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Scuba-Doo Underwater Scooter
hawado writes "Just when you thought it was safe to go in the water, 'Fans of the Segway scooter now have a way to look just as silly traveling underwater as they do on land thanks to the efforts of an inventive Australian company.' 'The Scuba-Doo comes with everything you would want in a submerged Segway.' I just don't know what to say, but I am sure all you /.rs will have some really great comments. The company's web site can be found here."
Also, I worry about the company's legitimacy, have you been to their website. That is the worst photoshop work I have ever seen. Plus, they repeat what is on the front page on all of the their pages. Which, if you were counting, for individuals like myself, is only 3 pages total. I WANT MORE INFORMATION
-- johntracy.com, because everybody else is wrong.
I don't like the way you start to drown as soon as you fall off. :-)
And I'll be riding it in my Scooby Doo Underoos.
Sounds like a lot of fun....
Just wait till someone swaps the engine in it....
I wonder how fast that can go and still be "safe".
Underwater bike races! whee.
I've ridden on very similar underwater skooters like this years ago. They've got these in just about any snorkel/scuba sites that are primarily tourist areas. Hawaii, Micronesia, Polynesia, the Caribbean, etc. all have tourist excursion packages that include riding these things.
Next week will we be hearing about snuba?
I have been pwned because my
... you're all free to say "Scuba-Doo, where are you?"
It won't be interesting until someone does the equivalent of attaching a JATO unit to it.
Wh47 d1d j00 541, 31337 15n't t3h r0xor5 ne m0r3???
Well, this costs as much as some new cheaper cars. It also, arguably, looks cooler than the Segway and travels underwater without the usual scuba gear / complicated breathing apparatuses. if i was rich, bored and wanted to have underwater paintball fights / play submarine bumper-tag, i'd buy one!
[sean connery] Sho Q, what do you have for me thish time? [/connery]
a) someone runs their battery dead and drowns. b) someone runs into something, breaks the seal on the helmet and drowns. c) someone takes it to a depth at which the glass bursts under the pressure and drowns. d) someone gets run into by a frigate,yacht or even a jetski because they are too close to the surface, runs out of battery power whilst they are unconcious and drowns... I just don't see the fun in drowning...
ok.. so heads you lose tails I win. right?
Add a snorkel and a little 2 cylinder engine to charge the battery and you could stay under for days.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
This cannot be real...the picture doesn't even look real. The girl doesn't look real. The fish...don't look real.
On the other hand...no, there is no other hand. This company is one big...fake. I call it!!!
I have seen pictures of this elsewhere, I believe in a magazine. So I get the feeling that they do indeed exist, and the company is legitimate.
However, that does not make them any less stupid...
A drowned Segway? That sure is "everything I want."
At least we wouldn't have so many concerns about Segways taking up too much space on sidewalks. To use these, they'd have to build waterways on the sidewalks.
You're supposed to have an air tight seal around your neck?
While it's great having oxygen... if you can't breath, I doubt it really matters.
Then again, those willing to pay $14,000 on something as sketchy looking as this deserve what they get. And by that I mean, a terrible underwater death.
Sorry, but that looks so photoshopped it hurts. If it is a real product, damn, why not...oh, i don't know....hire a real outfit to photograph it instead of letting a few blind folks mock up the pic?
After seeing that picture, I sure want to go buy the product. She just looks so happy, as if she'll suffocate with joy riding this thing.
can it get me good weed like the real scooby doo!
Until now, Snorks had to swim or ride seahorses to get from point A to point B. The underwater Segway will fill the niche in-between, and ultimately result in Snork cities being completely built around this wonderous new technology.
Oh yeah, I remember this. This was in the episode with the underwater ghost dude, right?
Australia, eh? Swim in the wrong place with this "Scuba-Doo" and a shark'll turn you into a nice "Scuba-Snack".
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
You're right. What would Hanna-Barbera, the owner of the SCOOBY-DOO trademark, have to say about this? Under the Trademark Dilution Act and foreign counterparts, the rule about separation of fields of use don't apply to trademarks as famous as SCOOBY-DOO(R).
Note to self: Do not leave computer logged in while away from desk.
Jeez.
I have been pwned because my
the real story here is how michael still manages to maintain a job at slashdot.
The "Insert Quote Here" line is almost as predictable as inserting an actual quote.
With this thing, you're limited in your visibility; I'd be surprised if you could turn it to look straight down. Also a bit difficult to turn around in a hurry to look at a school of fish (or a shark, or a mantray, or similar) that's just swum behind you.
