the NiMh instead of the Lithium.

Then there's the traveling thing. I think some airlines might still allow an extra bag with "sports equipment". Some have changed that to not include dive gear or you just have to pay an additional fee for the extra bag. Adding a scooter, you're adding a third +30lb bag. Depending on what kind of diving you plan on doing it might not be worth the additional hassle just to bring it.

Have you looked around to see if there are any charters that are exclusively DPV divers? Or maybe dive operations that offer or specialize in DPV rentals?

It depends on how you plan to dive, as diving with a DPV is completely different than swimming.

If you are the only one on the boat with a DPV, you have to make sure the operator is OK with you diving solo, as there is not much point to trying to stay with a buddy that is swimming, unless you are towing them somewhere. Diving solo is very relaxing, if you have the skills, situational awareness and demeanor to calmly handle ANY issues that may arise. That said, there are a lot of people that should never dive solo. If you do decide it's for you, you go from looking at small stuff to covering a lot of ground and focusing more on big stuff. Nudibrachs and gobies lose their appeal when you can follow dolphins, rays and sharks around.

There are times when I've dove with guys swimming, but that was because they were on rebreathers and I was open circuit, so I used the scooter to drop my SAC rate and increase my bottom time. You have to have a scooter that will go slow enough when you do that though, as not all scooters can have the speed dialed back to 50fpm or less, otherwise you are constantly on and off the trigger, which is really annoying.

Most people that dive a good scooter think it is the most enjoyable piece of dive gear they ever owned, but those who try to save a buck with an el-cheapo model quite often have bad experiences, due to flooding, and/or having to swim back while towing it, when it fails.

You will use less breathing gas with a scooter and you will not be stuck diving around a large group of flailing tourist, but you will also get colder, since you're not swimming and if you don't have good navigation skill, you can get really lost with a scooter.

 

[Kevrumbo]

Everything Jon said nailed it.

Once you see what a good scooter (not a Sea-Doo) costs, you may change your tune. A Sea-Doo Explorer will run you about $700. That's the pool toy. I've seen quite a few new ones lately and the QC has gone down. They are more prone to flooding which, even for $700, is unacceptable in my opinion. I had bought two used Explorers before I had enough of the problems and bought a DiveXtras Piranha P1. The P1 price is considerably more, but you're getting a quality scooter with great customer service. I rarely kick dive. I've probably put about 100 dives on my 2 in the last year with no issues at all. The only problem with the P1 is the Lithium Ion battery is not cleared for travel on an airline. They have since started selling a NiMh, but I think that's anadd-on. You'd have to ask DiveX if they plan on selling a scooter with the NiMh instead of the Lithium.

Then there's the traveling thing. I think some airlines might still allow an extra bag with "sports equipment". Some have changed that to not include dive gear or you just have to pay an additional fee for the extra bag. Adding a scooter, you're adding a third +30lb bag. Depending on what kind of diving you plan on doing it might not be worth the additional hassle just to bring it.

Have you looked around to see if there are any charters that are exclusively DPV divers? Or maybe dive operations that offer or specialize in DPV rentals?

My old Sierra X-scooter with Nimh Battery & spare parts kit --all contained in hard case weighed a grand total of 36kg, just under the absolute max check-in weight limit of 40kg at that time for a single piece of luggage, on a Bikini Atoll/Truk Trip 2013. United Airlines charged $400 excess baggage fee for the scooter each way on the primary flight travel day, on both the outbound and homebound legs.

 

[Father]

My old Sierra X-scooter with Nimh Battery & spare parts kit --all contained in hard case weighed a grand total of 36kg, just under the absolute max check-in weight limit of 40kg at that time for a single piece of luggage, on a Bikini Atoll/Truk Trip 2013. United Airlines charged $400 excess baggage fee for the scooter each way on the primary flight travel day, on both the outbound and homebound legs.

That sucks. Why? Did you have your clothes in one suitcase, dive gear in another, and the scooter in a third bag? I've heard of a third bag running $100, but why $400? You mention weight in kg so I assume you're not coming from America. What airline?
Or did they nail you because it was a scooter?

 

[boulderjohn]

The problem for me as a single diver with a scooter is that the dive charters where I do most of that kind of diving do not allow solo diving, at least without a solo card of some kind, so you can't do it. SO I finally got a card, and I look forward to presenting it when I go there next year.

 

[Oldbear]

The problem for me as a single diver with a scooter is that the dive charters where I do most of that kind of diving do not allow solo diving, at least without a solo card of some kind, so you can't do it. SO I finally got a card, and I look forward to presenting it when I go there next year.

John,

Maybe when I come home from this island for good, you can take your scooter and solo card and I can take my scooter and solo card and we can go diving again?

Michael

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

on a Bikini Atoll/Truk Trip 2013. United Airlines charged $400 excess baggage fee for the scooter each way on the primary flight travel day, on both the outbound and homebound legs.

Unless someone is made of money or plain doesn't give a damn what it costs, that would seem like a good reason to get the legs in shape.
Freediving fins.

 

[Kevrumbo]

Unless someone is made of money or plain doesn't give a damn what it costs, that would seem like a good reason to get the legs in shape.
Freediving fins.

At Bikini Atoll, the WWII Aircraft Carrier USS Saratoga is over 888' long, and to do a grand tour exploration at a range of depths from 18 to 57 meters deep with doubles and deco cylinders, a scooter/DPV is a better, smarter more efficient mode of locomotion than "Freediving fins".

The excess baggage fees to bring the DPV comes from the fact that United Airlines has a monopoly on the Island Hopper Route from Hawaii through the Marshall Islands into Micronesia (Truk), and can charge whatever exorbitant fare they want to. . .