Although underwater scooters may offer users an aquatic "thrill ride," many of the things don't go much faster than the person could swim on their own. Such is not the case with the Sublue Vapor, however, which tops out at a speed of 10 km/h (6 mph).
So first of all, although 10k an hour might not sound like much, keep in mind that an average fin-wearing snorkeler swims no faster than about 5 km/h (3 mph). Even the last Sublue model we heard about, the Seabow, has a top speed of about 6.5 km/h (4 mph).
So yeah, the Vapor is fast.
The device is driven by a pump-jet propulsion system powered by a 384.8-Wh lithium-ion battery, one 3-hour charge of which should be good for 45 minutes of runtime at the lowest of three speed settings (6 km/h or 3.7 mph). If you wanna go at the full 10 km/h, expect the runtime to drop to about 18 minutes.
Battery life is displayed on a 4.3-inch LCD screen, as is information such as speed, heading, water temperature and depth. The Vapor can safely descend to a maximum depth of 40 meters (131 ft), and will sound an alarm if users try to ascend or descend too rapidly.
It's slightly positively buoyant underwater, and weighs 8.6 kg (19 lb) on land. For reference, the slower Seabow weighs about half as much.
The Vapor underwater scooter is available now via the Sublue website, priced at US$2,999. You can see it in action, in the video below.
Source: Sublue