Thanks, but no thanks. If it works for you, great. It doesn't for me.
Did anybody else read this subject as "Scooby Doo Underwear" the first time?
I actually had to do a triple take before I realized what it really said.
As a trained diver I can evaluate the personal risks involved in my sport and decide wether or not to engage in it. I think that this device will encourage untrained people to do things which can end up with them being DEAD or crippled.
It is too easy to get your eardrums blown in or your lungs burst, or drown unless you've had the appropriate training.
There are already DPV's (Piver Propulsion Vehicles) on the market for those who dont want to fin their way around the bottom. I think that this product will cause plenty of problems.
at the bottom of the ocean?
a good start.
If you ever lose it... you just have to yell out the following command to make it come to surface:
"Scuba-scuba-doo, where are you?"
Look. All someone's done is taken the front of a Stormtrooper mask, cut some chunks out of the sides, painted it yellow, and stuck in an incredibly photoshopped woman.
:)
I mean, her arms appear to be coming from her breasts, if her head's attached to her body like that then she's got incredibly bad scoliosis, and the bottom half of her bikini appears to have been drawn onto her body by an epileptic kid using a pre-alpha version of MS Paint whilst in the middle of a tonic seizure.
Her face also appears to be, for reasons unknown, forced against the front of the plexiglass screen with some incredible force.
Clearly some huge conspiracy
I've done it - snuba is more fun, but this can be less intimidating for inexperienced people.
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
the picture on the first link is terrible, but the picture on the actual website isnt so bad. it doesnt look like it was the scuba doo folks fault.
You mean some people get paid for this ?
Which of these can I order with it?
- CD changer
- MP3 player
- iPod mount point
- cup holder
- GPS
- climate control (well, for head and shoulders...)
- ashtray
- demister
"Woa johnny! Look at the size of that thing- you must got yourself a big yellow whaleshark! Hang on there while I give the ole engine some juice to tire the bugger out."
Scuba Doo was the title of the character in the closing drama in Scuba vacation bible school from Group Publishing.
This sounds more like a Sealab 2021 operation.
Remarkably like the original, this new segway deserves to be at the bottom of the ocean.
these things have been around for a while, and I think they are a bad idea. I am a current SCUBA instructor as well as a pretty experienced cave and technical diver. There are so many limitations to this thing that makes it completely impractical. Transport is one issue in terms of getting it into and out of the water.
for one thing, inexperienced pilot will have this hard bodied device with which to crash into delicate coral. this will have to be used in a body of water with typically little current, else it become quite easy to lose the group.
It cannot go deep for long since it is still open to ambient pressure, so decompression comes into play as well as gas supply. For every 33 feet (10m) one descends, the pressure increases by one atmosphere. If that tank were to last the diver 60 minutes on the surface, then at 33 feet it would last only 30 minutes, at 60 feet it would be 20 minutes, and so forth.
It might be ok for a few shallow water, shore-based resorts that can charge the units at the dock. Even a fairly cheap diver scooter will be just around 800-1200, and those can only go to about 100-150 feet if you're lucky. In order to go more deep, you have to get more specialized units (www.gavinscooters.com) that can handle the pressure (I've taken mine to 350) and has the battery burn time. Even those units only cost ~$3500. These units are simply torpedo looking devices that tow the diver. The biggest advantage is that it reduces the workload for the diver, thus dropping air consumption and helping one cover more ground.
This device has no similarities other than someone trying to compare two unlike things with a vague attempt at seeming technologically advanced.
Cave, wreck, and deep diver.
There are various companies in Cairns (North Queensland, Australia) that offer these for supervised hire at exhorbitant hourly rates.
An enthusiastic spokesperson convinced me to take one of their brochures (with a very similar image to the one in the article) on a trip I took out to Green Island last September.
So, it's not a hoax, they really do exist. From memory, there were even stranger devices on offer, too...
It's weird that they have one picture, the one where the chick's face looks all freaky.
I've found that my posts don't format quite right w/o a sig.
and I'd have made a million from it if not for you meddling kids..I mean /.'ers finding all these flaws.
If the bad Photoshop work and the poor website wasn't enough to set your fraud alarms off, some basic physics can be used to show that this vehicle is completely unsafe if it were to really exist. Being a certified diver myself, perhaps a bit of information can make my point.
Have you ever sank yourself down to the bottom of the deep end of the pool? Odds are you felt some discomfort in your sinuses. This is because of the increased pressure exerted on your body at depth. Remember the ideal gas law? PV = nRT? Rearrange that to show V is proportional to 1/P. Thus, for a fixed number of molecules of gas, increasing the pressure (due to the water column above you) will reduce the volume that gas occupies. That is, the air in your sinuses is occupying less volume, causing what divers refer to as a 'squeeze.'
