Marine

Blu3 claims world's smallest, lightest SSA dive system with Nemo

Blu3 claims world's smallest, lightest SSA dive system with Nemo
Blu3's Nemo allows you to venture 10 feet (3 m) below the waves
Blu3's Nemo allows you to venture 10 feet (3 m) below the waves
View 9 Images
Blu3's Nemo: a super-portable SSA dive system
1/9
Blu3's Nemo: a super-portable SSA dive system
Blu3's Nemo allows you to venture 10 feet (3 m) below the waves
2/9
Blu3's Nemo allows you to venture 10 feet (3 m) below the waves
Blu3's Nemo: floating compressor sends air exactly when you're breathing
3/9
Blu3's Nemo: floating compressor sends air exactly when you're breathing 
Blu3's Nemo: high-visibility floating rings and flags
4/9
Blu3's Nemo: high-visibility floating rings and flags
Blu3's Nemo: super portable, weighing 10 lb
5/9
Blu3's Nemo: super portable, weighing 10 lb
Blu3's Nemo: supports a single diver for around an hour
6/9
Blu3's Nemo: supports a single diver for around an hour
Blu3's Nemo: sensors in the smart regulator tell the compressor exactly when you're breathing in, and how hard, so it can supply the perfect amount of pressure
7/9
Blu3's Nemo: sensors in the smart regulator tell the compressor exactly when you're breathing in, and how hard, so it can supply the perfect amount of pressure
Blu3's Nemo: packs up into a small backpack
8/9
Blu3's Nemo: packs up into a small backpack
Blu3's Nemo: a super-portable diving solution
9/9
Blu3's Nemo: a super-portable diving solution
View gallery - 9 images

Florida-based company Blu3 has come up with what it claims is the smallest, lightest and cheapest personal dive system available. Called Nemo, it consists of a battery-powered, surface-supplied air (SSA) system that lets users dive to 10 ft (3 m) below the surface for about 60 minutes – no bulky tanks or lengthy SCUBA training required.

Eight years ago, we wrote about the VS335 Third Lung diving system from a company called Brownie's. The VS335 could support three divers for about an hour, or one for three hours, and it cost US$4,145. Now, through sister company Blu3, a super-compact single-diver version is available for less than a tenth of that price.

The Nemo weighs just 10 lb (4.5 kg) and packs up into a small backpack (optional, for an extra $50) to give you a very portable dive system you can take with you anywhere, without a SCUBA license.

Blu3's Nemo: packs up into a small backpack
Blu3's Nemo: packs up into a small backpack

Up top is a floating air compressor, which mimics your breathing pressure patterns to make sure it's only pumping exactly when it needs to, thus saving energy in the 74-Wh battery. In a pool, you can just float it around naked, looking like a beer cooler. In the ocean, you'll want to attach the high-visibility floaty ring and flag to make sure the local jet ski guys know what to aim for.

Attached to this floating unit is a 10-ft (3-m)( air hose, piping down to the "Smart Reg," which you stick in your mouth and breathe through.

Blu3's Nemo: sensors in the smart regulator tell the compressor exactly when you're breathing in, and how hard, so it can supply the perfect amount of pressure
Blu3's Nemo: sensors in the smart regulator tell the compressor exactly when you're breathing in, and how hard, so it can supply the perfect amount of pressure

There's a silicone diaphragm in the Smart Reg that measures the suction of your breath and uses it to inform the compressor up top. The compressor only provides exactly what you're asking for, at exactly the time you're asking for it, and Blu3 claims this is the secret sauce that helps it use "just one tenth the energy of any other underwater breathing system" –and allowing the company to make it as portable and lightweight as it is.

There's a beeper in the Smart Reg itself, which can be heard underwater, to alert you when the battery starts running low, and other safety issues are really at a minimum given that you're only a maximum of 10 feet down.

The Nemo is on Kickstarter now at US$399 early bird pricing and has almost doubled its goal with just under a month still to run. If all goes to plan, deliveries will start in December.

