Scooter Free Diving The Vandenberg

[ricki]

Went scooter free diving on the Vandenberg yesterday. The dropped it in 140 ft. off water about 7 miles south of Key West on Wednesday. Wore a Go Pro camera in a chest harness shooting stills every 2 s and hand held a camera for video. I wanted to catch it shortly after sinking before the algae covered all the white surfaces up. I still remember a Stephen Frink shot of the Duane off Key Largo in clear blue water just after sinking many years back. White on blue! Just put up a short video clip pending processing all this stuff into a video:

[ame=http://vimeo.com/4944629]Scooter Free Diving The Vandenberg, KW, FL 5.31.09 on Vimeo[/ame]

Here are a few stills as well:

Viz. was about 50 to 60 ft. I think the cameras saw further than I could in some cases

The bow has a surreal aspect to it. Passed a couple of divers holding a Conch Republic flag up after of this point. There was about 1.5 mph current running north. With the scooter on high power you could motor fairly easily into it. On downwind turns you went flying though! Covered about half the wreck on one dive down current. Just don't want to run into anything, ouch.

Both radar dishes were dislodged by hydraulic forces during sinking. They've been cabled in place to pad eyes on the deck to secure them for the time being

Coming up from the bottom, looking way up the side and to the sun.


Nice session, lots more to come

 

[LunkerBuster]

pics are amazing...no video at work but I cannot wait to see that as well.

the idea is awesome, scooter freediving. do you find it tough to equalize?

 

[ricki]

pics are amazing...no video at work but I cannot wait to see that as well.

the idea is awesome, scooter freediving. do you find it tough to equalize?

There is a short video clip hyperlinked at the top of the post above this one. I've been burning through other articles and projects, trying to get on this one. I had never used a Go Pro camera before, thought about mounting it on the scooter but figured with 170 field of view, using the chest harness might be easiest. Keeps it out of the way and out of mind anyway. I was carrying a Canon G9 in a housing for video. I had a Techna scooter for many years until it died of old age. More recently I got a sit on top Apollo scooter. Really love that aspect of it, your hands are free to shoot or do whatever and you can put in minute steering inputs with your fins. The downside is you can hit headfirst if you allow that to happen and the motor will continue to run until you shut it off. Thinking about a deadman leash to kill the power if I separate from the unit. Also a small compressed air lift bag with dedicated cylinder to haul the lot to the surface fast should the need arise. Equalizing was easy, until I started getting close to 140 ft., mouth-fill time. There are a number of ways things can go wrong, including elevated risk of DSC hits too. Some of these issues are discussed at: http://forums.deeperblue.com/safety/72906-too-deep-too-often-too-soon.html?highlight=scooter Still, the mobility is amazing and for photography it's a great way to go.

 

[LunkerBuster]

awesome info, thanks

 

[cdavis]

WOW!! Great pics and video, thanks for posting. Could we see more??

Connor

 

[ricki]

WOW!! Great pics and video, thanks for posting. Could we see more??

Connor

Thanks Connor. I am working on a longer video showing the whole wreck or at least the parts I covered. Going slow but the bulk of it is done. Soon.

Scooter free dove "The Miracle of Life " hours after it was sunk yesterday off Deerfield in 140 ft. Strong current, lousy viz with brown water. Still got some useable video. Two new wrecks in six days!

 

[Jon]

How do you like the chest strap set-up and what do you think of the Go-Pro so far?

Jon

 

[ricki]

Like the chest mount to keep the camera out of sight and mind during auto filming. The 170 degree field of view captures a lot. I am not crazy about the poor resolution, lack of sharpness. Some can be fixed in Photoshop but not all. The camera has light minimums too. There was enough for most of the stuff on the Vandenberg. Yesterday on the Miracle of Life in low light and bad viz. none of the UW Go Pro shots are useable. The stuff out of the G9 turned out ok considering how bad shooting conditions were. I want to talk to the manufacturer, show them some stills and see what they have to say. Still figuring it out. In clear viz and lots of light it seems to do pretty well all be it with some limited sharpness.

 

[ricki]

Finally put the Full Video together!

