Gonna look something like this...
New DPV - Dive Xtras
- Thread starter cathal
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
smoking deal on the dewalt 12ah battery
Genuine DeWalt DCB612 20V/60V MAX FLEXVOLT 12Ah Battery $169 free shipping
Genuine DeWalt DCB612 20V/60V MAX FLEXVOLT 12Ah Battery $169 free shipping
I tried my BlackTip in single tank configuration for the first time yesterday and I felt like Woody when he got a boost from Sid’s rocket in Toy Story.
I also learned to cover my purge button with my left hand so I don’t bleed off air from the speed of 6th gear mashing my purge button ever so slightly. I think I lost 10-15 bar before my pea-sized brain figured out why I was getting more air than I was drawing in.
Today was a dawdle at 58m with 18/45 of backgas and an AL80 deco tin. No speed records today...just a nice cruise along a big coral vista of Abu Madafi reef. Nice to finish my bottom time having explored a ton of terrain and still have nearly 2500 liters of gas left over.
I also learned to cover my purge button with my left hand so I don’t bleed off air from the speed of 6th gear mashing my purge button ever so slightly. I think I lost 10-15 bar before my pea-sized brain figured out why I was getting more air than I was drawing in.
Today was a dawdle at 58m with 18/45 of backgas and an AL80 deco tin. No speed records today...just a nice cruise along a big coral vista of Abu Madafi reef. Nice to finish my bottom time having explored a ton of terrain and still have nearly 2500 liters of gas left over.
Wow...not enough superlatives to capture this weekend’s culmination of learning experiences with the BlackTip. I have ~50 dives with the BlackTip now but this weekend some distinct impressions really crystallized.
Neophyte, rookie, baby diver, normoxic diapers....all terms that apply to me with my paltry ~300 total dives. If you’re a hardcore caver that’s been on scooters since the Gavin days and nursed on Helium as an infant, then it’s probably best to skip to the next thread. But for fellow technical toddlers like me, I hope you get something out of this even if it’s only reinforcement of what you may be observing and learning, too.
As one might anticipate, I’ve been using my BlackTip at recreational and technical depths (OW) to conserve air and extend my range. No mystery there but those two advantages are hard to truly appreciate if you never used a DPV. While some may scoff at the BlackTip’s limitations, this little travel-friendly egg beater makes me feel like twice the diver. I would liken my experience to that point in ultramarathon training when one starts routinely knocking out 20km training runs and the commensurate ranges for LD open water swimming. You just find yourself in a different class of performance.
Most recreational dives have been shore entries with loooong traverses sightseeing in 3rd and 4th gear along the Saudi Arabian coast where I can see the floor at 40-50m. I fin as far north or south as I dare and then scooter back. I’m generally finding I cut my time in half on the second leg. So, 90 minutes finning north and 45 minutes to get back at cruise speed, less if mashing it to 5th gear. I don’t hardly ever use 6th gear or higher unless beating into a current to get above it or under it. Anyways, in this role the BlackTip is hardly perceptible while I’m finning but reliable like a favorite tool when I pull it up to turn the dive. I only ever feel a very slight tug on my scooter ring when frog kicking and I don’t feel the drag. There’s certainly drag but it’s imperceptible (to me).
The only thing that would make it better is the 12Ah battery to REALLY scratch the explorer gene. I can easily run out of battery before I run out of air, especially if I’m driving two cylinders. With two tins the mismatch between available gas and the DPV’s available run time (70% of total run time) is really pronounced. I like to stick to my 70% planned run time rather than dipping into my total run time. Like gas, that’s my reserve. Rather than give in to temptation and erode the 70% planning principle, I’d rather upgrade my batteries so my available range is commensurate with my available gas. So, yes, 12Ah batteries are in order for me but the 9Ah batteries still fit squarely in the line up and do not, IMO, fall short of allowing one to really enjoy the DPV.
For my technical dives, the application for terrain is pretty similar with deep coral walls accessed by boats one to two hours off shore. Since I’m not diving with guys that want to use a stage bottle, our bottom times run out and we reach ascent pressure before I make a noteworthy dent in the 9Ah batteries. Sometimes I ferry technical divers without scooters 50m or so from the anchor line to a common terrain reference point before we turn along the wall. That eats up a little battery but not much. I still have plenty for the cruise and for contingencies if somebody has a problem. For these boilerplate technical dives, the 9Ah battery is great.
