Up next in 10
Join me as a share another Diver Propulsion Vehicle (DPV) technical diving story. This time I stupidly take an underwater scooter well beyond it's published depth rating with disastrous and expensive, if not entirely unpredictable, consequences!
In this podcast I also talk about the importance of depth ratings on equipment and several incidents where expensive equipment lost on dives has turned up in expected place
*Highlights*
00:00 Introduction
01:19 Stupidity with a Diver Propulsion Vehicle (DPV)
08:16 Depth ratings on equipment!
10:16 Orcatorch competition
10:54 Lost equipment turning up unexpectedly
15:57 Look forward to ISE livestream Q&A
*Kit I Use*
Note, some of these are affiliate links so help support making my videos:
- Gloves are Ansell Alphatec 87-063 - https://amzn.to/4jDHhX4
- Main torch is an Orcatorch D630 - https://amzn.to/4jlT4tA
- Backup torch is an Orcatorch D710 - https://amzn.to/4jhddRk
- Drysuit is an O-Three Ri200 - https://www.othree.co.uk/drysuit-range/ri-2-100-drysuit/
- CCR is an AP Diving Inspiration (XPD) - https://www.apdiving.com/
- Backup computer is a Shearwater Perdix v2 - https://amzn.to/42FXZOW
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
Hello again everyone. I see quite a lot
0:03
of you have been enjoying my most recent
0:04
upload, the sad tale of the uh lost
0:08
scooter, the my most terrifying
0:10
incident. Well, the good news for you
0:12
today is I've got another scooter story
0:14
to tell you. No video for this one, so
0:16
you're just going to have to listen to
0:17
me narrate it. I've also got a couple of
0:20
uh sort of tales of how things have
0:22
floated away from dive sites and then
0:24
reappeared in other places, which I
0:26
think you'll probably quite enjoy. No
0:28
video, so just me talking again. I'm
0:29
afraid. I'm also going to talk about the
0:32
Q&A that I've got on Sunday. So, no
0:34
video this Sunday, but I do have a an
0:37
awesome Q&A that I think uh a load of
0:40
you are going to like. I'm also going to
0:41
remind you uh about how you can win this
0:44
uh lovely orca torch. So, that's going
0:46
to be given to one lucky person by the
0:48
end of the month. And yeah, so that's
0:51
that's what's coming in today's episode.
0:54
So, just before I start, I just want to
0:56
say thank you to uh all those people
0:58
who've commented on my posts, who've
1:01
who've liked, who've subscribed, who've
1:03
uh shared them with other people, people
1:05
who've engaged on the deep diving
1:07
Facebook group. That's really
1:09
interesting. I do love talking to people
1:11
on there. So, that's all fantastic. And
1:14
thank you very much to Evan for doing
1:15
that. And also got to say a real special
1:17
thanks, of course, to people who have uh
1:20
sent me a coffee on the buy me a coffee
1:23
website. Um, you know who you are, guys.
1:25
But that's that's really appreciated.
1:27
Thank you very much. Um, so, okay, what
1:31
what else have I I got to talk about?
1:32
Well, okay, I promised you the scooter
1:35
the scooter stories. So, although the
1:37
one I posted was undoubtedly my most
1:40
terrifying scooter incident, it wasn't
1:43
the most stupid thing I've done with a
1:45
scooter. So, the most stupid thing I've
1:48
done with a scooter was uh about I don't
1:52
know five maybe no probably even more
1:54
than that. Six or seven years ago, I'
1:57
i'd done that classic thing where you
1:58
borrow uh borrow a piece of equipment
2:00
off somewhere else. You make all those
2:02
promises. Yes, I'm going to bring it
2:04
back. It'll all be fine. If there's any
2:06
problems with it, I'll sort them out.
2:07
All those kind of things. Uh and I then
2:09
took this scooter to Malin Head. It was
2:11
one of the old uh SUEX ones. So, it had
2:15
a lead acid battery. Um, but the crucial
2:18
bit about it was that it was only had an
2:21
80 m depth rating. So, that's fine if
2:24
you're doing all the kind of Malin
2:26
classic wrecks. So, the justicious, the
2:28
Audacious, the Empire Heritage, and
2:30
everything. And I I did I did it with
2:32
those. Um, and it was absolutely fine.
