Do Dive Propulsion Vehicles Ruin The Experience?

Hi guys,

I was just watching a video on YouTube with one of these Dive Propulsion vehicles in it and I thought to myself: "wow, I could live without that." I mean, maybe its me, but I like to snorkel/dive because it relaxes me and I like the exercise. I don't need to be blasting through the ocean, I like to stop and see whats around me and burn a few calories. What do you guys think?

shotthebreeze:

Hi guys,

I was just watching a video on YouTube with one of these Dive Propulsion vehicles in it and I thought to myself: "wow, I could live without that." I mean, maybe its me, but I like to snorkel/dive because it relaxes me and I like the exercise. I don't need to be blasting through the ocean, I like to stop and see whats around me and burn a few calories. What do you guys think?

Click to expand...

I guess it depends on what you're using it for. I just think of my Dacor scooter as another tool. Most of the time I don't use it, but... when I want to survey an old dock area, go on a scallop hunt, or blast down to that wreck to try another picture of the wolf eel, it's pretty sweet. (It's fun too)

Happy Diving,

Poog

I could see how it could pose a problem for beginners. I guess hanging on to the back of one of those, which sounds like a lot of fun, would take my mind off properly ascending and descending.

When I went to Monterey in October, the lovely people who hosted us there set up a dive where we would get to play with scooters. It was challenging, and I have to say that one's first scooter dive is pretty scooter-focused. I didn't see much, being too busy managing my steed and keeping track of my teammates.

What I came away with was the idea that scooters could be great fun, if you practiced enough with them to be good with one. I also realized that, if you habitually dive in places where there are long surface or underwater swims to get to the interesting things, a scooter would be quite useful. On the other hand, if you dive where I do, where there aren't long surface swims for the most part, and a lot of the life is small and camouflaged and has to be carefully sought, a scooter is going to completely change your experience of a dive site, and in my opinion, not really for the better.

So I have put a scooter on the "I'll buy one when I'm bored with the diving I'm doing" list. Except sometimes, when I remember how much fun slaloming along in the cove at Lobos was . . .

TSandM:

On the other hand, if you dive where I do, where there aren't long surface swims for the most part...

Click to expand...

I'd hate to see what you consider a long surface swim. I'd be perfectly happy watching sand pass underneath me for 10 mintues just to avoid the swim out the end of the Jetty at Edmonds. You should measure it someday, I bet it would satisfy some of the DM swim tests.

Its very different.

I love hunting around in cracks for critters and love it when I find something fairly unique like a juvie yelloweye rockfish or something like that.

But have you ever gone exploring and just run into nothing but yards and yards and yards and yards of endless sand and mud? I went on a dive with Raul one time where we just dropped in the water off alki point and went swimming and found nothing but steep sand, a couple crabs and a few bits of seaweed. Where scooters shine is in blowing over boring bits like that and finding interesting bits of structure. If you are actually going to hop into the water and go exploring without a map to guide you, you can cover a lot more completely boring ground to find the good stuff.

Its also good for the macro life. There's nothing better for running into six-gill sharks than covering over a mile of terrain.

On some of the wreck dives around here scooters are essential safety equipment since the currents can cause major damage to a dive plan.

They're also fun to do on sites with a lot of rock structure, or out in freshwater lakes where there just aren't really the critters and the dive is more about the large-scale structure.

Which is not to say that they're good for all diving, but there's definitely dives which I would not want to do without a scooter. There's also other dives where there's little point in bringing them...

shotthebreeze:

What do you guys think?

Click to expand...

Yes, all those restaurants totally ruin it for all of us.
I mean, cooking your own meal is so much fun, I don't need to sit at a table and pay someone to cook a meal for me!

But seriously, just because you have a scooter doesn't mean that you need to scooter on every dive. There are dives better suited to scootering, and dives better suited for swimming. I love to scooter, but swimming dives are fun too.
Try one, you might change your mind about it.

I don't dive to relax, if I want to relax I will go lay on the couch and zone out. I go to the limits, NO FEAR.

If you don't want a DPV, don't get one.

N

I think of mine as an underwater bicycle. It's the difference between hiking and biking. They're both good. It sure is nice to get out to the reef in 5 minutes instead of 15

i won a seadoo and i voted yes it ruins a dive.... if there is only one scooter for a buddy pair

they suit their purpose and can make a dive fun as well but i let other people borrow it more than i use it myself

but in saying that.... we've just been given a 2nd scooter so maybe using it can become more enjoyable as we both will have a unit

cheers