1.14.2010 2009 Tahoe Benchmark Released
In July of 2009, the second annual testing of underwater scooters was performed at Lake Tahoe, California. Using electronic data recorders over the length of a 1/4 mile underwater track, the results are presented here, to help divers with planning and equipment selection. The test is not exclusively for technical divers, and includes recreational scooters as well. This year impartial testing was insured to give more accurate data. View Here
12.17.2009 211m Dive on rEvo using X-scooters to assist decent
On December 5, 2009, a team of 3 divers using rEvo rebreather’s successfully completed a dive to 211m at Panorama Reef in the Egyptian Red Sea.
Dive X scooters were used to pull the divers down to 180m, where they left them to continue their decent more traditionally.
Paul Raymaekers of rEvo commented
“The entire dive went according to plan, except for a part of the ascent, where Pim switched over to open circuit gas as he felt unsure, probably due to overexertion during the descent in trying to keep up with the planned descent speed. After assessing the situation, Pim switched back to the rebreather.
The last 3 hours of the dive were spent on the nice reef of Panorama, near the support boat with the deco station. The deep divers, support divers and all together, enjoining the marine life and Marco filming ‘anemone city’.
The last diver left the water on runtime 294, and after 10 minutes surface deco the complete dive plan was finished. “
rEvo recommend a max depth of the rEvo of 100m (depending on config)
12.07.2009 Annual Service Online
Dive Xtras has just released an online tutorial so you can preform an Annual Service on your own X-Scooter. The tutorial is picture and video driven to make very step of the process as easy as possible. Check out the tutorial here.
11.10.2009 Uexplorers Explore Frankenwald
Check out a awesome dive video of 6 Sierras in Gulen, Norway exploring the Frankenwald wreck. Frankenwald stands perfectly upright on a sandy bottom and is arguably the best wreck dive in Norway. You reach the deck at approx 27 metres whilst the shallowest point is the rear mast at 7 metres. The 126 metre long German steam ship sunk 6 January 1940 after she struck an islet in the Sognefjord. The propeller was salvaged just after WW2 and then she stayed untouched until scuba diving became popular several decades later.
Check out the video here.
09.18.2009 New Australian Distributor
Check out a awesome dive video of 6 Sierras in Gulen, Norway exploring the Frankenwald wreck. Frankenwald stands perfectly upright on a sandy bottom and is arguably the best wreck dive in Norway. You reach the deck at approx 27 metres whilst the shallowest point is the rear mast at 7 metres. The 126 metre long German steam ship sunk 6 January 1940 after she struck an islet in the Sognefjord. The propeller was salvaged just after WW2 and then she stayed untouched until scuba diving became popular several decades later.
Check out the video here.
09.18.2009 New Australian Distributor
Dive Xtras is excited to announce that Dave Manning of SubAquatic solutions, Western Australia is our new Australian Distributor of X products. Dave will bring a wealth of resources to the position. Not only his diving knowledge but also for his professional knowledge of electrical engineering, a huge advantage in promoting an advanced DPV like the X-scooter. Dave will be Distributing the Scooter at a retail level and to dive stores, so please contact him for all your X needs. He can be reached at:
21 Henley Park Rise
Pearsall 6065
Western Australia
Mobile: 0431 054 534
Office: +61 8 9206 0886
Email: sales@subaquatic.com.au
09.16.2009 Fall Newsletter
We are excited to release our second newsletter this fall. Featured in the newsletter is CUDA 850 and Sierra package discounts and the 2009 Tahoe Benchmark. Come check it out. 2009 Fall Newsletter
08.01.2009 Neutral Thrust Digger
At the Tacoma WA Dive show, Dive Xtras and John Chatterton began discussing a concept for a neutral thrust digger using X-Scooters. The idea being that you could use 2 scooters to neutralize the thrust allowing you to dig without the normal extra weight or tie downs. However because of other priorities it never came to fruition. Recently Greg Wolfkill came to Dive Xtras looking to find a faster method of unburying pilings and Dive Xtras figured this would be a perfect opportunity to test out the digger concept. Greg was able to dig down two feet into the silt surrounding the pilings.