Note that the squeeze problem is precisely why you can't use regular swimming goggles when scuba diving; the volume contraction sucks on your eyes.
The way divers fix the 'squeeze' problem is by equalization -- adding more gas molecules into the space that the squeeze is happening in. This is accomplished by either pinching the nose and blowing into it. However, the image of the scooter shows that the hands are sealed away from the head! Any passenger will quickly become uncomfortable when unable to equalize -- certainly before the 10m depth floor.
I also have doubts about buoyancy control of the device.
At least the nitrogen accumulation would not be sufficient at 10m to warrant decompression stops. It's too bad that this device isn't real... ;)
It sounds sorta dodgy...
New from Infinium Labs... The underwater scooter.
did I miss anything?
One Scuba-doo $13,246
One wet suit $400.00
The photographs of thousands of untrained drivers caught in the undertoe easily spotted by this garish yellow device... Priceless
Somethings in life require training... for everything there are credit cards.
There is no sanctuary. There is no sanctuary. SHUT UP! There is no shut up. There is no shut up.
I once took a diving course, as have others who are reading this. There are a number of things to learn regarding safety. This Scuba-Doo machine obviously tries to handle all that worry for you. However I don't believe an unknowledgable person should be sent underwater just for recreational purpose, even if a machine *may* handle the main safety features automatically. The person will be better off if they learn about their underwater environment (the fundamentals) before attempting to enter it in any way, and how to react properly in certain situations. Save the $14,000 and instead spend a few hundred bucks on a diving course which will provide you with much more enjoyment and hands down give you a safer experience (by way of knowledge).
... and even then it looks like a good reef-destroyer.
This machine is impractical (does not remotely resemble classic diving) because you can only use it in a very basic environment
as a long time scuba diver, i'd say get certified and enjoy it the way it's intended, no lame sissy underwater scooter.
besides, diving is a lot of fun
Second when you dive to a depth of 30 to 60 feet or so you can only stay down safely a bit less than an hour or you risk getting the bends (nitrogen saturation of your blood coming out in gass form in your joints and nerves). So the time limit is just fine.
Third you dont have to be certified to use this. fourth, its failsafe in many ways that scuba is not. The number one danger in scuba is forgetting to exhale when ascending (descending is not dangerous). If you forget to exhale on ascent from 60 feet then when you get to the surface you have a few atmospheres of air in your lungs and they literally explode inside of your body. Since ther is a bubble of air around your head there is no time when you would feel like holding your breath. This machine automatically passively equalizes the air pressure for you as you ascend (your nose is also exposed too).
Likewise there is no way to suddenly find the tank is empty. when the tank goes empty you still have a head bubbles worth of air left
One of the little known facts about scuba diving is that if you run out of air then if stay calm you always have enough air in your lungs to swim to the surface from any depth. The reason is that as you go deeper you also have more air in your lungs. You only have to remember to exhale on the way up to let off the excess air pressure.
this thing is attached to a bouy so you cant sink it or goo to deep go into a cave. And you have a lifeline to the surface if you are disoriented. When you get to the surface you have floatation.
A final danger in scuba is too rapid of an ascent. when you try to go up your boyancy device will run away from you: as it expands you rise faster leading to further expansion and pretty soon you are apolaris missile broaching the surface as your lungs go "pop". On the scooter it controls this for you.
On the other hand the joy of scuba diving is the freedom of 3-D orientation. Drift in a current head down. try to use as little effort as possible (e.g dont swim up but instead just control your breathing to control your veritical position). look behind you look all around. This sort of sucks the life out of the sport.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
If this contraption really exists, I would worry about the danger to coral reefs, collisions into jellyfish, and just also sorts of destruction it could do by irresponsible and inexperienced users.
This was covered over at gizmodo awhile back, with more details and a link to a mini interview: gizmodo link.
...Dawson dropped a hint of future developments with the scubadoo - "we're already working on the next model and think we can improve it in a host of ways. For example, currently you need to put your head under the water when you get into it. The next model will have a hinged hood so you don't need to get your head wet at all."
My favorite part has been the "hints on future improvements" they dropped down:
So... we have a fairly large, slow-moving (3mph?), and brightly painted foreign object traveling underwater. Can you say shark bait? Wouldn't it make some kinda sense for one of the first 'improvements' in this thing to be a mesh wrap-around cage for the back of the person?