Friday’s stroll at 45m for 30 minutes was the garden variety Red Sea cruise just admiring the scenery down to 70m where the next drop off to 100m turned inky blue. Lots of big fish, Dr Seuss whip corals and craggy coral outcroppings to admire along the majestic slope and walls.
I already feel like the BlackTip has paid for itself in expanded exploration capabilities and number of grins per tank but what really tickled my training fancy this weekend was the discovery of 1st and 2nd gear at a reef called Anna’s Reef (aka Crazy 8). I had a total BLAST with the BlackTip on the second dive and never poked deeper than 12m or got past 3rd gear. It was the second dive on a single charge so I stayed conservative on the throttle.
As an aside I have another principle I like to stick to which is one shouldn’t scooter past what the legs can handle. If I can’t swim what I scooter, then either I need to get in better shape or take a back-up scooter.
Anyways, back to Anna’s Reef. I learned a ton navigating all the coral folds and restrictions and it was just a whole new diving experience for me. I totally get the value of a 1st and 2nd gear now. To go straight up out of a coral hole with competing coral protrusions, quickly plane off for a meter or two above the coral head and then smoothly glide straight down into the next crevasse was profoundly satisfying. I’ve done that scores of times on leg power but now to do it with a scooter just expanded my appreciation of diving as exploration. I would draw a comparison to the difference between running 5-10k on the street and then applying that to trail running in the mountains where the exercise is just an automatic activity happening underneath the more virtuous intellectual and emotional activity of exploring the mountain(s) and the vistas it offers.
Coming back down to basic diver skills, the other thing I learned this weekend was shifting my hands to holding the DPV by the shroud in front of me when going from first gear to leg power when negotiating a really tight restriction. That makes for a smooth transition back and forth.
Even though this is my first DPV and I’m still a rookie diver, I think Dive Xtras has changed the game. I feel confident saying that because when I first got interested in a DPV I looked at the prices and laughed. I reckoned I favored an upgrade in another hobby (like a dedicated track bike!) more than I could justify that much money on a single dive tool. The BlackTip changed that outlook and I anticipate other manufacturers are going to have to sit up and dust off their drafting boards to offer their own version.
Thanks to @RainPilot and - Desert Reef Dive Systems for turning me on to the Black Tip and @LandonL and @CaveMD for all the great training.
Neophyte, rookie, baby diver, normoxic diapers....all terms that apply to me with my paltry ~300 total dives. If you’re a hardcore caver that’s been on scooters since the Gavin days and nursed on Helium as an infant, then it’s probably best to skip to the next thread. But for fellow technical toddlers like me, I hope you get something out of this even if it’s only reinforcement of what you may be observing and learning, too.
As one might anticipate, I’ve been using my BlackTip at recreational and technical depths (OW) to conserve air and extend my range. No mystery there but those two advantages are hard to truly appreciate if you never used a DPV. While some may scoff at the BlackTip’s limitations, this little travel-friendly egg beater makes me feel like twice the diver. I would liken my experience to that point in ultramarathon training when one starts routinely knocking out 20km training runs and the commensurate ranges for LD open water swimming. You just find yourself in a different class of performance.
Most recreational dives have been shore entries with loooong traverses sightseeing in 3rd and 4th gear along the Saudi Arabian coast where I can see the floor at 40-50m. I fin as far north or south as I dare and then scooter back. I’m generally finding I cut my time in half on the second leg. So, 90 minutes finning north and 45 minutes to get back at cruise speed, less if mashing it to 5th gear. I don’t hardly ever use 6th gear or higher unless beating into a current to get above it or under it. Anyways, in this role the BlackTip is hardly perceptible while I’m finning but reliable like a favorite tool when I pull it up to turn the dive. I only ever feel a very slight tug on my scooter ring when frog kicking and I don’t feel the drag. There’s certainly drag but it’s imperceptible (to me).
The only thing that would make it better is the 12Ah battery to REALLY scratch the explorer gene. I can easily run out of battery before I run out of air, especially if I’m driving two cylinders. With two tins the mismatch between available gas and the DPV’s available run time (70% of total run time) is really pronounced. I like to stick to my 70% planned run time rather than dipping into my total run time. Like gas, that’s my reserve. Rather than give in to temptation and erode the 70% planning principle, I’d rather upgrade my batteries so my available range is commensurate with my available gas. So, yes, 12Ah batteries are in order for me but the 9Ah batteries still fit squarely in the line up and do not, IMO, fall short of allowing one to really enjoy the DPV.