You can view a clip of what this digger is capable of here
6.09.2009 S2 Soviet Submarine Found
The remains of a World War II-era Soviet submarine have been found by a team of Swedish divers near the �land islands in the Baltic Sea. Amongst the divers was Richard Johansson of BTS, Dive Xtras European distributors. The vessel, a Soviet S-2 class submarine, was sunk by mines in 1940, killing all 50 crew members onboard at the time. �After searching through a section of water the wreck has now been found in the �land Sea near the boundary between Sweden and Finland by a Swedish-�landic dive team,� the team said in a statement. The search for the Soviet submarine wreck began more than a decade ago in April 1999.
According to the six-member dive team, there are conflicting accounts regarding the sinking of the submarine. Documents from the Swedish military archives claim that the S-2 sub was sunk by Swedish mines in Swedish waters, while records in the Finnish military archives say the vessel sank in Finnish waters. The �land Islands, located midway between Sweden and Finland in the Baltic Sea, are technically Finnish territory, but have strong cultural and linguistic ties to Sweden.
Among the divers was Ingvald Eckerman, grandson of J.A. Eckerman, who stood watch at the M�rket lighthouse on January 2nd, 1940 and witnessed the sinking of the S-2. Authorities from Sweden and �land have been informed about the discovery, as has the Russian embassy in Stockholm. According to the dive team�s statement, Russia places great importance on finding the remains of the submarine and have long made inquiries with authorities in Sweden and Finland about the fate of the S-2. read more here
5.19.2009 Graf Zeppelin Wreck Dives
We would like to congratulate the Graf Zeppelin team for their successful dives 40 miles off the coast of Poland. The team was able to do four 220' dives to the wreck. In fact, Dive Extras' own Andrew Georgitsis was able to do three of the four dives using a CUDA X-scooter. The Graf Zeppelin was the only German aircraft carrier, it sank due to Russian target practice. The team was able to survey and document the condition of the wreck. The trip was unfortunately cut short due to weather, but the information they were able to attain is invaluable.
read more here
4.09.2009 Stan Brown Cave Diving
On a recent trip to Cave Country (North Central Florida) I had the opportunity to do some scooter cave dives on my Dive-X CUDA 550. We had a 3 man team, myself, Larry on his CUDA 850 and Mike on his Oceanic MAKO DPV. This day we went to Ginnie Springs, where I had my first Scooter Dive on a TEKNA in 1985 (man have DPV�s changed!). Back then we, could use the TEKNA light for my limited cavern/cave dives of the time. Now using the CUDA is a blast, and you really want to open it up! But with Mike on the MAKO we limited our speed his top speed.
On this first dive we where to do a double stage dive to just past the Hinkel Restriction, then come out and look at some of the offshoots from the main line. The Hinkel is about 3150� (more or less) back from the entrance. Our penetration travel time in was to be limited to 48 min, normally our time at what I call MAKO speed is 35-37 min to the Hinkel Restriction.
We usually breathe back gas in to the Gallery where we drop our O2 and switch to our stage. The nice thing about the CUDA and my former DPV, the Sierra, is that you can kick the speed up when going through restrictions with flow like the Lips and not have to pull yourself along. This allows you to kick the scooter to your right side and lift your stage tanks up with your left hand to zip through the Lips! We ran with the scooter up the main line and dropped the stage at the Stage Rock @ 1750�, run backgas in tell 3rds or time then out; the other stage is a safety only gas. Our dive went well. We went in about 3,400� (swam the last 250 ft. after dropping the scooters and safety stage just before the restriction) turned and then looked at some passages on the way out. Total BT with deco was 115 min. on 31% mix and O2 for Deco.
