Scooter Diving with Sea Lions Video

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Jon Nellis

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A little scooter fun in Carmel Bay that I finally got around to editing. The sea lions were with us for the whole dive and not the slightest bit camera shy.

50-60ft of vis and 8-12ft of surge (barely noticeable on a scooter)


[video=youtube;BYeCdKHDCR0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYeCdKHDCR0[/video]
 
Nice. It'll never forget a dive at The Breakwater with another Genesis 600 owner where we mobbed by a dozen sealions. All of a sudden they left. Then, my dive buddy did a series of loop-the-loops and they are all returned and danced with us. An amazing experience.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalko
 
Sweet. Man. The 600s are tiny. I think my 1500 needs a little brother.
 
Sweet. Man. The 600s are tiny. I think my 1500 needs a little brother.

A dive buddy on Oahu is selling a 600 that just came back from getting serviced by Jon, though all you need is the 600 nose and battery pack.
 
Sweet. Man. The 600s are tiny. I think my 1500 needs a little brother.


Towing a 600 as a spare is real easy. I hardly notice it clipped off behind me, but it has the same thrust as the 1200 and 1500 when you need it.
 
I am planning to take a DPV class soon and have been looking at your DPVs. The price difference between the 600 and 1200 is only $1K and I was wondering what would be the reason to get a 600 over a 1200 beside being able to transport the batteries on an airplane. I would hate to buy a 600 and realize quickly that a 1200 make more sense. Also, if one has a 1200, couldn't it be converted to a 600 by buying a new nose and battery pack (guess it applies the other away around as well). Thanks.
 
You can swap between 600 and 1200 by changing the battery and body tube.

For me, I chose the 600 because its performance is more than I'll ever need for any of the recreational dives I'm going to do. When combined with less weight and the ability to take it with me when on vacation, it was the right call. For me, at least. YMMV.
 
I based it on price per watt and went for the 1500. I run mine pretty hard. And wanted something I could free dive with too. Board shorts, mask, and snorkel make for one hell of a ride. I made 120' a week or so ago and cruised at 60' and 20' for a bit while on the way up. Although I havent run it all the way down I have enjoyed some 4 hr days.
 
Having driven both the 600 and the 1200 on fairly long dives (I own a 600 but got to drive a buddy's new 1200 around at 220' while someone else tried my 600), I think the 600 has an edge in ease of steering, too. The 1200 (and I can only imagine the 1500) has a much wider turning radius and wants to track straight, needing more effort to steer. The 600 is much easier to drive around, especially at full tilt boogie. OTOH, having done some really long nav runs with the 600 where it felt a bit like it wanted to wander, the 1200's keel-like handling might be really nice on longer runs at a bearing.
 
I am planning to take a DPV class soon and have been looking at your DPVs. The price difference between the 600 and 1200 is only $1K and I was wondering what would be the reason to get a 600 over a 1200 beside being able to transport the batteries on an airplane. I would hate to buy a 600 and realize quickly that a 1200 make more sense. Also, if one has a 1200, couldn't it be converted to a 600 by buying a new nose and battery pack (guess it applies the other away around as well). Thanks.

If you travel to warmer climates and want to take a scooter, the 600 is the only option on the market that gives you realistic run time and decent power. We take our scooters to the Caribbean and do dives that the locals would not even think of doing, because we can get out and back in strong currents and underneath rough surface conditions that the boats won't go out in.

For shore diving, the 600 is easier to manage in the larger breaking waves that are the norm in Monterey and other west coast location. If you are on a dive boat or at a park with 115VAC power, it is very easy to recharge the scooter between dives, since you don't need to open the scooter to recharge. If you dive it for an hour and then recharge for an hour during your surface interval, the batteries will be back up between 80-90% (assuming you didn't hotrod it around your whole dive) and you can do that all day long if you track the charge on the batteries. A few of the places I cave dive in Florida have power outlets at the park and we'll do a 90 minute dive and then charge them for a couple hours before doing the next dive and then maybe do a third dive later, after another recharge. Most folks can get a couple one hour dive on a 600 without recharging and still have plenty of reserve. I know some people that do 3 one hour dives on a charge, with no problem.

The 1200 and 1500 are for 3-5 hour long dives or when you need to do a lot of high speed travel or don't have access to power for recharging in between dives. We have a 1500 owner that is doing exploration in a cave system in Florida that is between 150 and 300ft deep. He has to scooter about a mile to the back of the cave with 8 tanks and a spare scooter in tow, before he really starts the dive, and he does it all at full speed, to minimize his time at depth and the resulting deco hit.

For most folks, the 600 is plenty and has better range than other brands of scooters that are 15-20lbs heavier with larger batteries, since it is more power efficient.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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