Not as though you're gonna outrun the shark who happens to think you're a giant tasty angelfish, and if you even try you're just turning your exposed back to it... these things are gonna fade out the minute some tourist ends up in a kraken's belly.
In my previous life assisting in scuba classes, I saw many "tourists" training so they could dive on a vacation. Training in this sport can easily make the difference between life, death, or permanent injury. Training before you go on the trip is MUCH safer than taking one of those 1-hour crash courses.
Now, if this device is operated in shallow water (20-30 feet), there should be little risk of the bends (decompression sickness) because it would be hard to stay down there long enough with a single 88 cft tank. IF the device is positively bouyant (I couldn't find any such claim on their site), it would float to the surface if the battery went dead. Regardless of the illusion of safety/comfort this device may provide, it is no replacement for training, supervision, and experience.
As a diver, this seems an oddly horrible idea. You need some sort of rate-controller on the scuba tank, as the purpose of a regulator is to provide air on demand, and there would be no inhalation pressure to draw from the tank. I KNOW I suck more air than most divers (my tank empties faster), so what happens if the rate controller is set wrong... I slowly asphyxiate. Oh yeah, and if you dive too fast, your air volume decreases.
Then there's the depth control, I don't see gauges handy anywhere... Hmm, ok, some vague and badly spelled reference to a safety buoy, that makes more sense.
So basically, you drive this at 2.5 knots on some sort of safety tether that keeps you from doing anything itneresting... No thanks, I'd rather snorkel. I suspect I can beat 2.5 knots snorkelling anyhow.
... grumble, grumble, grumble, mutter, mutter, Millenium... Hand... Shrimp, I tol' 'em, I tol' 'em.
It's not silly at all! It take the tremendous weight of gravity off the spine while under water, much like the Segway takes the unnecessary strain on the leg muscles that walking incurs.
-=- Many seek good nights and lose good days.
And believe me in surging seas and murky conditions puking is something you find neccessary. Its not a fun thought.
but with the bubble, no problemo. Nasty yes. but no though process required and no instant death if you screw up.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
it seems the air tank is on the front, and being the genius i am, i'd guess running into anything might get you into trouble.
The more imporant question is though:
Does it come loaded with torpedos?
These seem like they would be perfect for hunting/sinking enemy Sea Doos, and by enemy Sea Doos I mean all of them.
Shouldn't this have been posted six days ago?
(One way or another, this thing is certainly a joke.)
Did anyone else see the headline and read "Scooby-Doo"?
It's not a problem because, like pilots, you never plan on using all your air/fuel. You always have a reserve- most divers, for example, start surfacing(depending upon how deep they are) when they hit anywhere from 1500 to 500 psi(used to be 500 psi, everyone's encouraging a much larger margin). The divemaster would take this into account when timing a dive, for example.
It's also not a problem, because as you use up the air, the tank becomes lighter and the whole thing(including you) becomes more buoyant, not less. The weight difference between a tank at 3000+ PSI and 500 PSI is quite significant in terms of buoyancy control, and is why you need to be slightly negative when you first get in the water if you're diving. If you're not, you're going to run a rather serious risk of uncontrolled ascent towards the end of your dive. It's one of the many situations that can lead to decompression sickness.
It would not surprise me in the slightest if the unit was designed to be slightly positively buoyant at all times, so that if it stops moving forward, it slowly floats to the surface. That could be used in conjunction with a low-pressure switch to shut off the unit if the air pressure gets too low.
Oh, and even if the thing did start sinking, guess what? You get out, blow bubbles and kick to the surface; it's not like you're in a sub that's gonna implode. By the way, blowing bubbles or exhaling is very important- if you don't, you're going to have a punctured lung. At the depths this thing is designed for, decompression sickness most likely won't be a problem.
The only real problems I see are a)serious potential for reef damage(it's bad enough with divers whacking things with their flippers, this thing crashing into a reef would be devastating) and b)improper training(SCUBA is very safe, but only when you know what you're doing. When you don't know what you're doing, it becomes very dangerous, which is why you can't rent equipment(or even buy it, from some shops, unless they know you're a student) without proof of certification or enrollment in a class.
Please help metamoderate.
Ive seen something the ScubaDoo before, i dont remember the name or the company, but it was in a playboy magazine o_O
with a 'Scuba-snack'?
i live in queensland. and those things have been talked about for years... if your game enough to use them why not use one of those water jet things that you hold onto would't that be easier rofl
the battery lasts 1.5 hours, and the air only lasts 1 hour. I think I would like the air to last longer than the battery, you know, just in case something catastrophic happens.
