Had a Tekna for many years, went through three rebuilds before it was time to replace it. It was a good scooter but tow behind in design. I used it with a bridle when SCUBA diving and with a PVC tee seat for easy dismounting when free diving. Went through several Seadoos in more recent years, gave up on them due to low build quality particularly the Explorer (went through four of them all with fabrication defects).
I rented an Apollo Evolution through Dive Tech on Grand Cayman for free diving on the wall there. It was an incredible experience and my first exposure to a sit on top design scooter. There's a video about that at:
VIDEO - Deeper Scooter Free Diving The Cayman Wall - FKA Kiteboarding Forums
The video quality is fairly poor but there are some still shots of the scooter in there.
There are a lot of scooter free diving videos at:
Something Rich And Strange ... Diving Tales From The Water Underworld - FKA Kiteboarding Forums
There is a recent one where I have some footage of another diver on the scooter to give you a better idea of operation. It also includes some pretty nice dolphin footage at:
Diving With The Dolphins Of Sataya (Dolphin Reef), Red Sea - A Video - FKA Kiteboarding Forums If it wasn't for the scooter I probably would have had about a minute or two combined video max. Fortunately, it seems the dolphins found it interesting enough to stay around for a while. Being able to swim with them submerged for what seemed several hundred feet at times was a unique experience. Like joining the pod all be it temporarily. A still from the video appears below:
I am riding the scooter in sit on top mode here.
A typical tow behind bridle setup for comparison. I used something similar for beach dives to the 90 ft. ledge off Deerfield years back. You actually would have some upper body fatigue after a while from just steering particularly in current after an extended run.
Steering is extremely easy and response using fins. You don't even think about it after a while, can do 360s, barrel rolls, effortlessly. The power on the Apollo Evolution is applied by pulling up on a rod secured to the side of the saddle. This is one potential problem area as you need to push the rod down to kill the motor. In theory, the scooter might run off without you should you separate. I put in a simple deadman turnoff on mine consisting of a nylon line connected to a quick disconnect and weak link to my belt. Another issue is if you hit, you hit head first. I've done a lot of wrecks, penetrations, etc. to where this hasn't been a problem, yet! Still, it is something to be careful about, even thought about wearing a helmet for limited protection on wrecks, sinks, etc.. Despite all this, wouldn't go back to a tow behind design lightly at all. If you're a diving instructor, Apollo even has a discount program.
From a thread at:
http://forums.deeperblue.com/beach-b...ee-diving.html