I did my course early 2017. I was sceptical about the use of the scooter, because I thought I’m fit enough to use my fins and get around far enough throughout my dives without such a mobility scooter. But I have to say the added speed and range really opens up new sites that are a bit further beyond the usual places. And… it’s actually great fun - a whole new experience to move through the water that fast! Still you can stop any time if you want to have a closer look, take a photo, or squeeze through little gaps. Yes, it’s another piece of equipment to handle, but after a bit of training it becomes quite easy.
Wellington Underwater Club owns 2 DPVs, the Halcyon ‘HDV-R14’.
These scooters are available for club members for a small maintenance fee.
One condition for the use of the scooters is to be DPV certified.
We only had very few divers who were already certified as scooters are still quite an exotic and expensive piece of equipment for recreational diving. To make the most of our club scooters and offer this experience to all members we organised a few scooter courses through PADI. On top of this basic course for which the club's HDV-R14 were used, the trainees go through an additional mentoring scheme to gain further practical experience with the scooters. Once a WUC-approved scooter diver, the HDV-R14 are available to take out for a dive.
The club is great in encouraging the use of the scooters and with the mentoring scheme, you learn much more about the proper and safe use of the scooters beyond your DPV certification.
Thank you very much Nicole Miller, Rob Edward and Wellington Underwater Club for the opportunity to get into this exciting new way of diving!
We now have 21 club members certified with the scooters, some owning their own. The scooters are being used in a range of occasions for example the PB-Kelp survey, for clean-up dives, and even explorations from shore out to the wreck of the F69.
Happy scootering!
Joerg
... here is a nice video with the club scooters in the Taputeranga Marine Reserve:
... and links to some documents related to the scooter use.
you can find these also under the resources tab.
WUC_Scooter_Guideline_v11June2016.pdf
WUC_Scooter_UserDisclaimer_v02May2016.pdf
Club scooters manual - HDV-R14 .pdf
