14 ms·
'Underwater bicycle' propels swimmers forward at superhuman speed
- _akhe 2y agoCool invention, kinda like the foil though seems a little ridiculous. Is it really faster than flippers? Didn't seem that quick in the video.
- stevek 2y agoAnybody know why it is a cycling (circular) motion rather than a linear stepping motion? It looks like the apparatus has a strange rolling motion which needn't be as pronounced.
- stickfigure 2y ago[flagged]
- philipwhiuk 2y ago> Whatever its flaws, the writing you find online is authentic That aged like milk.
- NikolaNovak 2y agoYeah; I re-read that article couple of months ago. The core notion about submarine articles I find very valid and as Paul suggested, fun to discover. But... internet has changed massively since then, I feel; both the authors and reader audience are different in demographic distribution. I don't much subscribe to the notion that "Internet is dead", I think "old internet" is still there, just about as large with just about same interested audience, for those who want it. It's merely been... superseded, supplanted, overwhelmed? Whatever the appropriate word is, from early quirky adopters to general mainstream and varied audience. Back to the point though - the trust level of online content I feel has been drastically reduced since Paul's article, and with the AI content generated feedback loop we're encountering as we speak, it may experience a sort of "crash" in trust / consumption / economic model. We'll see! :)
- porphyra 2y agoMaybe a PR firm reached out to have this article made, but I somehow doubt that there's a large media conspiracy behind this quirky invention.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- tamis022 2y agoMotorized propellers have existed for 20+ years and are routinely used in spearfishing. What the heck is the news!? https://www.amazon.com/Nautica-Skipper-Seascooter/dp/B0BLP9ZDHP/ https://www.amazon.com/Nautica-Skipper-Seascooter/dp/B0BLP9Z...
- Mordisquitos 2y agoWhat about non-motorised propellers?
- bilsbie 2y agoI’ve always wished those were slightly cheaper and slightly faster. 4mph and under $250 and I’m sold!
- Pxtl 2y agoI assume that now that we're in the world of hyper-cheap batteries I'm sure we'll see somebody do that soon enough.
- cimm 2y agoHow should one take a turn in a swimming pool with this?
- giardini 2y agoAvec difficulte'! Design engineer: "Turns? Turns?!"
- Vox_Leone 2y agoCool. More like an underwater 'monocycle', though. Make it into a full body struct in Y shape acting as kind of both 'guidon' and secondary propulsion axis -- more blades, an underwater tricycle. :)
- Milner08 2y agoIs a Monocycle something different to a Unicycle?
- szszrk 2y agoApparently! I did not expect such a nice find after asking search engine this: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=1700041 https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=1700041 > There are two main types of single-wheeled vehicles. In a unicycle, the rider sits above the wheel. These vehicles are recognizable by most people. Less well known is the monocycle, where the rider sits inside the wheel.
- jamiek88 2y agoThe famous South Park episode was a monocycle! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Entity_%28South_Park%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Entity_%28South_Park%29
- porphyra 2y agoyeah likewise the dicycle has two big wheels side by side haha
- albrewer 2y agoAxel from the Twisted Metal video games drove a dicycle!
- aidenn0 2y agoYou must have missed this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40080406 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40080406
- tokai 2y ago"Seabike says the prop turns slowly enough that you can safely use it at the local pool" Felt a bit iffy about this claim. But looking at the research it seems cadence lowers normally when cycling under water.[0] Fun device. I wonder which pedals would be best for barefoot riding(?). Maybe those strapped ones fix riders like to use. [0] https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/23706 https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/23706
- Rinzler89 2y agoYeah I wouldn't want to get hit in the face by those props at the pool. Accidents can always happen.
- xarope 2y agoGood luck, many pools already ban fins (unless it's part of a training school, in which case the lanes are marked as such) due to risk potential. Secondly, I could see this being used recreationally in the ocean, but in the local pool?!?
- epiccoleman 2y ago[flagged]
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- bilsbie 2y agoI wish we could find a good way to bike over the surface of the water. I haven’t seen anything that’s not slow and cumbersome.
- debacle 2y agoAnything you choose will be cumbersome because you can't create friction on the water (well...), your ability to move is based on your ability to move water around you. There are solutions that leverage a pair of catamarans and a track system, or a prop. These tend to move very slowly, much slower than a canoe or kayak. The water wheel style systems seem to move faster, but you can just get a pedal kayak and will be the fastest human powered craft on the water.
- etrautmann 2y agoI've always wondered why nobody has created something that looks like a catamaran with two rowing shells and a road bike on top directly connected to a prop. That would have minimal drag, an optimal body positioning for using leg muscle strength, and would be fun and intuitive to pilot (facing forwards, feels like biking, etc). The obvious downside is that height above water may be an issue so the catamaran would have to be wide, but it seems solvable.
- debacle 2y agoThey have, they're still quite slow.
- hetspookjee 2y agoI believe an ocean crossing was even done with this kind of vehicle.
- mhb 2y agohttp://www.castlecraft.com/seacycle.htm http://www.castlecraft.com/seacycle.htm
- alanbernstein 2y ago
- Apes 2y agoI'm curious how this compares to using fins. Just at a glance, I suspect it causes more drag and is more cumbersome to swim with. But the big thing is if it's more efficient overall than fins.
- onemoresoop 2y agoLooks a more uncomfortable than the fins (especially the lumbar lordosis part) but I imagine this should be way faster than fins.
- Sprint9935 2y agoId imagine this uses stronger muscle groups. Think about how much force you can make pushing down with your leg, compared to moving it forward or backwards when you are upright.
- karaterobot 2y ago> This jigger, according to the manufacturers, makes you handily quicker than an equivalent swimmer with fins on.
- rhaps0dy 2y agoWhat's the advantage of this over foot fins?
- BurningFrog 2y agoI think it uses much stronger muscle groups.
- carlosjobim 2y agoMaybe the muscle movements are more natural and comfortable. Swimming with high power foot fins is probably as fast as this, but it gets very tiring real fast.
- klabb3 2y agoTiring is good though, it means you can reach a maximum of energy expenditure. There’s a trade off with how big to make the fins though, similar to gears on a bike. Too small and you get bigger losses, I assume. Also depends a lot what you optimize for. For underwater swimming, especially scuba, you want to optimize for saving air, meaning minimize the total energy expenditure and keeping heart rate low (the mammalian dive reflex helps here too). In water, that means moving very slowly and with longer strokes, for the same reason container ships move slowly to conserve fuel. It looks really inefficient to pedal fast because all that water around your knees needs to be pushed back and forth for no gain.
- karaterobot 2y ago> This jigger, according to the manufacturers, makes you handily quicker than an equivalent swimmer with fins on.
- wethrow 2y agoIt's slower, more expensive and less accessible than a monofin
- julianeon 2y agoI can think of a huge one. I live near a fairly dangerous ocean in SF where I’ve gone bodyboarding with a wetsuit and fins. I’m concerned that, if caught in a current, fins are not enough to propel me out of it. This would. The extra power and ease of propulsion could make all the difference.
- bilsbie 2y agoThere are a bunch of small watercraft I really want to try. It’s hard to justify the expensive. The hydrofoil board with a prop and motor looks really cool. Just not sure what the learning curve is like and kind of worried about hitting something and flying off.
- SkyPuncher 2y agoThose e-foil look amazing, but the prices on them are insane. Like multiple times the price of an e-bike. I, frankly, don’t understand it. They aren’t particularly advanced devices.
- ljf 2y agoI spent a bit of time looking into building your own - from a parts point of view (buying new) you are still looking at £1000 to more like £2500 worth of batteries, controllers, motor and prop, plus the foil and the board you attach it all to. Then you need to make, seal it and make it 'sea worthy' - would be hundreds of hours of work for me. I'd happily buy a well made new one for £3000 if that was what they cost, but half that price is a new good solid paddle board - so I can see why you can't get the same plus all the electronics you need for £3k. We can hope in time the costs come down, but as a niche sport, it will be some time, if ever. Have you seen the cost (and service intervals!) of a new jet ski? All simple tech, but they don't come cheap and need a lot of looking after. I can still dream though.
- amenhotep 2y agoThey're a toy being sold in small numbers to people who live near lakes or can fit driving to the lake with it into their life easily enough to want to buy it - good proxy for having a bit of disposable income to throw around. Market can bear a high price, not enough volume to make competition appealing => ££££
- grayrest 2y agoThere's a DIY forum for building those[1] but I think tow boogies[2] are more practical as a project. The idea is a battery box, controller, and motor on a boogie board and shifting the weight of the person being towed allows for steering. [1] https://foil.zone/ https://foil.zone/ [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9z6BP8Y42U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9z6BP8Y42U Since the original article is about human power, I'll also link to this foil[3] which is for pump foiling long distance. I had run across the channel well before that and thought his goal for a half hour was goofy when people were getting 90s or 2 minutes so I was quite shocked when it actually got built. [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfJbF0xkUOY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfJbF0xkUOY
- danielvaughn 2y agoAt first glance, the idea of clip-ons in the water seems quite dangerous.