2:35
Uh, battery life wasn't brilliant, so I
2:37
was having to charge it every evening,
2:38
but other than that, it was absolutely
2:39
fine. Then we started to do some of the
2:42
uh the deeper stuff. So the Vikner which
2:44
is 85 meters and we wanted to do the
2:47
Amazon which is about 110 115 as well.
2:50
So uh took the scooter on the Vikner.
2:53
Absolutely fine. So slightly over its uh
2:56
its depth rating there. You know it's
2:58
obviously 80 m 85 m. Yeah. Okay. Now
3:02
there's there's got to be a tolerance in
3:03
these things hasn't there? There's got
3:04
to be a bit of a safety margin. So that
3:07
was my thought is that there's a safety
3:09
margin. I was trying to think wonder
3:11
what the safety margin could be. And I
3:13
reckon for a piece of kit like that it
3:16
was probably somewhere between about 30
3:18
and 50%. Because if I was building it
3:21
that's kind of what I would do. So I was
3:22
like right okay so 80 m that's nine bar.
3:26
The Amazon is 115. So that's 12 and a
3:29
half bar. So uh you know that's about a
3:34
a 50% margin. So, I was like, "Right,
3:37
okay. I, um, well, it's a bit less than
3:40
a 50% margin. I'm like, right, I'm gonna
3:42
I'm gonna risk it. I'm going to go for
3:44
it." So, um, obviously unbelievably
3:47
stupid thing to do, especially with
3:49
somebody else's, uh, equipment as well.
3:51
But anyway, I, uh, I did it. So,
3:55
scootering down on the Amazon with my
3:57
buddy who's also got a scooter. It's
3:58
Scott, in fact, he's he's from the video
4:01
that you've seen. And it's all going
4:03
well. Scooter's working fine. past 100
4:05
meters, past 110 m, and then get to the
4:08
bottom of the uh the shot line and the
4:12
wrecks are in front of us. All
4:13
fantastic. Scooter's still working.
4:15
Absolutely brilliant. Went to to pull
4:17
up. Um so to stop the scooter and going
4:20
down and the scooter simply wouldn't
4:22
pull up. Um it was it was just really
4:26
really heavy and even you know when I
4:29
stopped pressing the trigger it was
4:31
still really really heavy and just
4:33
basically took me straight into the
4:35
seabed. So
4:38
um the question is so what's happened?
4:40
Well obviously the scooter is now
4:42
negatively buoyant. How does it get
4:44
negatively buoyant? It's full of water.
4:46
It's still working but it's negatively
4:48
buoyant. So what did I do? I had a
4:51
lifting bag with me. I attached a
4:54
lifting pack to the scooter and I sent
4:56
the scooter up to the surface and very
4:58
fortunately the guys on the boat were
5:00
able to pick up the scooter, get it on
5:02
board the boat. I completed the dive.
5:04
It's absolutely fantastic. If you
5:06
haven't done the Amazon, it is a
5:07
stunning stunning dive. Uh got back out
5:10
out the water, got onto the boat and the
5:13
scooter's there. It's it's flooded um
5:16
clearly. open it up. Um, water pours
5:19
out, but it's still completely working,
5:21
which is just absolutely incredible. Uh,
5:23
there's obviously it's horrible smell
5:25
of, uh, you know, soggy lead acid
5:27
battery, but it is working. And one of
5:29
the things with the the SUX, for those
5:30
of you who don't know, well, that
5:31
particular model of SUEX is they had a
5:33
separate battery compartment to the uh,
5:36
the motor. So, the bit that I flooded
5:39
was the battery compartment rather than
5:40
flooding the motor. So, that was I guess
5:43
probably why it still worked. lead acid
5:45
batteries clearly very very tolerant to
5:47
salt water or certainly in the short
5:50
term. I dried out the battery clearly
5:51
the battery was knackered. Um but
5:54
subsequently put another battery on it
5:56
and it the the the scooter continued to
5:58
work. So go SUX, you know, well done
6:00
you. Um but obviously the key question
6:03
is is how did it leak? And what we what
6:06
that particular model of SUEX had was a
6:09
effectively the the the separate
6:11
battery, sorry, the separate motor that
6:12
I've already talked about and the
6:14
battery compartment you could kind of
6:15
unscrew. It was this big tube. So you
6:18
screwed it in and there was a screw at
6:19
the bottom and there was a nut at the
6:20
top that you tightened in to hold it in
6:22
place. And it took me ages to find out
6:24
how it actually it actually failed
6:27
because the tube was fine. Couldn't see
6:29
any other obvious signs of leak, but
6:31
obviously it got a big amount of water
6:32
in. And what it turns out is the screw
6:35
um where you screw the tube into had a
6:38
circular crack all the way around it and
6:40
and a really impressively sized one. Uh
6:42
there's a particular name for that kind
6:44
of failure. I forgot what it is. Maybe a
6:46
spiral fracture or something like that.