Good idea, instead of having a hard time breathing for the minute or so to surface, you can breathe for half an hour at the bottom of the ocean with no way to get up.
WoW: Scheod 70 orc warlock on Shadowmoon
This will probably sell enough for them to continue in business, just like the Segway has. There are enough people that will buy anything to be trendy, these are the ones with more money than brains.
If you really want to know why this is a terrible idea, read some of the posts from certified divers, and anyone who dives without being certified is going to be a bad statistic someday.
Professional Politicians are not the solution, they ARE the problem.
Have you even seen the damage done by a cruise ship dragging anchor across the ocean floor?
Have you even seen a 3000+ year old reef destroyed by some offcourse barge?
Do you know that most of the reefs at popular dive destinations are DYING?
The last thing we need are a bunch of inexperienced divers crashing these underwater vehicles into table corals, soft corals, and otherwise speeding up the demise of our fragile coral reefs.
Think I'm exaggeratting?
Freighter damager 1200ftX200ft swath of Florida reef
60% of great barrier reef hit by bleaching
Great barrier reef 50 years from death
Sewage killing Tobaggo's reef
Bottom trawling fishing destroys large portions of deep water coral reefs never explored
Anyone else get the feeling, all the snorkelers and scuba folk will be swimming along, enjoying the reefs when a fleet of these bloody "SUVs of the sea" show up and start pummeling the reefs and freestyle divers?
so this has been out for a couple of years. I have seen them already. stupid /. editors
The webmaster of scuba-doo.com.au is currently shouting "CRIKEY, that's a big one" when looking at the massive spike of website hits he is getting thanks to /.
The first image on their site is the worst job of photoshopping an image I have ever run across and they want you to spend $14000 on an underwater craft?
I Don't Work Here
> or remain stationary while you feed the fish.
Yeah, like a shark for instance. Great business plan. Are they sponsored by M$?
I'm guessing barrel rolls are out of the question in this watercraft?
I was really fortunate and had a chance to ride one. Sure they look silly, but they are really fun. I definitely recommend renting one if you have the chance.
I hope this doesn't catch on, otherwise reefs will fill up with the overweight lazy tourists that take over the national parks, ugh
where's the scubago?
Man, that is a prettty gay looking contraption.
Does the product have a clever name? You bet. Does the product look dangerous? You bet. I can't imagine the logistics of this being nearly as complicated as the Segway. Underwater scooters have been around for decades. Now they found a way to make them more dangerous.
42
... a second remake of "Thunderball" with those in the underwater battle...
that is the dumbest *#&*ing thing i've ever seen! first of all, scuba gear isn't clunky (especially in comparison to this thing). second of all, novice scooter user will kill all reefs within driving distance. third, fourth, and fifth- what's the point in covering a lot of ground at high speeds, just spend an hour someplace interesting and take the time to look around!
Sure some table corals grow slow as hell so the 'old growth' is died off but that says nothing for soft corals which propagate like crazy or many species of acropora.
You doomsayers dont look at all the facts. I'm in the saltwater aquarium hobby and we break corals into tons of pieces all the time, its called fragging and its how we trade species amongst each other. Those broken up corals will just grow and become more copies of the same thing. When you break a coral into pieces you only help it reproduce. and as far as coral bleaching is concerned, the climate is shifting, get used to it. All it will mean in the long run is that corals will be able to grow into higher latitudes as the climate warms further and further away from the equatorial latitudes.
http://www.livejournal.com/users/cixel
These look exactly like Tiki BOBs. I'm guessing it's the same company and everything, they're just hopping on the segway bandwagon. Didn't look around a lot, but here's a link or two:l
http://www.cdnn.info/industry/i031220/i031220.htm
http://www.aquatica-dive.com/actibob_us.htm
It sounds like this scubadoo is limited, like the tiki bob, to only a few meters of depth.
J
I worked (as a certified scuba instructor) for an operation that ran these same underwater scooters for hire. The scooters that we ran were tethered to a maximum depth of 8 feet.
A lot of people right off the cruise ship that had never seen the ocean had a great time doing it. As a scuba diver, I got in and wanted to get out.
It's great if you've never been salt water wet, otherwise, snorkeling or scuba beats it anytime.
The general populace to learn some basic physics and/or look at the links before posting
Nerd: Derogatory term typically directed at anybody with a lower Slashdot ID than you.
In comparison, try going diving in 18 degree water for a half hour wearing equivalent clothes. You'll be lucky to escape with just hypothermia. Water is an order of magnitude more effective at removing heat from your body than air is. The wetsuit provides an insulative layer to slow down the escaping heat.
