Until last weekend scooters were something that other people used. So, even though I had seen the Dive Xtras scooters at BOOT in January this year, they really weren't interesting to me.
I visited the BTS Demo Days in Geeste, Germany last weekend to do a try-dive with steel doubles (2x12L).
While we were there discussing all kinds of stuff about diving, one of the BtS guys walked up to us and announced that the scooter workshop was about to begin.
Since it wasn't really crowded and we anticipated that we could do the dive later without any problems, we decided that it wouldn't hurt to have a look at the scooters while we we there anyway.
The scooter workshop was given by Thomas (a BtS employee).
He started out by explaining what issues divers had with other brands of scooters and how Dive Xtras had addressed these issues.
He also went into great detail to explain which safety measures were used to prevent the scooters from going off by themselves. Setting the pitch to zero, making sure the trigger is blocked and tethering yourself to the scooter.
Other items that were discussed:
The first thing I noticed that using a scooter is great fun.
Holding the handle was really tiring for my hand at first so I switched from my right hand to my left hand to holding the handle with both hands during the first dive. It was much easier on the second dive.
The vis wasn't that great so during the second dive I lost sight of my buddy. I knew he still was in the area as I could hear the whirring sound of his scooter but I couldn't see him. Luckily that didn't last long.
Make sure you don't go too low or you may have to spend some time cleaning the propeller shaft from all the plants that mysteriously got there...
Buoyancy is another issue. It's quite easy to control it when scootering. However, when the scooter isn't pulling you forward and you didn't adjust your buoyancy, you may find yourself trashing about on the surface with too much air in your drysuit... :blush:
Do I want one? Definitely!
It was so bloody irritating having to swim underwater after we had returned the scooters.
Will I buy one? EUR 5000 (as was quoted) is a bit much for something I don't really need now.
Here are a few pix from the workshop:
I visited the BTS Demo Days in Geeste, Germany last weekend to do a try-dive with steel doubles (2x12L).
While we were there discussing all kinds of stuff about diving, one of the BtS guys walked up to us and announced that the scooter workshop was about to begin.
Since it wasn't really crowded and we anticipated that we could do the dive later without any problems, we decided that it wouldn't hurt to have a look at the scooters while we we there anyway.
The scooter workshop was given by Thomas (a BtS employee).
He started out by explaining what issues divers had with other brands of scooters and how Dive Xtras had addressed these issues.
He also went into great detail to explain which safety measures were used to prevent the scooters from going off by themselves. Setting the pitch to zero, making sure the trigger is blocked and tethering yourself to the scooter.
Other items that were discussed:
- How to share air while scootering;
- Gas planning and how scooters influence it;
- Maintaining buoyancy while scootering;
- When and why to switch scooters during the dive.
The first thing I noticed that using a scooter is great fun.
Holding the handle was really tiring for my hand at first so I switched from my right hand to my left hand to holding the handle with both hands during the first dive. It was much easier on the second dive.
The vis wasn't that great so during the second dive I lost sight of my buddy. I knew he still was in the area as I could hear the whirring sound of his scooter but I couldn't see him. Luckily that didn't last long.
Make sure you don't go too low or you may have to spend some time cleaning the propeller shaft from all the plants that mysteriously got there...
Buoyancy is another issue. It's quite easy to control it when scootering. However, when the scooter isn't pulling you forward and you didn't adjust your buoyancy, you may find yourself trashing about on the surface with too much air in your drysuit... :blush:
Do I want one? Definitely!
It was so bloody irritating having to swim underwater after we had returned the scooters.
Will I buy one? EUR 5000 (as was quoted) is a bit much for something I don't really need now.
Here are a few pix from the workshop: