Submerge
UV scooter testimonials.
"The best scooter I have ever used" Bill Hogarth Main. Father of Hogarthian diving.
Who uses Submerge scooters? Submerge scooters have emerged as the premium tow behind scooter. The majority of divers who have a choice in the type of tow behind they purchase, choose Submerge. Gilberto Menezes has dived the scooter to over 600 feet deep, and as far as 21,200 feet into a cave in Brazil. details here Deep wreck diver Edoardo Pavia has used the Submerge scooter as a valuable tool taking video of the Britannic in Greece. details here Xavier Méniscus is actively exploring French caves with double Joker rebreathers and Submerge Scooters. details here In France, Rick Stanton has been using the UV-26 scooter in numerous systems, extending exploration in over 5 sites in 1 season. He informs us the UV-26 is the ideal size, with good range for most sites, perfect as a backup scooter in the Ressel, and compact and rugged enough to be hauled through dry sections of caves and sumps. Dr Jerome Meynie has recently replaced his Aquazepp with a Submerge scooter, as the tow behind style enables him to negotiate smaller passages. In May 2003 Jerome extended the Goule du Pont system to -178 meters with a UV-26. According Jerome, this is a cave diving world record of the most distance explored deeper than 120 meters: 310 meters (1023 feet) of line laid to a terminal depth of -178 meters (587 feet). The UV-26 used was a completely standard production unit with no modifications for depth. (note March 2003 Jerome now has a NiMH UV-18 sized scooter with 26 amp hour capacity making it easier to transport between sumps). July 2003: Also in Europe, 2 Swiss cave divers with a fleet of 6 UV-42 scooters have recently returned from a successful trip. Using 2 UV-42 scooters each on their maiden voyage, dives up to 2Km/6600 feet at 80 meters/260 feet were completed with dive times up to 9.5 hours. Result: the cave still goes! In Mexico, about 8 scooters are being used constantly by 4 groups of cave explorers and instructors. Please look these professionals up for cave DPV classes. They are Pro Tec divers, Aktun Dive Center, Steve Gerrard and Steve Boegarts. Contact details on the links page. In Florida Cave country, Larry and Debra Green have been running numerous cave DPV classes, and a 3rd Submerge DPV is available for students instruction. Call them at (386)497 3494 for more info. A recent wreck diving expedition was successfully conducted in South Africa to the Oceanus, depth 300 feet. Video of the dives will be used for a documentory. Greg Mooney and Sean Dooley work on very professional dive boat installations at Nautilus Underwater Systems. They dive 2 UV-18 scooters in the Gulf Stream off Ft Lauderdale, Florida both on wrecks and on "hunting" dives for lobsters. They love them... the lobsters don't. (More to come...)
November, 2004. Hello Rodney, I thought that you would like to know that we have finished for this year the dives at Banana Tree Cave, here in Brazil. The scooters worked perfectly again. I can't hide how satisfied I am with them. The experimental UV-65s with NiMH battery packs have proved their range. We ended this year with a maximum penetration at this spring of 6400 meters (over 20,000 feet) and unlike other divers that have needed to use a fleet of 4 or 5 scooters for a similar distance dive, with the UVs only 2 scooters were needed to go this distance. (Note from Submerge: Gilberto did not rely of the scooters for his safe return. He had staged enough reserve gas to swim to the exit in the event of a double scooter failure, even without having to breathe from his back mounted reserve cylinders). We were plagued this year with very low visibility, which made scootering very difficult. Even in these very difficult conditions the range provided by the scooters were phenomenal. A dive with a total distance traveled of 9000 meters (29,500 feet) on one UV-65 was made and it still pulled strong at the end of this dive. But I knew the UVs would not let me down. We have made quite memorable dives on these units. They are great exploration tools. The 15 minute run at 500 feet (152 meters) at Blue Lake on a UV-18 is one of those dives I will never forget. We made a few other deep dives at this site, eventually doing the deepest so far at 616 feet (188 meters). I haven't had the opportunity to return there or we certainly would have done even deeper scooter dives, as they appear to be indestructible. They have also been very helpful at Mysterious Lagoon where it has helped explore some deep side tunnels. At Mysterious Lagoon the deepest we took the UV so far was 170 meters (557 feet). It has also proved valuable at Ceita Couré Spring where the UV-18 has been 153 meters (500 feet) deep twice. And I could mention more examples. So, the UVs have been deep and far inside caves. Some could argue that "nothing beats been there done that". Well surely for the UV scooters you can say that they "have been there and done that". There are several good scooters on the market these days. If the Aquazepp is the BMW of scooters, surely then, the UV scooters are the Corvette of them all. Best regards and keep the good work Gilberto Menezes Brazil Underwater caves are closed sites in Brazil and permission to dive them is granted by the IBAMA-CECAV, the Brazilian governmental agency that studies, protects and controls caves.