Even on, say, the Great Barrier Reef, people are going to get pretty damn cold, pretty damn fast, on this thing without a wetsuit. You'd need the water to be up at 30-35 degrees Celcius to get away without a wetsuit for any length of time, and I'd be surprised if the water was that warm for more than a month of the year, save at the equator... maybe.
And all of this doesn't consider that diving, you're doing a fair bit of exercise. On this contraption, you're doing sweet bugger all. The cold will set in that much faster...
I wonder if at any point the makers thought that naming something ever-so-close to everyone's favourite WB cartoon dog (now a pair of major motion pictures by the same studio) would be just asking for trouble?
motherfuckers are going to drown in this thing
Unfortunately it took my girlfriend giving me this in order for me to fulfil my thought...
"a comparative test drive between an under-water propeller driven, blue and yellow one-person SubBug, and a giant manta ray." - Douglas Adams, Salmon of Doubt, "Riding The Rays." Douglas gets a free trip to Australia to write about it. Conclusion - "Your manta ray is going to be a lot faster and more manoevrable, and you don't need to change its tank every twenty minutes. But the big points that the Sub Bug wins are for the fact that you can actually get on it."
Feed my eyes...
You said it man. You said it.
When I first saw the headline I thought, "WTF Scooby Do Underwear? Segway?" I had this vision of people riding around wearing it on their Segways...
Scootie-Puff Junior suuuuuuuucccckkkss.....
Weighing 94 pounds and having the ability to encompass a person's head in an airtight chamber for over an hour, I see this as a great immobilization and silencing device -- the perfect virtual babysitter for obnoxious kids!
It goes underwater, too??
Old ass story. Please mod this down to the depths of atlantis.
-- Liberalism is a mental disorder.
"Scooby-doo Underwear Shooter"?
It looks to me that the propulsion system is low and not running through the center of gravity. Why wouldn't it just keep trying to push you around in circles until you fell off the back? What happens with mass-challenged population? Like most geeks, I keep a fair amount of winter insulation, and while that may add bouyancy, it is still mass that has to be accounted for.
The more you scare people, the more they will pay you
http://www.gizmo.com.au/pics/1967_03.jpg
damn, why you gotta be playa hatin. you know it's fun as hell to ride 'em. maybe not to watch someone else ride 'em while you is on the sidelines. but that aint no reason to hate just cuz you dunno how to get ur mac on. don't be a bitter baby. whining all day and bitching about what aint perfect. if you aint gettin laid you aint go not right to argue. refute non my point. VIRGIN!!
After Lindows, Mobilix and probably others I forgot about, who's taking the bets on when Warner Bros is going to sue this company out of existence?
1) You can't see down, especially below and in front. How are you going to avoid running into things much less see the most interesting parts of the dive and keep from damaaging fragile coral heads?
2) What happens if you fall off and are being dragged by your head at two knots?
3) Ditching. You don't have a BC. You don't have fins. How quickly can you get your head out of the bubble? Since the people using this aren't going to be divers will they be able to do an emergency free ascent safely? You can get yourself seriously dead doing a free ascent from twelve feet if you are ignorant or careless.
4) There's a weight belt installed in the scubadoo. OK. You are still bouyant. What keeps your butt from floating up? If you're actually strapped to the thing ditching gets even trickier. See point 3.
5) The constant flow is a nice idea. But what if your consumption goes up or you just use a lot of air?
6) Swells. I assume the thing is gyroscopically stabilized. A good surge can still tip you. Water will flow into the bubble. A really strong one (I've been in them), and it's worse in shallow water, could make the the thing flip. Then the gyroscope is pointin the wrong way up. Not good. Very bad.
7) This is going to be used by the ignorant and inexperienced who have never been through NAUI or PADI (dive training organizations). Diving isn't completely safe under the best circumstances. With substandard equipment like this and no training it is an accident begging to happen.
8) They say in the promotional site that in an emergency a diver could reach the rider in "a few minutes". A few seconds can be way to f***ing long when a dive goes bad. A few minutes can be fatal.
9) Most people can manage 90 minutes at 30 feet hauling around their air under their own muscle power. This thing only gives you an hour. Why am I paying to get less diving in?
10) Back to ignorance. At 30' you should be perfectly fine. But nothing keeps the stupid and curious from going deeper. Is there a dive computer (let alone dive tables) on the dashboard? Even if there is will the customers have any idea what to do with it? Or the consequences of ignoring it?