6:48
But yeah, that was what had what had
6:50
gone. So, uh went to SUX to try and get
6:53
a replacement. So, it's it's basically
6:55
the bit that's in between the battery
6:56
compartment and the engine or between
7:00
the battery compartment and the engine
7:01
as I've been describing it. Um, and you
7:04
needed to take that and replace it. Suex
7:06
wanted I think somewhere in the region
7:08
of about £1,000 for it. The scooter
7:10
wasn't worth that much. So, I actually
7:12
managed to get a guy I know um to to
7:15
manufacture one out of Delin. The the
7:18
only problem with that is it then
7:19
completely trashed the um the buoyancy
7:22
because it was heavier than the original
7:24
part. So what we ended up doing was
7:27
getting some uh separate batteries for
7:29
it that were lighter and we could make
7:32
it all work out with the buoyancy and
7:33
everything. So uh that scooter um got
7:37
got fixed. Uh but you might ask what did
7:40
I do? Obviously I borrowed that scooter
7:42
from somebody else. So, what I managed
7:45
to do for him was get him a replacement
7:47
uh exactly the same model, gave him the
7:50
replacement. I kept the scooter that I'd
7:52
flooded and I managed to resolve it in
7:55
the way that I've just talked to you
7:56
about and then I managed to to sell it
7:58
on. So, that was uh my most stupid thing
8:02
that I've ever done with a scooter. So,
8:04
um I have no idea why I thought it was
8:06
okay to kind of smash the depth rating
8:09
by that much, but I did. didn't work out
8:12
particularly well for me. Lesson
8:14
learned, pay attention to the depth
8:15
rating, kids. And it's interesting to
8:19
note, um, a scooter that I absolutely
8:22
love the look of is the CCraft Go. It's
8:25
really small. It's got batteries that
8:28
you can take out. You can charge it
8:29
through the casing. You can mount lights
8:31
on it. It's got an onoff switch, which
8:34
is h really important to me. It's got
8:35
that nice little battery monitor. They
8:37
they just look absolutely fantastic
8:39
scooters. And they're great because for
8:40
this kind of diving or the kind of
8:42
diving I do, you don't want scooters to
8:44
be too big. You know, the kind of ghosts
8:46
and all those kind of things. And even
8:48
the SUX to be honest, they the SUX7 that
8:51
I had were just too big. You want small
8:54
ones. You don't need masses of battery
8:55
life because you're only using it for a
8:57
bit on the bottom. So So the Craft Go
8:59
would absolutely fit the requirement for
9:01
that. Apart from it's only got a 100
9:03
meter depth rating. Now, I know people
9:05
have taken them to slightly deeper than
9:07
that, but one of the interesting things
9:08
about it is when it first came out, the
9:11
Secraft, I think, had 130 meter depth
9:13
rating, which would have been absolutely
9:15
spoton for me, but they've subsequently
9:17
reduced it down to 100 meters. I don't
9:19
know what's happened, but I would
9:21
imagine they've they've they must have
9:22
had some kind of people experience leaks
9:24
or failures or something like that. So,
9:27
um the uh that that's really interesting
9:29
and I guess uh so the message for
9:32
everyone is uh pay attention to depth
9:33
ratings on bits of kit. And of course
9:35
it's not just
9:38
um scooters that have depth rating.
9:40
Loads and loads of other stuff has depth
9:42
rating. My rebreather um the AP
9:44
Inspiration has depth rating on it. 100
9:46
meters. Inspirations have been a lot
9:48
deeper than 100 meters, but that is in
9:50
theory its maximum depth. Uh my heated
9:54
vest has 100 meter depth rating on it.
9:56
Uh various torches. Uh loads and loads
9:59
of stuff has depth ratings on it. So if
10:01
you are going and doing deeper diving,
10:03
there is always a a decision that needs
10:07
to be made about your kit. Can you know
10:09
can you go deeper than it's rated to?
10:11
Why is it being rated to that depth? So
10:14
it's it's a really important factor to
10:15
consider. What I would say though is
10:18
skaters, you should absolutely pay
10:20
attention to the depth rating on them.