We then had a very nice 4 hr SIT and got back in for our SECOND scooter dive. Mike charged his MAKO between dives. Larry and I just pulled our CUDAs out and unplugged them during the SIT (to reduce current draw that occurs if the pack is left connected to the motor). Got back in and did a nice dive up the main line again, to about 1800 ft, dropped our safety stage and the DPV�s, swam around the Intrusion tunnel, turned around, swam around and tucked our heads into several others tunnels, Total BT with Deco was 95 min on 31% mix and O2 for Deco.
In summary, I had 2.5 hrs of run time on the scooter, plus swim time and Deco. This is my second Dive-X scooter (formerly owned a Sierra Long Body). And I have used MAKO and TEKNA scooters before. I have broken in the battery pack for the CUDA (charge discharge cycling) on several dives in open water, and at Little River springs the day before. Gotta say I am hooked on the CUDA! But wish I had the 650 battery pack for next dive trip!
4.01.2009 Spring Newsletter
We are excited to release our first quarterly newsletter this spring. Featured in the newsletter is Nick Poole and the 2009 Tahoe Benchmark. The newsletter also features two ways to save when buying your scooter. 2009 Spring Newsletter
02.20.2009 Down Under Caves
Over the last year Dr Richard Harris (Harry) has been using the X-scooter to push the limits of caves in the southern hemisphere. Notably the Cocklebiddy system, Australia�s longest water filled cave, and the Pierce Resurgence, the deepest water filled cave in NZ and Australia.
Richard wrote to us after the Pierce Resurgence expedition:
Dear Ben, I am really pleased to report our recent success using the X Scooter in the Pearse Resurgence which is currently the deepest water filled cave in NZ and Australia. During the expedition in March this year, I scootered approximately 200m distance from a starting depth of 105m to a final depth of 182m. I had a couple of video lights attached to the sides of the scooter and the X Scooter ran faultlessly the entire way. Not bad especially considering the 7 degree water temp! The big lights on the scooter made for an unforgettable dive!
At the turn point, the cave passage still barrels off into the distance so plenty still there for the next adventurer!
All the best
Harry, South Australia
His exploits at Cocklebiddy, marking another 120m (394ft) of explored cave to the 6km+ of cave explored in some pretty extreme conditions were recently featured in Advanced Diver Magazine.
01.29.2009 New European Distributor
With BTS owners Thomas Dederichs and Richard Johansson looking down, Ben McGeever from Dive Xtras and Johan Nilsson of BTS shake hands marking the completion of training making BTS a full service center for the X-Scooter range in Europe. BTS is now the major distributor of X-scooters In Europe and with the completion of training will offer unparalleled support for the scooters in Europe. The Boat show in Dusseldorf marked the start of activities and the initial interest in the scooter at the show was huge, both BTS and Dive Xtras are looking forward to significant growth of the X-scooter market in Europe.
01.27.2009 Dive Xtras Website
We hope you are enjoying the new site, due to technical issues with our provider we have moved to this site ahead of schedule. If you any questions about any of our products or just want to give us feedback email us here.
01.07.2009 CUDA 850 Released
Now available to the public, The Cuda 850 stands out from the competition with a 7 mile range, and a 254ft/min top speed. Learn more here
01.09.2009 Russian Owners Manual Available
Russian translation of our owner's manual now available for all our russian costumers. View Here
10.27.2008 Tahoe Benchmark Published
In July of 2008, a careful test of underwater scooters was performed at Lake Tahoe, California. Using electronic data recorders over the length of a 1/4 mile underwater track, the results are presented here, to help divers with planning and equipment selection. The test is not exclusively for technical divers, and includes recreational scooters as well. This test is hoped to be an annual one. And as more research is done, it will be posted here; currently we are investigating the influence of Technical dive gear on speed and Wattage, using the same rigorous data gathering techniques. View Here
01.09.2009 New Website Launched
We at Dive Xtras are proud to announce our new website. It is still in the beta stages but this is the general direction we are going in. Our goals for this new site are to make it easy and fun to find all the infomation you could ever want about X-Scooters. Also want it to make it so you can easily tap into the scooter community to see how people that own X-Scooters enjoy them and what kinds of things they are doing with them. Check back here regularly for updates.
