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

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Kairoos

Contributor
Messages
212
Reaction score
28
Location
West Palm Beach, Florida
# of dives
100 - 199
I'm looking for a new toy, and a DPV seems like it would be fun to use. I've never seen anyone on the charter I go out on use one, and in fact, I've never seen ANYONE diving with one. Would it be boring as the only one using a DPV?
 
Well it would be annoying to other divers -especially underwater photographers- if you were buzzing around and scaring all their subjects away (found that out the hard way!). . . just show some consideration.

It's fun to use otherwise -like when playing/'dogfighting" with Sea Lions here in SoCal- and a good tool especially if you got a long surface or underwater travel distance to a particular dive site, and towing a lot of tanks for a deep Tech Dive.
 
Yeppers...boring.
 
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.
 
No, it is boring being the only one without a scooter.
 
I dive with a DPV all the time, and have for years. It is more fun when your buddies also join in, but I love diving with my DPV and dive on my own and around other divers all the time. I have never once thought "gee I wish I left the scooter on the boat!"
 
I dive with a DPV all the time, and have for years. It is more fun when your buddies also join in, but I love diving with my DPV and dive on my own and around other divers all the time. I have never once thought "gee I wish I left the scooter on the boat!"


I would put myself into this category as well.
 
If I'm the only one on a scooter, which is rare, it's because I'm towing a friend or two to a dive site from shore. The I stow it and swim along with my buddies. Every other dive then are with dive buddies in a team.

After all, kicking is only backup propulsion! ;-)
 
Simple. Have more than one! I have no problem finding buddies and it's more than twice as much fun :)
This is my favorite answer so far. I had one Dacor DPV and eventually bought a second one so that my dive buddy could keep up with me (I kept the faster one for myself).

4854238711_91058aa90b_o_d.jpg
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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