10:22
Do not ignore those. So, that's my uh
10:25
stupidest scooter
10:27
story. What else I promised to talk to
10:30
you about was um Oh, yeah. The the
10:33
torch. Yeah, 150 m depth rating on these
10:36
things. So, uh they they're good for
10:38
pretty much all the diving that you want
10:39
to do. If you want to win this torch
10:41
here, this is brand new one. If you
10:43
haven't seen my video of the test I've
10:45
done it, then I've done on it, then
10:46
please go and have a look at it. Um, you
10:48
can win it by joining my deep diving
10:51
group on Facebook. That's all you need
10:53
to do. I'll pick a winner winner out of
10:55
a hat and get in touch with them on
10:57
Facebook and I'll send it to them
10:58
completely free. It's theirs. Uh, if you
11:00
want to know how to do that, then there
11:02
is a link in the
11:05
description. So, the other thing I
11:06
wanted to talk to you about was kit that
11:08
floats. So, my scooter that I lost in um
11:13
on the dive that the last video that I
11:15
published when it uh when it went away
11:18
obviously it was spiraling down and I
11:21
suspect that one probably hit the seabed
11:23
because and it's probably on the seabed
11:25
because I think it was slightly
11:27
negatively buoyant. It would have been
11:29
neutral apart from I put quite a big
11:31
bolt snap on it and I think the bolt
11:33
snap was enough just to make it
11:35
negatively buoyant. So, I don't think
11:36
that one is ever coming up to the
11:38
surface, but I do know um somebody else
11:40
who lost the scooter on a dive. Um, I
11:42
don't think they had it clipped on
11:44
properly when they went in and therefore
11:47
it floated off them and they were lucky
11:50
because their scooter was slightly
11:51
positively buoyant and the dive boats
11:54
um, you know, big kudos to them spotted
11:56
just the very tip of a scooter floating
11:59
in the water and they were able to go
12:01
and pick it up and I think that was that
12:02
was quite an expensive BonX ones, one of
12:05
the big Bonx ones, you know, maybe
12:06
£5,000 worth of kit. So, uh, you know,
12:10
once again, I've I've often made the
12:11
points in my videos that it's really
12:13
important to choose your boat crew well
12:15
and boat crew who keep a a good lookout.
12:18
That's, uh, that's really important. So,
12:21
that's a floating a floating gear story.
12:23
Another float, another story is a friend
12:26
of mine had a an iPhone in one of those
12:30
underwater housings and he was using it
12:33
for
12:35
uh to watch videos on decompression
12:37
stops and he'd attached it to the lazy
12:39
shot. Um so maybe 30 35 m and his plan
12:43
so using it effectively as a tag. When
12:45
he came back up to the lazy shot he was
12:47
going to take it off and then as he went
12:49
up on his deco he was going to watch
12:50
videos and that was all fine. Anyway,
12:52
got back to the lazy shot. No sign of
12:56
his housing with his iPhone in or
12:58
whatever it was. Obviously, he was
13:00
pretty upset by that because clearly
13:02
that was even an old iPhone as it was at
13:04
the time. That is hundreds of pounds
13:06
worth of kit floating off. And we don't
13:08
know what happened to it. Either it
13:10
somehow the clip came off or maybe
13:12
somebody disconnected it by accident or
13:15
something like that. Who knows? Anyway,
13:16
it was gone. Now, this was diving off
13:19
the northwest coast of Ireland, probably
13:21
20 or maybe 25 miles offshore. So, you
13:24
kind of assume therefore that that is
13:26
never going to be seen again. That's
13:27
going to that's going to go. But, it was
13:29
positively buoyant. So, about uh 4
13:32
months later, he was at home and uh his
13:36
mom rang him and his mom uh he lives
13:38
with very close to his mom and his mom
13:40
says, "Um, I've got this person on the
13:42
phone who's found your uh old iPhone."
13:45
And he was like, "What? which old
13:47
iPhone. Anyway, subsequently turns out
13:49
that the iPhone and the case floated and
13:52
ended up somewhere on in Scotland on one
13:55
of maybe the outer ales um outer heedes
13:58
in Scotland and somebody who was walking
14:00
down a beach found it uh opened it up
14:03
presumably charged it back up again and
14:05
somehow was able to access the phone
14:07
numbers in there and find find this
14:10
guy's mom. Rang up his mom and said,
14:11
"Look, I've got your uh got your you
14:13
know your son's phone here if they want
14:15
to come and get it." So ended up getting
14:17
sent to him. He got reunited with it.