- davidw 2y agoI noticed that too. Clipless pedals seem like they could be kind of stressful for someone not used to them. Or even someone who is, but is using them in a very unfamiliar situation.
- vitiral 2y agoReally, why? Because you might drown? Try holding your breath and just floating, arms at your side and legs not moving. You will bob to the surface. Then quickly release your breath and snap your neck back to take a new one. Repeat. That's all it takes to not drown. You could almost do it as a quadriplegic (though I'm not 100% on "water balance" in that case).
- bluefirebrand 2y agoThis is not true if your feet are clipped to an object heavy enough to keep you under the water though
- xmonkee 2y agoThis device is buoyant, according to the article
- cassianoleal 2y agoWhich will make your feet float, driving your head underwater.
- 4ad 2y agoNo, not all people are buoyant. Some people sink. I used to be able to float even with my lungs empty, but after losing 30kg I can now walk on the bottom of the pool will my lungs full of air. Also, even if you are buoyant, it does not follow that being strapped to some device means you can't drown.
- neerajk 2y ago> The nominal mode enables motion through the water at 3.6 km/h, and for speed-seekers, the SEABIKE can reach a maximum of 7.9 km/h – much faster than normal swimming speeds or even flipper-assisted swimming. https://www.nauticexpo.com/prod/seabike/product-68606-564117.html https://www.nauticexpo.com/prod/seabike/product-68606-564117... Pretty fast, but "superhuman"? For short distances Michael Phelps can swim faster :)
- mrfox321 2y agoMichael Phelps is an alien..
- deltarholamda 2y agoIncorrect, he is an evolved dolphin.
- badcppdev 2y agoSo dolphins are aliens??
- el_duderino_ 2y agoThanks for all the fish!
- willcipriano 2y agoTraveling at that speed for a long distance would be beyond human capabilities, wouldn't it? Super just means beyond, not way beyond. I blame Superman for this notion.
- sandworm101 2y agoNot really. Most serious lap swimmers can do a kilometer every 20 minutes sustainably, akin to a marathon runner's pace (Sprint pace would be 100m/minute, with 50m/minute being what you would see in the fast lane of most recreational pools). So 3.6 kph isn't all that different, maybe a little faster than average but I assume they were also using a better-than-average bicycle person when doing the test. There real advantage here is that you can use leg muscle. Distance swimming is all about upper body muscles, with legs being the afterburners only really used for sprinting. This machine would invert that arrangement.
- Pxtl 2y agoI mean swim fins also propel swimmers at superhuman speeds (aside, it would be really cool if there was a proper competitive community for stuff like that, like how on land we have races for runners and races for cyclists; edit: Google informs me the competitive sport has world championships and is called "finswimming"). Is there any quantitative comparison between this doodad and fins? It doesn't even have convenience going for it since you have to strap into it, so it's probably almost as much of a ball-ache to put on as fins, plus the awkward problem that it's hard to stand up. If they can make it work without the waist strap (or have super-quick disconnect for that strap) I could see that convenience being nice, but still, I'd like proper comparison with fins.
- wethrow 2y agoFinswimming appears to be a bit faster according to the 7.9km/h figure they give, and I think using a snorkel and not your arms would make the use of this thing quite more comfortable
- thelastgallon 2y agoThis can be another transportation option, like walking and biking infrastructure. Cities like Venice can offer this today. Other cities which will be underwater eventually will get this water infrastructure built for free.
- hi-v-rocknroll 2y agoHuman-powered flying cars are next. Peter Thiel will invest billions.
- gnabgib 2y ago2013: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human-powered_helicopter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human-powered_helicopter
- uncertainrhymes 2y agoI swim because I enjoy it, not because I'm trying to get somewhere fast. This seems awkward and I bet you have to use your arms just to counterbalance the twist you'd get on each 'stroke' of the leg. So even though I think it's goofy, I bet I'd like whoever came up with this. Someone who put a ton of effort into building something they thought would be interesting despite a thousand people telling them it's goofy. Good on them.
- Broken_Hippo 2y agoMy favorite way to swim is with those flippers - because I go fast. Going fast doesnt mean not enjoying it.
- lupusreal 2y agoYep, going fast with flippers feels great.
- LtWorf 2y agoFeels less great for all the people in the pool that you kick.
- Broken_Hippo 2y agoYou don't have to do it in a crowded pool.
- _carbyau_ 2y agoMy major hassle with touches in pools is frog kick. I have zero issues with fins, on me or others.
- gklitz 2y ago> I swim because I enjoy it, not because I'm trying to get somewhere fast. I run because I enjoy it, not because I’m trying to get somewhere fast. But I also bike because I enjoy it, not because I’m trying to get somewhere fast. You seem to assume that because this thing is faster, it must automatically be less enjoyable. That’s not the case for bikes, why should it be the case here? In my opinion it sounds fun, and would probably be enjoyable.
- jpm_sd 2y agoI'd give it a try, but the "crotch rod" mounting strategy looks awfully uncomfortable. Engineering students have been building "underwater bicycles" for human-powered submarine competitions for decades! https://internationalsubmarineraces.org/ https://internationalsubmarineraces.org/
- yawpitch 2y agoIf it’s powered exclusively by a human then whatever the results, they’re not “superhuman”.
- cassianoleal 2y agoSuper == above, over, beyond. If it augments the human's capabilities, it's definitely super!
- yawpitch 2y agoSuper, sure, superhuman, no… someone running in shoes isn’t superhuman compared to someone in bare feet, anymore than someone using a block and tackle to lift or a wheelbarrow to transport is engaging in superhuman acts just because they’ve used their very human brain to leverage a simple machine. Something like this expands the envelope of what is, definitionally, the realm of natural human capacity… it pushes what qualifies as superhuman further away, but it doesn’t mean you’ve done something superhuman.
- _ZeD_ 2y agowith my bike I can easily outrun any 100m dasher on the earth.
- yawpitch 2y agoSure… and, notwithstanding the apples to oranges comparison — since I can outswim or out stair climb you when you’re on a bike any day of the week — that means you’re demonstrating how fast a human can turn a crank that a human has connected to a wheel that a human has realized will transfer traction into forward momentum; nothing remotely superhuman has occurred, your maximum speed with that implement is still entirely limited by your very normal human capabilities.
- zharknado 2y agoActually you probably can’t, assuming you aren’t a world champion cyclist and you’re starting from a standstill. 100m is too short to capture the advantage unless you’re very, very fast. See: https://www.outsideonline.com/uncategorized/who-would-win-100-usain-bolt-or-top-sprint-cyclist/ https://www.outsideonline.com/uncategorized/who-would-win-10...
- verisimi 2y agoHow long till this is fitted with a motor, an e-propeller :)
- ramesh31 2y agoThe real question here is about efficiency, not speed. If this does in fact propel divers more efficiently than traditional fins, it could be something useful in extending dive times without the battery limitations of a sea scooter. Otherwise it's just a gimmick.
- yatz 2y agoGreat for special forces, I guess.
- swader999 2y agoPairing this with some sort of foil board contraption would be interesting. Once you get up and out of the water on a foil, it's a lot less effort.
- moffkalast 2y agoAh, you mean these: https://manta5.com https://manta5.com Yeah, it exists.
- swader999 2y agoBingo!
- xg15 2y ago> 'Underwater bicycle' propels swimmers forward at superhuman speed so... like a normal bicycle then.
- mihaic 2y agoThe rotors should be placed in some fine mesh cage. I don't care what the manufacturer says, some idiot is going to cause an accident if safety isn't improved.
- wood_spirit 2y agoIt’s obscure but there was such a contraption trialled by the seals and cia in the 1950s http://www.hisutton.com/CIA_Water-Air_1958.html http://www.hisutton.com/CIA_Water-Air_1958.html Here’s a pedal powered smuggling submarine from the 1940s http://www.hisutton.com/Swiss-Pedal-Powered-Smuggling-Submarine.html http://www.hisutton.com/Swiss-Pedal-Powered-Smuggling-Submar...
- pge 2y agoInteresting that the CIA conclusion for a device very similar to the article is "Not recommended for operational use due to its discomfort and very slight gain in speed over that of a swimmer equipped with fins."
- causal 2y agoYeah I think for most uses I would still prefer fins for their agility. Cool idea though, and we probably haven't seen peak efficiency here.
- RajT88 2y agoPeak efficiency probably looks like this: https://newatlas.com/marine/jetcycle-hydrofoil-pedal-bike/ https://newatlas.com/marine/jetcycle-hydrofoil-pedal-bike/
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- soared 2y agoSeems prime for attaching to a surfboard
- SOLAR_FIELDS 2y agoI was thinking freediving as it requires less energy than flippers though I’m not sure the decreased maneuverability of having the thing attached to you would detract from what you are wanting to do when freediving. The article does say you can dive with it, though the devil is in the details eg how easy is it to turn around? I suspice it’s not nearly as easy as flippers Another interesting use case would be just tossing one of these into a boat that you own, or a kayak or whatever. Basically extra insurance to get you back in case your motor dies or you get swept out, similar use case as the surfboard
- deegles 2y agoFor those wondering... the tip hooks onto a belt... I had the same reaction. They definitely could make it a lot more clear in the images.
- jononomo 2y agoWhy wasn't this device invented 100 years ago? It's like a bicycle for people who need to swim to get around.
- hi-v-rocknroll 2y agoHey now, it's clearly a unicycle.
- fsiefken 2y agoI wonder how monofins compare as "swimming" method, similar, slower or faster? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBsjtSjQEjM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBsjtSjQEjM
- moffkalast 2y agoIt certainly has lower energy losses than this geared setup.
- robjan 2y agoFrom the looks of the scuba diving video, it looks worse. There's way more leg movement and it looks less controlled (and more likely to damage corals/kick up sand from the bottom) than slow finning.
- margalabargala 2y agoI'm inclined to agree with you. That said this certainly has its place. There are lots of use cases for wanting to swim more quickly through the water, where precise control is less important and where you aren't right next to fragile life.
- ThisIsAWhatWhat 2y ago[dead]
- why_at 2y agoGiven the number of times I've been kicked in the face by another person's fins while scuba diving, I wouldn't want to be anywhere near someone using one of these.
- AnarchismIsCool 2y agoLooks fun until both your regs are wrapped around the prop six times.
- FredPret 2y agoImagine a pro cycler with one of these
- hi-v-rocknroll 2y ago2/3 of a triathlon.
- logtempo 2y agoon a bike, we don't use hands to propell ourselves for obvious reason, why they don't also put a crank for the hands too? it double its speed and you can counter balance the legs motion too.
- regularfry 2y agoProbably attitude control. If your hands are connected to the machine, you've got no control surfaces left.
- AtlasBarfed 2y agoHoly shit. What is apparent when you learn to try to swim is that the largest muscles in our body are rendered hugely irrelevant. I don't have exact number, but I'd guess at least 95% of potential power output of our running-optimized evolutionary muscular-skeletal design is wasted in swimming. Maybe Phelps and others can beat that with decades of training from an early age, body shape advantages, long feet, and superior flexibility, but I'd guess they buy just 10% more advantage in power-> speed conversion from the legs. Other examples are how much faster you can swim with flippers. I would actually like to see good swimmers who train to use full scuba flippers vs good swimmers with this bike contraption. This is hilariously efficient compared to that.
- fnord77 2y agoNow just need a way to keep your head out of the water besides turning to the sides
- user20180120 2y agoWould this device be even better if it has the newer efficient propeller design called MX-1 Sharrow Propeller ? https://www.boatus.com/expert-advice/expert-advice-archive/2020/august/a-breakthrough-in-propulsion https://www.boatus.com/expert-advice/expert-advice-archive/2... At the 2020 Miami International Boat Show, Philadelphia-based Sharrow Marine introduced the culmination of a seven-year research and development project called the MX-1 Sharrow Propeller. Unlike every prop that's come before it, rather than blades, the MX-1 has loops of metal attached to the hub. How does this change the dynamic? In a nutshell, much of a prop's inefficiency can be blamed on the blade tips, where vortices and cavitation (commonly called tip vortex cavitation, or TVC) form, creating turbulence and sapping efficiency. Simply put, the loops on a Sharrow have no tips. The net result is an efficiency gain of between 9% and 15%. But just as important, eliminating the cavitation vastly reduces vibrations and noise and makes for a smoother, quieter boat ride. Company president Greg Sharrow tells us that the development of the MX-1 can be credited to music videos. "I was trying to solve the problem of reducing unwanted noise from drones while filming live music productions," he says. "I've always thought it would be cool to use a drone to get cameras closer to subjects and film them from onstage, but you can't use drones for music broadcasts because they're too noisy. I knew that most of the noise comes from the blade tips and is caused, in part, by tip vortices. So, I'd have to find a way to eliminate them."
- Chrupiter 2y agoWould it be a good idea to try on wind turbines?
- EnigmaFlare 2y agoUtility scale wind turbines are already about 50% efficient which is close to the theoretical limit of 59% (Betz limit). The loopy blades would be more expensive to manufacture and transport so there's a trade-off and it's not obvious that efficiency would win.
- AlexandrB 2y agoGood question! Boat motors spin a lot faster than the "Underwater bicycle" propeller would so perhaps it's not as beneficial here, but would be interesting to try.
- kazinator 2y agoThe male could also use this to improve dispersion of milt over the roe laid by the female.
- klabb3 2y agoPlease send a message to the manufacturer asking for a free product sample to try this out on a public beach.
- bandyaboot 2y agoThey should also sell a model that includes a pair of fake feet that sort of kick at the surface to complete the illusion that you’re a freak of nature.
- bambax 2y ago> French company Seabike They have a .fr domain and a showroom in Cannes, France but the company is headquarted in Italy: PARITET SRL, Via Giovanni da Cermenate 3, 22063 Cantù (CO) Italy Also, the French version of the website is riddled with enormous errors, like "For traveling light" translated as "Pour voyager lumière", which does not make any sense and isn't even grammatically correct (the proper translation would be "Pour voyager léger"). The whole thing does not inspire a lot of confidence. Is the product real?
- stavros 2y agoWhat, you don't like to travel bright?
- riffraff 2y agoThat's a really odd mistranslation, given the Italian words for lightweight and light source are as different as in french (leggero/a vs luce). Looks like it was translated directly from the English content.
- eddd-ddde 2y agoIt's so interesting how English tends to clump together so many concepts into the same word.
- alliao 2y agoI still am puzzled about the logistics of it, at the very end of the video there's a sharp pointy end towards the user... do the user shove their private parts between the two shafts...
- ec109685 2y agoIt plugs into a contraption that goes around your waste: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C6RVpqLpLjl/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== https://www.instagram.com/reel/C6RVpqLpLjl/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWF...
- patrakov 2y agoThis device is US$310. Good carbon fins (the long ones for freediving) cost just a tiny bit more [1] and can also propel you at a superhuman speed. Plastic ones are even cheaper. A speed comparison would have been nice. EDIT: it's already there: "This jigger, according to the manufacturers, makes you handily quicker than an equivalent swimmer with fins on." [1] https://www.westmarine.com/mares-razor-carbon-dive-fins-41-16367542.html https://www.westmarine.com/mares-razor-carbon-dive-fins-41-1...
- wiether 2y agoAnd this device is made as cheaply as possible. Plastic everywhere, holes for adaptability... And it's supposed to be used in sea water. I guess the actual plan is to sell classes by taking advantage of the novelty effect.
- fuzzfactor 2y agoEver see a fishing lure called a "spinner"? In the ocean this could attract some very sizable predators . . .
- ioseph 2y agoI've been looking at propulsion options for my sailing dinghy. Electric is heavy, expensive and I'd like to be able to capsize at will. Something like Hobie's mirage drive would be cool but it's another hole in the hull. I also saw a hand cranked propeller with a 3:1 ratio but that would make steering with the other hand awkward. I think I'll have to stick to oars for now
- connectsnk 2y agoThey have plenty of demo videos on their channel dating as far back as 6 years https://m.youtube.com/@seabikeofficial9914 https://m.youtube.com/@seabikeofficial9914
- Intralexical 2y agoOperator skill level aside, how does this compare to the fish kick? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fish_kick https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fish_kick
- sharadov 2y agoLooks like a shark cutting through the water, incredibly smooth and fast!
- __MatrixMan__ 2y agoLooks like you could use it to go in reverse, which I sometimes want while scuba diving.
- timonoko 2y agoThere was Australian underwater breathing device, which used your leg movement as only powersource. As I recall it could do 5 meters. Very splendid, except some dozen people managed to misuse it. Diving deeper and without small emergency bottle. So it was banned for all eternity everywhere. Even Chinese have not rekindled this product.
- chronolitus 2y agoFor those like me who are curious what it looks like: https://www.designboom.com/technology/exolung-underwater-air-supply-divers-01-16-2020/ https://www.designboom.com/technology/exolung-underwater-air...
- timonoko 2y agoThe idea of using transparent container maybe a good idea. Some indicator when you are sucking only water. Because I am fool, I tried to make my own. But gave up because breakages were indicated only by lung full of water, which tend to be fatal.
- rurban 2y agoKangaroos! Tragatschnig is Austrian, not Australian.
- timonoko 2y agoOriginal version was in 1988. I was bicycling Australia at the time and saw it on TV. Could have been Austrian invention anyways, perhaps?
- space_oddity 2y agoLooks so cool. Really want to try it