Underwater Scooters!

Author: Sundial

Location: Mansfield Dam, Hudson Bend Texas

Dive: 3 Shore Dives

Date: 20 July 2024

Scouts: Red Snapper, Sundial

Dive Pros: The Mermaid

Imagine what it feels like to ride on a jet pack! Most divers call DPVs “underwater scooters” but, in my opinion, they are more like jet packs. Scooters are always on the ground but, a DPV is in the middle for the water column like you are flying. Some DPVs even attach to the tank just like you would have a jet pack on your back! Whatever you want to call them, it is agreed amongst most divers that they are super fun to dive with and that is the training we did! On the morning of July 20th, Red Snapper and I showed up at Mansfield Dam for our training. While we were not the only scouts out doing training we were the only ones that were doing DPV training while others were working on their advanced open water dives so we kind of separated to go through the book work.

Unfortunately, the books for DPV training had been late to arrive, but we were fortunate that for this training we did not need to do the book work before we got in the water for training dives. Because of this, we had to go over the basics and key points of the whole book before diving. While this took a little bit more time, it was fun getting to see all the different features of The Splendid Toadfish’s DPV which we were borrowing for the training. We borrowed 3 different DPVs to make sure all of us had one to complete the training: An instructor at Dive World, Dive World’s DPV, and the Splendid Toadfish’s DPV and I am so thankful to all of them for allowing us to borrow try out these different types of DPVs. 

After going through the reading, we were all itching to get in the water and try the DPVs out. We all dawned our gear and started to trudge down to the water. Because of how low Lake Travis has been in the last year the walk down to the water was a little longer than to be comfortable. Once we finally got in the water and got all DPVs to the entrance point with varying difficulty, Red Snapper and I did our Buddy check and The Mermaid reminded us of the skills we would first practice on the surface. I was given the tech diving DPV to first try on the surface which was the biggest, but also the most rugged. After both Red Snapper and I zoomed around the surface with our DPV practicing turns and movement in the water we all got together and started to descend on our floats line. Once on the platform, we were each handed a DPV (I started with the Splendid Toadfish’s) and began our training by just practicing moving through the water. We each took turns doing circles around the platform until The Mermaid was comfortable leaving the platform and diving along the shoreline. 

Red Snapper and I followed The Mermaid in a V formation making sure to keep away from the hydrilla which came up like a wall from our left side closest to the shoreline. At the turnpoint of the dive we switched DPV and I began to ride with the Tech DPV which was much larger but a little faster and the one I most enjoyed diving underwater. Once back at the platform we changed DPVs and set out again. We went the same way as the last dive out because the other way was toward the dam and while it is safe, we all felt more comfortable moving away from the dam vs. toward it. I was on the smallest and slowest DPV so to keep up I had to kick as well. We finally got to our turn point but this time unlike the last we did not switch DPV so while I was trying to kick to catch up with The Mermaid and Red Snapper I lost sight of them. I continued the same way hoping to catch them but after a minute or two I had to stop and surface. The dam had turned on during the dive so the sound filled the water, making it almost impossible to hear if any boats were coming. For this reason, I sent up my DSMB before surfacing. At the surface, I met up with Red Snapper and the Mermaid and because we had been down long enough for one dive we waited a little to complete our surface interval before descending again. 

For this second dive, our job was to practice tandem riding. This is where one person is on the DPV while the other holds onto the driver's legs or tank and gets pulled along after them. This is a great way to cover more ground if one person does not have a DPV but after all having our DPVs on the last dive, this was a slight step down. I was the driver on the first ride out and back, and at the turn point, Red Snapper switched from holding my ankles to holding my tank valve. Once at the platform, I switched from being the driver to being the rider while Red Snapper steered us along. Once we had completed that skill, we had finished our training so we surfaced and the Mermaid got their camera to get pictures. 

We had completed the training so our third and final dive was a just-for-fun dive where we descended and used the DPVs to take awesome pictures that looked like we were in a sci-fi movie. With that we finished the dive and started on the hard part of bringing the gear back up to the cars. Because we had the large tech DPV we used the DPVs to ride on the surface to the boat ramp. We brought our kits up first before me and The Mermaid went back down to work together and brought up the Tech DPV so we could more easily load up the gear into the car. Overall, this was one of the most fun training's I have ever done, and I had a lot of fun sailing through the water with the other divers seeing the underwater world at a faster and funner speed!