14:19
Absolutely incredible story. You know, I
14:21
don't know how far that is. Maybe 60 or
14:23
70 miles, you know. Absolutely
14:25
incredible to to think that you can be
14:26
reunited with something after that
14:28
period of time. You would say that. That
14:31
is incredible. And what an amazing
14:32
one-off apart from I've had something
14:34
very very similar happen to me. Um I put
14:37
my phone number and my name on lifting
14:39
bags. So um anyway, I went in the water
14:42
and I had a lifting bag. They're really
14:45
useful bits of kit for all sorts of
14:46
reasons. And um mainly at that time we
14:50
used them for lifting our our grapple
14:52
shot. So I was diving off the rib and it
14:56
uh when I went in the water it wasn't
14:58
clipped on properly and the people on
15:00
the boat said they saw it float off but
15:02
they weren't able to grab it. So anyway,
15:04
there you go. Very sad. Boohoo. lost my
15:06
lifting bag and uh thought nothing of it
15:10
until once again about three or four
15:12
months later I got a a phone call from a
15:14
guy who' found my lifting bag, unre
15:17
unfurled it, seemed there was a name and
15:19
a phone number on there and given me a
15:21
ring and that was a dive um out of
15:24
Plymouth and the lifting bag had turned
15:26
up um on the aisles of Silly which is uh
15:30
the very westerly most westerly islands
15:33
um before you end up in in the Atlantic.
15:35
So once again, that would have traveled
15:38
80 miles maybe o over a few months,
15:40
ended up on a beach, somebody had found
15:42
it. So absolutely incredible. And
15:44
therefore, I do live in hope maybe that
15:46
if the um if the rope of my on my
15:49
scooter rots enough for that bolt snap
15:51
to fall off, maybe then the scooter will
15:53
become positively buoyant and come up to
15:55
the surface and float off somewhere. Um
15:59
and and maybe somebody will find it. Um
16:01
yeah. Uh anyway, we we will see with
16:04
that one. So, uh, there's a kind of few
16:06
floaty kit stories for you to to kind of
16:09
think about. Now, the other thing I
16:11
wanted to talk to you about, which I'm
16:12
really excited about, is the Q&A that
16:15
I'm doing with AIM from um, Inner Space
16:19
Explorers. Some of you may have seen
16:21
that I posted my Rebreather um, bailout
16:24
video concurrently and completely
16:27
coincidentally. uh he posted a video on
16:30
his inner space explorers channel with
16:32
his kind of theories about how you
16:34
should do a deep reb breather bailout.
16:37
Now his um strategies are very different
16:40
to my strategies and people thought that
16:44
it was uh him having a go at me and
16:46
saying you're wrong you know this is the
16:48
way to do it etc. Now that's absolutely
16:50
not the case. It it was just one of
16:52
those coincidences. And do you know
16:53
what? It's really fine to have different
16:55
bailout strategies because different
16:58
people have different approaches to
17:00
risk. People pay different uh put
17:02
different importance on different
17:03
things. And you know, that's entirely
17:06
fine. You know, we're all big boys or
17:08
girls at this level. So, it's important
17:11
that you understand the risks involved.
17:13
You mitigate the risks in the way that
17:16
you think is best. So anyway, what we're
17:18
going to do is we're going to do a live
17:21
stream together on Easter Sunday
17:23
evening. Well, evening for me anyway,
17:24
evening for him. It'll be, you know,
17:27
probably in the morning if you're on uh
17:29
in the States. No idea where it'll be if
17:31
you're in Australia or or the Far East.
17:33
Sorry about that, guys. But we're going
17:35
to do a um a live stream and we're going
17:38
to take questions and hopefully uh give
17:40
you some answers. So, it's something
17:42
that we're both quite excited about.
17:43
Neither of us have really done anything.
17:45
We think it could be really interesting.
17:47
So anyway, we hope you'll come along. We
17:49
hope you'll join us. Uh once again,
17:51
there's a link in the description as to
17:53
how you can do that. And so yeah, hope
17:57
we'll see as many of you there as
18:00
possible. Right, that is pretty much me
18:03
for today. I hope you've enjoyed my kind
18:06
of a few dits from me, a bit of a
18:09
ramble, and um yeah, I hope I will see
18:12
as many of you as possible on Sunday
18:14
evening. Right, goodbye.