For my technical dives, the application for terrain is pretty similar with deep coral walls accessed by boats one to two hours off shore. Since I’m not diving with guys that want to use a stage bottle, our bottom times run out and we reach ascent pressure before I make a noteworthy dent in the 9Ah batteries. Sometimes I ferry technical divers without scooters 50m or so from the anchor line to a common terrain reference point before we turn along the wall. That eats up a little battery but not much. I still have plenty for the cruise and for contingencies if somebody has a problem. For these boilerplate technical dives, the 9Ah battery is great.
Friday’s stroll at 45m for 30 minutes was the garden variety Red Sea cruise just admiring the scenery down to 70m where the next drop off to 100m turned inky blue. Lots of big fish, Dr Seuss whip corals and craggy coral outcroppings to admire along the majestic slope and walls.
I already feel like the BlackTip has paid for itself in expanded exploration capabilities and number of grins per tank but what really tickled my training fancy this weekend was the discovery of 1st and 2nd gear at a reef called Anna’s Reef (aka Crazy 8). I had a total BLAST with the BlackTip on the second dive and never poked deeper than 12m or got past 3rd gear. It was the second dive on a single charge so I stayed conservative on the throttle.
As an aside I have another principle I like to stick to which is one shouldn’t scooter past what the legs can handle. If I can’t swim what I scooter, then either I need to get in better shape or take a back-up scooter.
Anyways, back to Anna’s Reef. I learned a ton navigating all the coral folds and restrictions and it was just a whole new diving experience for me. I totally get the value of a 1st and 2nd gear now. To go straight up out of a coral hole with competing coral protrusions, quickly plane off for a meter or two above the coral head and then smoothly glide straight down into the next crevasse was profoundly satisfying. I’ve done that scores of times on leg power but now to do it with a scooter just expanded my appreciation of diving as exploration. I would draw a comparison to the difference between running 5-10k on the street and then applying that to trail running in the mountains where the exercise is just an automatic activity happening underneath the more virtuous intellectual and emotional activity of exploring the mountain(s) and the vistas it offers.
Coming back down to basic diver skills, the other thing I learned this weekend was shifting my hands to holding the DPV by the shroud in front of me when going from first gear to leg power when negotiating a really tight restriction. That makes for a smooth transition back and forth.
Even though this is my first DPV and I’m still a rookie diver, I think Dive Xtras has changed the game. I feel confident saying that because when I first got interested in a DPV I looked at the prices and laughed. I reckoned I favored an upgrade in another hobby (like a dedicated track bike!) more than I could justify that much money on a single dive tool. The BlackTip changed that outlook and I anticipate other manufacturers are going to have to sit up and dust off their drafting boards to offer their own version.
Thanks to @RainPilot and - Desert Reef Dive Systems for turning me on to the Black Tip and @LandonL and @CaveMD for all the great training.
You’d think with the above novel I got everything out of my system.
< cue eye roll >
I forgot to add that the light weight of the BlackTip is really nice. It’s been in and out of cars, boats and on and off the shore over the past few months and it’s really easily handled. That makes life a lot easier if solo diving or when dealing with an inexperienced crew that’s never seen a DPV before.
< cue eye roll >
I forgot to add that the light weight of the BlackTip is really nice. It’s been in and out of cars, boats and on and off the shore over the past few months and it’s really easily handled. That makes life a lot easier if solo diving or when dealing with an inexperienced crew that’s never seen a DPV before.
1isNone
Contributor
What is your regimen for keeping the o-rings clean and in tip-top condition?
Pull them off every once in a while, clean the seat, clean the O-rings and give them a light, even coat of silicone. I do watch how I lay down the nose cone when taking it off to ensure I don’t pick up any grit at the dive site or pet hair at home.
Daniel McIntyre
Registered
Looking for a DPV , I meg tooth dive at 100 -110 ft. I know nothing about them.. looking for advice.
Thanks
Thanks
laikabear
Contributor
For those of you with the tech tube upgrade, how are you weighting your Blacktip for saltwater?
I have an early model travel and just got the tech tube. The tech tube came with a weight plate inside the tube. Should I take out the 2 from the nose cone or leave them in, too? Do I need lead shot or add'l weight over that? I have a big bolt snap on the nose already.
I have an early model travel and just got the tech tube. The tech tube came with a weight plate inside the tube. Should I take out the 2 from the nose cone or leave them in, too? Do I need lead shot or add'l weight over that? I have a big bolt snap on the nose already.
Similar threads