The following is a video shot while scooter free diving along much of the length of the newly sunk Vandenberg Artificial Reef. It was placed about 7 miles south of Key West in 140 ft. of water. It landed on even kneel and provides a pretty amazing dive in the often clear blue waters of the Florida Current. Viz. was limited at about 50 to 60 ft. during the dive and there was a strong current running north. Still some interesting images came out of the dive. The video was shot with a Canon G9 digital camera in their housing with stills being shot every 2 seconds with a Go Pro 170 degree field of view camera in a chest harness.


Click for video:
[ame=http://vimeo.com/5087227?pg]Scooter Free Diving The Vandenberg, Key West, FL - 5.31.09 on Vimeo[/ame]


Scooter free diving can be hazardous. Don't try it
without complete and proper training first.

From: Sink the Vandenberg

 

[shoutatthesky]

Awesome concept Ricki. Just where does one obtain "complete and proper training"?

I would be interested to see a pic of the scooter?

 

[cdavis]

Read everything you can find on DB, then go out and play. After a while you will either kill yourself or learn how.

All kidding aside, scooter diving is a huge kick, but has dangers, some of which are not very obvious. Other than DB, I know of no other source of info.


Ricki,

Fabulous vids, thanks for posting.

Connor

 

[ricki]

Scooters do add a lot, particularly the sit on top variety. I used a conventional Tekna for many years with tee seat and harness clip. I like the easy and precise hands free steering of the one shown below.

Good question about training. Scooter free diving can be so easy, dangerously so. Even talked about that in another thread here, http://forums.deeperblue.com/safety/72906-too-deep-too-often-too-soon.html I wouldn't want someone messing themselves up and then going looking for someone to blame. Torts in the USA, hope you've nothing close to it in NZ.

Anyway, I would say to take two levels, even better three of a training program like: F.I.I. Freediving Instructors International - from the beginner to the instructor I started to study free diving over 35 years ago and still learned a great deal in the courses. Add in some liberal experience building outside of the courses to develop good techniques, familiarity and comfort with procedures and the like.

I think Martin does a scooter free diving course, it would worth looking into. Connor's point about reading over stuff on here is an excellent suggestion. Could be we're still figuring things out with regard to scooter free diving somewhat. Things like avoiding Type II DCS hits with all those easy rapid, multiple descents potentially with minimal surface interval and fast ascent in the shallower reaches, stage deco at the end of the day and the like. Managing various emergency scenarios, power outage, flooding, tangles, getting knocked off a running scooter, etc..

Do the training, build experience slowly and well, read and talk over things on here and tell us how it goes.

This is the Apollo Evolution I am currently using


Thanks Connor! Just wait, have videos for the "Lost Blue Hole" in the Bahamas and the recent sinking of "The Miracle of Life" to put together. Then there is this weekend, wonder what will come up? More to come ...

Awesome concept Ricki. Just where does one obtain "complete and proper training"?

I would be interested to see a pic of the scooter?

 

[Jon]

I've got the same scooter- and the same seat for it.

I've found that I much prefer to use a rock climbing harness and clip it off to my waist. This way it's always attached to me, I have places to strap my camera and spare-air off to, and allows me to drive the scooter with one hand while I video with the other. I used to clip it off to a crotch strap on my belt, but Longfins talked me into the climbing harness and it's been much more comfortable.

I also have a compass attached to the front of mine- which comes in handy for the more limited vis that we have around here.

 

[cdavis]

Very much looking forward to it.

Ted's got some of his video up from our last Bahama Trip. Not so spectacular as yours, but great fun, you'll enjoy it. see Freediving Stories.

Connor

 

[ricki]

Great video and narrative on your trip to the Bimini's Connor. Great viz, shelf clouds, BO's, you had a full range of experiences on that one. Nice shooting and editing too. Thanks for sharing!

Rick

http://forums.deeperblue.com/freediving-stories/83173-bahamas-return-2009-a.html

Read everything you can find on DB, then go out and play. After a while you will either kill yourself or learn how.

All kidding aside, scooter diving is a huge kick, but has dangers, some of which are not very obvious. Other than DB, I know of no other source of info.


Ricki,

Fabulous vids, thanks for posting.

Connor