DPV Diver

[jdobbertien]

For those who are DPV certified what are you thoughts? Do you feel the cost was worth it to take the class and get a scooter. I'm not saying should I take the class before I scooter in a cave; to me that's not a question. I primarily dive high flow caves that allow scooters and it's something I've wanted to do for awhile. Has scootering taken your diving to new levels which can justify the cost? How often do you scooter and if you could do it again would you?

[Kelly Jessop]

For those who are DPV certified what are you thoughts? Do you feel the cost was worth it to take the class and get a scooter. I'm not saying should I take the class before I scooter in a cave; to me that's not a question. I primarily dive high flow caves that allow scooters and it's something I've wanted to do for awhile. Has scootering taken your diving to new levels which can justify the cost? How often do you scooter and if you could do it again would you?

#1 I qualified to be grand fathered in since I got my Abe Davis before 1997,but I did take the class, and learned a tremendous amount. I don't know what a scooter class costs now,but my money was well spent
#2 A scooter allowed my to extend progressive penetration. Where some passages I would swim repetitively having seen it quite thoroughly in the past, it would allow me to skip this. Also, a scooter became a tool to facilitate survey work to get to the destination and save more time for the job at hand.
#3 I barely scooter once or twice a year,mainly because the type of diving I do doesn't necessitate it. Even when I go to high flow places now I prefer not to scooter because I like to task my ability to read the cave and flow patterns, and maintain swimming skills in different conditions.

[nakatomi]

For those who are DPV certified what are you thoughts? Do you feel the cost was worth it to take the class and get a scooter. I'm not saying should I take the class before I scooter in a cave; to me that's not a question. I primarily dive high flow caves that allow scooters and it's something I've wanted to do for awhile. Has scootering taken your diving to new levels which can justify the cost? How often do you scooter and if you could do it again would you?

The DPV class was probably the most useful of all the classes I took. The instructor stressed the importance of properly planning DPV dives, which is not always as straightforward as one might think.
One result of the class was that I found out I would not need a scooter with an epic range and a cheaper lead acid model offers enough range to get me into trouble. This actually ended up saving money.

Depending on the caves you dive, a scooter opens up a whole new world. Some people use it to motor around the caves, but I just use the DPV as a means of transport to where I want to start the dive. For example it might just be a 15-20 minute scooter ride to stage rock in JB or Ginnie and then a proper swim dive from there. About 80% of the cave dives I've done since taking the class involved scooters.

[FW]

To quote the late, great, Rory Dickens: "Anyone can teach themselves anything, but it is more efficient to learn from someone that has already done it".

[Nitrogenius]

jdobbertien seems to more focus on the question, whether it makes sense to purchase a scooter at all.
If he would get he'd want to get the training, he made that clear.


So does a scooter make sense?
Well it depends a lot what you want to do with it..


For sure it does not significantly increase your range within a cave with any given gas volume, if properly trained and planned (meaning having enough reservces to safly swim back with the scooter not working plus the relevant contingencies and not calculating on increased speed due to flow)
If you plan it properly a dive with two 85 cft tanks get you pretty much as far into the cave as without scooter.. you just get to your finish faster and you exit the cave with more gas. So here it can give you an advantage on multiple dives with gas logistic contraints..


What it does though is as some have already described above. It takes you much faster to a certain point in the cave from which you want to actually continue getting to know the cave on a slower pace (i.e. really start your dive). Keep in mind you will still need to bring almost the same amount of gas to such point as if you were swimming there, you just get there faster and more rested and obviously getting there faster gives you an advantage in Deco obligations and planning


Lastly: it is just great fun to scooter rather than swim..

[Jay]

Like FoRRest said, anyone can learn to scooter. To me the value of the class was in access to caves that require a cert, the drills that you may need such as towing someone else and OOA situations and having someone evaluate your set up from the length of your leash, a towing mechanism, how you look in the water, how you clip it off on deco, etc, etc.

[victorzamora]

For those who are DPV certified what are you thoughts? Do you feel the cost was worth it to take the class and get a scooter.

Well, one cheap(ish) way of finding out is to take the class. Spend the $400-$500 (or whatever it costs) to take the course with a rental scooter.

Has scootering taken your diving to new levels which can justify the cost? How often do you scooter and if you could do it again would you?

I think taking the course would be more than enough to let you figure out if you should purchase one. If you take the course and determine you want to just rent for a bit, it's money well spent. If you decide you hate scooters, then at least you didn't spend the money on a scooter just to be discouraged....plus you got some in-water time with (hopefully) good instructor, which never hurts. If you decide you love scooters and want one, you would've taken the class anyway.

As for justifying it, that's such a personal thing isn't it? I think few people on the planet can actually "justify" a scooter in terms of finances. I think, outside of a rare/select few, anybody with a scooter has one because they want one. Are they doing dives they couldn't do (or would have an extremely hard time doing) without one? Probably, yeah. But even the divers doing the biggest/hugest dives don't NEED one...simply because they don't NEED to do the dive. The question isn't can you justify the cost, it's: do you like it enough to spend the money on one?

[jj1987]

I'm just going to throw this out there-- if you take a class from a DPV instructor it would be well worth your research time to validate that the instructor you're taking it from uses their DPV in places other than Ginnie, Manatee and Jackson Blue. I'd hate to see someone spend $600 on a class from someone who can't speak to a variety of cave systems.

[floridabob]

#3 I barely scooter once or twice a year,mainly because the type of diving I do doesn't necessitate it. Even when I go to high flow places now I prefer not to scooter because I like to task my ability to read the cave and flow patterns, and maintain swimming skills in different conditions.

Hilarious.

But the questions seem to be: is a scooter & class worth it; would you do it again; has it taken your diving to another level.

Yes, the class is worth it when its done well.
Yes, I would choose scootering again and take the class.
Yes, it enables dives that could not be done otherwise.

Lastly, its fun.

Bob

[Kelly Jessop]

Hilarious.

Glad that I can entertain you,but the OP question was, "How often do you scooter?", and even makes a reference to justify the cost. Good question, why invest megabucks in a something that will collect dust and take up floor space.