Video - Bladefish 5000 Dive Scooter Demo

[ricki]

Thanks to Gold Coast Scuba finally got a chance to tryout one of these new, small, light dive scooters. Been wanting to check one out for the last nine months since I saw the Bladefish at DEMA. It just looked too small and light to be able to work that well. Initial impressions are sometimes not real accurate.

Wanted to give the shop a plug and the Meetup group too as without them I would still be wondering about the Bladefish. The shop is in a great location for hitting LBTS reefs and the Meetup group is real active. If you're in SE Florida or planning to visit, you should check it out. http://www.meetup.com/goldcoastscuba/

I took a camera along and shot some video. Details about the shop right by the beach and dive spots, great meetup dive club and more follow.

I use an Apollo Evolution Scooter, really nice but HEAVY (41 lbs. vs. 11 lbs. for the Bladefish) and over three times more expensive than this new DPV. Saw the Bladefish at DEMA last year and have wondered about how they perform since then. It was run at full speed for about 50 minutes by David, a big guy with a 135 cft. tank. It moved him along at a fair clip for such a small device. Checking out video image quality on vimeo vs Facebook currently. Apologies for the poor visibility, we went out late in the day with some waves and reduced viz.





So, we ran out under power for close to an hour until the Bladefish batteries were depleted. David wasn't certain it was totally charged before the session. We traveled close to 3/4 mile offshore and back between scootering and swimming. We passed over some shallow hard bottom on the second reef terrace with some wave surge as you can see in the video. Despite that David seemed to power through no real problem. The Bladefish is light, small and has low drag. David ran submerged for about 75 % of the dive and swam on the surface for the remainder of the time. I would guess he scootered for about a mile or so over all. His speed with all the drag imposed by the SCUBA gear and his large frame was close to my Apollo Evolution at the low speed setting. I was trimmed for low drag on my scooter sitting on the saddle, free diving with no tank or BC drag. David just clipped the Bladefish into his dive flag tow line and points and swam along not really noticing any drag. It is only 13 inches in diameter. Swimming the Apollo of more conventional size takes a good deal more exertion over long distances given the larger size, weight and drag. I think it was Tom in the last segment by the Dania Aerojack Groin. He rigged a towing bridle to reduce arm fatigue, a good idea with DPVs.

Impressive for a dinky DPV at 1/4 th the weight of the Apollo. I really like the Apollo, it is faster over all with more power and would prefer it for performance free diving. SCUBA diving has different dynamics however to the speed requirements of free diving. The Apollo is substantially more expensive and the extra weight/size become a costly nightmare when you want to travel by air. The point isn't a direct comparison because if size and cost count the Bladefish has a lot running for it. Real intrigued by the possibility of putting the Bladefish in checked or carry on luggage without paying extra. Near the end of the battery life the Bladefish would intermittently shut off for a few seconds. Only saw this new dive scooter for two dives, still favorable impressions were made at this early stage.



Some specs


CLICK image for video


The entire video was shot with the GoPro HD.


Thanks again to Steve and David at: http://www.goldcoastscuba.net/

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