The new Bladefish 7000 sea scooter tested
Happy New Year! Whilst the rest of Australia was nursing Christmas hangovers I had the distinct pleasure of testing the new Bladefish 7000 sea scooter. The Bladefish 7000 is the latest offering from the Bladefish range which is imported into Australia by Oceanic.
The Bladefish 7000 has several improvements over its predecessor the 5000. The new top speed is a reported 6.5km per hour and the scooter also has an additional gear over its slower sibling. The other feature which I was most excited about is the new camera mounting system. The Bladefish 7000 comes with an optional camera mount with a screw thread for POV (point of view) shooting. With so many divers now utilising Contour cameras, Go Pros and other still cameras capable of filming video, we can expect to see a lot more footage from people using their scooters around the world!
Easy to use
As the model I was given to test was a demo I did not have the benefit of reading the instructions before using it but I found it straight forward (with the exception of how to change gears... would have taken two seconds if I had the benefit of instructions!) to use.
Whilst you won’t be breaking any underwater speed records with it, it does make dive in current a LOT more pleasurable! At regular cruising speed it will drag you about the same pace as a diver swimming constantly against the current and will give you a little more pace at top speed over your dive buddy.
Conserving energy As I have pointed out you won’t be breaking any speed records especially when wearing full dive gear! I gave the Bladefish 7000 to a number of my divers to try as well and they all thoroughly enjoyed it. The main function of a scooter/DPV (Diver Propulsion Vehicle) is to conserve a diver’s energy (and more importantly their air!) and can be used when drift diving to fight against the current or if you need to travel a decent distance to your intended dive site. In this respect it definitely ticks all of the boxes. Everyone commented on how much fun it was and a number of them have already put their hands up to buy one when they come in.
Here is the good part…. They are already here!!! Adreno already has 4 units for sale and the most exciting news for you is you have a chance to win one for your self on our Facebook page!
Professional Dive Services would like to thank Adreno and Oceanic Australia for the opportunity to test the new Bladefish 7000 and look forward to many more product releases and reviews in the future!