Check out the pitch video below.

Source: Blu3 Nemo

NEMO by BLU3 | The world's smallest dive system

View gallery - 9 images
10 comments
10 comments
Doodah
I personally love the skorkl concept, only problem is their indiegogo campaign is delayed like 2 years, but 10 minutes of breathing and then simply hand pump it ready is pretty awesome. Not sure it'll ever make it though. The Air Buddy is cool at 12 meters, but at almost 1500, is cost prohibitive. I'd say this one would be ideal if it could go 15-20 feet deep, and last for 15-20 minutes, since you can't pump it up on the spot, 10 minutes and it's over. Obviously that would affect cost, but would be the sweet spot for me.
ljaques
What a great concept, Blu3! I'm glad you were able to keep the price down low enough to ensure that it overwhelmingly surpasses the KS goal and that it becomes a real, available product. You'll sell millions worldwide, I'll bet.
Loz, I love your articles. Our senses of humor run closely parallel. "Aim for" and "secret sauce" tickled me enough to say so. As Spock used to say "Laugh Loud and Perspire". (Vulcan curse)
dsiewert
Seems as though the technology described in this product is like an underwater CPAP unit. It adjusts air-flow to maintain a desired pressure. Primary difference is the mask.
toyhouse
I want one! Too bad the ocean around here is way too deep, full of kelp to get tangled up in and cold. This product seems to be targeted towards certain locations. It'd still be fun on vacation though. I'm guessing, there's an embedded control wire running the length of the hose? Or would pressure alone be quick enough to respond to breath demands? However it's done, that's a very clever way to save battery!
highlandboy
So 3m is the length of the hose. To swim with it it is going to trail at an angle (or pull the surface unit underwater or the mouth price out of your mouth). So realistically max depth unless stationary is 2m. Would require a weights belt or be fining down. If finning down the tips of your fins are above the surface at 2m. So for anyone positively buoyant, the 3m length would be problematic unless weighted.
Josh!
A boat for your CPAP machine.
SimonClarke
"no bulky tanks or lengthy SCUBA training required". You can be trained as a PADI scuba diver in two days. Sign the forms the morning of day 1, Two classroom sessions, two pool dives and two open water dives, pay them and there you go. Done. all of that for a couple of hundred pounds / Dollars / Euro's. the full open water is only four days and guess what, you scuba dive in the open water each day, it is awesome.
although these gadgets seem good, as a qualified diver you can take your own kit to these places and dive properly.
I would now like to give you some safety advice that I found out on my PADI Open Water. If you have lungs full of at only 2m / 6ft deep and you surface without breathing out, you can tear your lungs. As you can imagine, that is a life critical situation. Scuba training through an authorised organisation is there to help you get the most out of your dives and to keep you in great health.
PaleDale
I expect the limited hose length is to do with what Simon Clarke mentioned, about surfacing with a lung full of compressed air, the deeper you go the worse that gets.
I tried to get my PADI dive ticket but due to ridiculous medical requirements I was unable. Even the slightest hint of asthma and its no go, not even shallow water diving, less than 5 metres is allowed. So this unit would be great for people who didn't pass the dive medical.
Nobody
This looks too dangerous to me. As others have commented surfacing from six feet with your lungs full could be fatal due to expansion. It would be better to learn proper skin diving technique where you can dive 20-30 feet deep without kicking a fin. Proper breathing and conserving energy can allow up to a couple minutes per dive. Skin diving equipment is different than scuba but works well for both. Big surprise for newbies, below 30 feet everything loses color and during deep dives everything is blue to gray unless you carry a light.
Robert Schreib
?? If water is made up of the elements Hydrogen and Oxygen, would it be possible to create a deep sea scuba breathing device, that used electricity, possibly from a piezoelectric device added to the diver's flippers, to electrically catalyze the water that the scuba diver is in, and tap into that source of Oxygen, for him to breathe with underwater?