Rodney, I lusted after a UV-18 Silent Sub for years, from the second I saw one in person.(after hearing another brand was the best). After thrashing a pair of cheaper scooters to depth and death, I finally bought a UV-18. It is the best bit of diving kit I've owned. Unlike most dive gear, it just seems to get better and better with more use. I loaned my Sub to two buddys diving with another brand deep tow behind scooter and got a sad phone call after their dive: "your Sub is much faster than our scooters and burns longer". The Silent-Sub makes my diving much safer; it pulls me out of trouble I've gotten myself into in a hurry, with minimum stress and use of gas. I know I can always count on it. I wouldn't do a tech dive without it now; I finally understand the scooter as the key piece of safety equipment it is. Finally, and best of all, it's lots of fun, and inspires as much misbehavior as it solves. Cam Banks California 2004
Mark Zurl, Floridian wreck diver. "For the technical wreck diver, the scooter is no longer a toy or luxury. It has become an essential component of their dive gear. Rodney's innovation, craftsmanship, quality control, and attention to detail have set a new standard in scooter design and construction. Silent Submersion is the best scooter on the market today."
Mark Zurl
Veteran Florida wreck diver.
www.deeperstuff.com
Kevin Denlay, May 2002 Hi Rodney, Just got back from our Guadalcanal expedition. Had some awesome dives around Guadalcanal and Tulagi, even managed a dive on the USS Atlanta. We only did the shallow stern (to 115m/380feet) but the scooter worked perfectly. Also managed to scooter the full length (a couple of times!) of some of the deep (80/90m) Japanese wrecks. In the past we had to swim them which left little if any time for photos on the way. This time I could just loiter where I wanted and snap away. Fantastic! All in all we managed 17 straight days of CCR gas diving and the scooter, the CCR (15.5) and VR3 didn't miss a beat. Two dives a day some days, one dive on others, all on gas. Quite a trip! The difference the scooter made to the dives was incredible. After this expedition I have to say I definitely prefer it over my AquaZepp. But now I gotta buy a smaller video housing to mount on your scooter as the one from the Zepp is to big!!! Regards, Kevin Denlay altdive@ozemail.com.au AltDive - Technical Diving Services of Australia
Steve Gerrard, Mexico
November, 2005
I have been using SILENT SUBMERSION Diver Propulsion Vehicles
for the past five years. I presently own three of the UV – 26 DPVs.
I actively teach NACD Advanced Cave Diving courses involving six DPV
dives with an additional five dives involving underwater surveying,
stage bottle and a photo shoot. Our DPV dives include Sistema Chac Mool,
Sistema PonDeRosa, Sistema Taj Mahal, Sistema Camilo,
Sistema Narajal (Mayan Blue), Sistema Dos to the LSD area and
Sistema Nohoch Nah Chich to the Blue Abyss.
Without a doubt, Rodney & Suzie’s SILENT SUBMERSION DPVs are the
best on the market today. They are constructed with high quality
craftsmanship, superior materials and, most important, Rodney and
Suzie provide consistent, reliable, dependable SERVICE and SUPPORT
information.
Check the facts, the majority of cave diving and technical diving
professionals are using these SILENT SUBMERSION DPVs throughout
the world. Compare, shop, and search as you will not find better
DPV machines to use for your diving needs.
Steve Gerrard
www.steve-gerrard.com
www.cenotesoftheRivieraMaya.com
Steve Bogaerts, Mexico
I have the Submerge UV18 short bodied version with the 18A/Hr
battery pack which has approx 90 mins of burn time.
Rod Nairne who makes them is very helpful and easy to deal with.
Mostly I use it for cave diving but I have also used it in the ocean both
deep and shallow stuff.
The deepest I have taken it so far is 360ft (110 meters) on a cave dive.
It worked fine was totally dry after the dive having spent 12 hours in
the water and suffered no deformation of the prop shroud which affects
other makes on deeper dives.
The scooter is a nice compact size and is very nicely weighted and trimmed.
The motorcycle style throttle handle is a nice feature. It is very ergonomic
and allows easy steering and fingertip control. The cruise control is another
nice feature for long dives.
I have used the scooter every day for long dives during exploration projects
for a week or so at a time with no problems.
The scooter is very nicely engineered, of rugged construction and is very
simple and quick to strip to its component parts with an absolute minimum of
tools so this can be done easily in the field if necessary.
Also removing and replacing the battery takes less than 5 minutes so you can
turn the scooter round at the end of a dive very quickly for another diver to
use so long as you have another charged battery.
Anyway I think it is a great piece of kit and would definitely recommend it.
Hope this helps if you have any other questions let me know.
Regards
Steve Bogaerts
Steve also has an exploration report, View it here.
Craig Challen, Australia. I had my UV-18 delivered in 2000. The product had been recommended to me and I have not been disappointed. On delivery I was immediately impressed by the quality of workmanship and the solid engineering. Although the idea of mating a Tekna/Mako motor to a new body is simple and has been around for a while, the execution of the idea by Rodney is superior to any other that I have seen or heard of. Obviously the first thing to do on getting a new toy was to take it apart and see how it worked, but this was disappointing because it only took about 10 minutes to do this, then another 10 minutes to put it back together again. This makes servicing any part of the scooter almost too easy, although I have not had to do anything to it and don't really anticipate having to. Battery changes only take a few minutes and this can be easily done in less than ideal conditions such as inside caves, just making sure to keep the O rings clean. I have dived the scooter to 98m (330 feet)running it for over an hour continuously and it has always performed flawlessly without even a hint of a leak. After my experience I would have no hesitation in recommending this product to anyone. Craig Challen PS Craig has had his Submerge for over 3 years now. In July 2003 he set the new Australian and world record longest sump dive, over 20,000 feet/6000 meters penetration with over 90% underwater.
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