All in all this seems like a very ill-conceived idea. Its chief benefit is that money will be safely in the bank.
The man who never alters his opinion is like the stagnant water and breeds Reptiles of the Mind -- William Blake
...think you're exaggerating. *very* fragile and endangered? most of the reefs at popular dive destinations are DYING? Who wouldn't think you're exaggerating? The world's a very large place.
On the bottom of the specifications page, did anyone else catch, "No bulky tank to hinder your movement whilst underwater." I thought that was funny.
Anything that's alive is currently dying. I know it's hard to accept, but it's true.
They may claim they had Scooby-Doo in mind when naming this, but unless they are actually a division of Bombardier (which it doesn't appear they are), they might expect a lawsuit from them, do to the similarity to products like these and these
Can anyone tell me how to set my sig on Slashdot?
I need to read the titles a little closer. I thought it said Scooby Doo Underwear Skewer! Easy mistake to make at almost 1 AM.
These scooters have been out at least 10 years -- this isn't a "new" invention at all. Do you people have *anyone* checking the items you post?
NEWSFLASH!
Neil Armstrong has just walked on the moon!
The 386 processor has just been released!
There's a new operating system called "Linux," and it's FREE!!!
I just heard some sad news on talk radio -- Radio Talk Show host Rush Limbaugh was found dead in his New York home last night. The coroner has not yet officially ruled it a suicide, but apparently that's what it's going to be ruled.
I'm sure everyone in the Slashdot community will mourn his passing -- even if you didn't agree with him, there's no denying his contributions to popular culture. Truly an American icon.
[computers | diving] should not be allowed for people not willing to devote huge amounts of time to learning about them. I am one of those trained people, and any technology that tries to open it up to the masses is a terrible idea which will lead to [online chaos | mass drownings]. If you don't [have dive certification | understand the arcanities of your computer] you shouldn't be doing it.
I've never been scuba diving, and think it would be very cool to be able to cruise around under water rather than snorkeling at the surface, but don't have the money or time to take classes and rent or buy equipment. Likewise, my grandparents have many better things to do with their time than to learn how to recompile a kernel or find out which video card they have, but it sure is nice being able to send them email.
"Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations that we can do without thinking about them."
- Alfred North Whitehead
--
A
Well, at least one noteworthy one:
The Seychelles reefs are just about gone. What was once arguably the best reef to dive in the world outside the Great Barrier is now a graveyard.
And this knowledge isn't from reading an alarmist's evaluation of the situation, it is from seeing it with my own eyes on dives I did last year on Mahe, Praslin and La Digue. A conservative estimate would be that 90% of the reefs are dead. Probably closer to 95%, but as I didn't dive every square inch, I can't say there aren't some pristine patches somewhere. There very well may be, I just didn't see them.
As for the Florida and Great Barrier reefs, I can also attest to their ailing health. I live just above the Keys and dive them regularly, and I dove the GB Reef about 6 weeks ago. The destruction is real.
Don't take anyone's word for it. Go strap on a set of tanks and see it for yourself. It's a wake-up call.
Tal
"Study your math, kids. Key to the universe." -The Archangel Gabriel
There are many different ways to get around the surface, and for most people, the segway isn't the most effeiceint way.
There are very few ways to move around underwater. there is a large tourist market for this, for it allow people to go underwater with little training and less chance of death.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
For the segment of the population that can not scuba dive due to various health ailments relating to the ears, such a vehicle could really open 'diving'. I myself spent a little over four months trying to complete SCUBA training, only having to contend with ear infections after every single lesson. Yay for inventions!
There's nothing like strapping yourself to an electrical torpedo from the crotch...
As a certified (PADI Advanced) diver, I will say your post is filled with distorted facts, if not downright factual errors. I pray for your safety when you dive and hope you are not my dive buddy!
For example:
---when you dive to a depth of 30 to 60 feet or so you can only stay down safely a bit less than an hour or you risk getting the bend
Incorrect.
Bends, more correctly known as decompression sickness, is caused by rapid decompression i.e. ascending too quickly. It is not caused by how long you were underwater as you had claimed.
Bends can be induced even if you are under water, say 60 ft, for one single minute and then shot up too quickly. This is why the recommend ascent rate is less than 1 ft per minute followed by one or more safety stops at 15 ft.
---its failsafe in many ways that scuba is not.
I would disagree with you again. Scuba is actually one of the safest sports out there because 1) it requires its users to be trained and certified and 2) and because of the redundancy built-in.
Every diver has a primary regulator (the thing you suck air from) and a secondary regulator just in case if the primary fails. Even if both fails, many diver carries a pony bottle that gives one just enough air to reach surface. In the case if that fails or if you do not have a pony bottle, you can always use your dive buddy's secondary regulator. What if your buddy's secondary reg also fails? You can either share the primary regulator with your buddy or, as you mentioned, ascent without air while breathing out the remaining air in your lung.
So, is a scuba diver, who is by definition certified, safer than ScubaDoo user? I think so.
---Likewise there is no way to suddenly find the tank is empty. when the tank goes empty you still have a head bubbles worth of air left
Not true either. Even if you are tank is empty and you had to ascend rapidly (forgetting for a second that you should be diving with a buddy), it is recommended to keep your regulator in your mouth because the remaining little air in your tank will expand as well and give you one last breath. In a sense, this is not too different from the Scubadoo's head of air bubble.
Lastly, while a pulmonary barotrauma (burst lung) is possible, it is extremely rare.
Stop scaring the Slashdot non-divers!
looks like a good way to get the bends.
any divers in this group?
For computer enthusiasts it's Windows vs Linux, for divers it's PADI vs BSAC... Apart from that, what else is new?
A PADI resort trained diver ... will shit all over ...
Will he have to do that into the regulator as well, or is that only for puking?
Maybe you're thinking of a Sub Bug.
Or a manta ray.
The late Douglas Adams once compared them - or at least tried to.
He was invited to try a Sub Bug by its inventor Martin Pemberton. The trick was to get to try it in Australia, on the Great Barrier Reef. He needed an angle if he was going to get some hapless magazine to stump up a trip for him to try it, which is, according to Douglas Adams, the only way, to travel. (He learned there were manta rays there after he had left the place the previous time he was there.)
Riding the Rays is included in The Salmon of Doubt. On page 45 in the British version.
the BENDS will occur wether you free dive, travel down in a bell, ride this or the ORIGINAL B.O.B. (which you can rent in Key West) or scuba. the problem is not time, or pressurized air. It is the pressure your entire system is under. Nitrogen will get compress to smaller size and work its way into no gassious parts of or body, when you surface it expands hurting or killing you. You need to come up slow, so the expand nitrogen has a chance to get back to the gasious part of your body(ie your lungs via blood stream) Workers got the bends woring on bridges digging kaisons. Depth x time x amount of air used = amount of time needed to assend.
READ A BOOK
Unless this company is owned by Bombardier, there's a potential problem with that name.
I am more worried about the dangers to the reef or other underwater environments then the people dangers. In this case the people are chosing to place themselves in danger. Badly choosing, with too little training, but still choosing. The reef on the other hand is going to be literally pounded by these things at up to 2.5 knots. They will be driven by people that are most likely not in good condition and have little experience in how to move around in a marine environment. I, for one, don't want to be anywhere near this underwater equivalent of an ATV or jet ski. Look what those two devices have done when being misused by folks that do not take the time to learn the basic safety rules. Heck, just drive a freeway in rush hour and think about that type of behaviour. Tourists will tromp over a reef leaving a desert behind, all in the name of the latest fad.
Also, consider that this will most likely be marketed as tours for vacationers. Surely, drinking and other reflex inhibitors won't be used before people jump on one for a quick trip around the reef. No one in their right mind would drink and then try to drive one of these. Nahh....never happen.
Just think how long it takes a reef to form and grow (measured in inches/year). Now think about how quickly these devices can destroy this habitat.
When I was your age, we didn't have any fancy underwater scooters or scuba gear. All we could do was drown, and we enjoyed it.
Real gay women use Lesbian Debian.
um, thats really really old news. resorts have had those things for at least five years now if not longer. ive gone on lots of vacations and seen those things. i never tried it though cuz it just seemed so lame. i mean, why do that when you're SCUBA certified and can have so much more fun SCUBA diving?
just tighten the noose.
Please take a refresher course before you hurt yourself...
The reason your PADI "wheel" has No-D times listed on it that get shorter as you set it to deeper and deeper depths is *exactly* because likelyhood of decompression sickness depends on time and depth (pressure, more accurately - which is directly proportional to depth for our purposes)
DCS also depends on maintaining a resonable ascent rate, as you say, but you're at greater risk of an air embolism on rapid ascents than you are for DCS.
(ACUC Instructor: 1158EA).
According to the NAUI dive tables (http://www.naui.org/table1.htm) The maximum safe dive time at 10 meters is actually a bit over 120 minutes. Dives are rarely longer than 45 minutes mostly because of tank capacity rather than any danger of nitrogen narcosis.