This Underwater Scooter Turbo-Charges Your Swimming Speed
For free divers, swimmers, snorkelers, and even scuba divers, the biggest limitation to epic underwater exploration is often one’s own endurance. After all, you can only swim for so long before you get tired or run out of air. But this new “underwater scooter” changes that, letting you go farther, deeper, and faster than ever before.
The Whiteshark MixPro is a small, lightweight double-propeller device that can reach up to four miles per hour and last up to 60 minutes per charge. Clearly, this thing is ideal for checking out natural bodies of water, but you can use it in the pool, too.
Two speed options let you zoom around at either 1.2 or 1.8 meters per second, and a designated phone mount (used with the WhiteShark MixPro waterproof phone case) and universal mount for action cameras make it possible to film the entire experience. An attachable selfie stick will even widen up your shot if you want the camera facing you instead of capturing your view.
The scooter also features a waterproof LED light so you can always see where you’re going, no matter how deep you manage to dive. A detachable floater makes it easier for use by kids and people with limited upper body strength, but you can take always it off and let the propellers do all the work if you want to descend more than a couple meters below the surface.
That’s where the handiness of this device seems to really come in. Not all of us are accomplished free divers, and getting deep enough to see things like coral reefs without scuba equipment or worrying about making it back up to the surface can be intimidating. It would be pretty cool to experiment with one of these things to see just how much it could boost your underwater range.
The WhiteShark MixPro can be used up to five meters deep with the floater, or 40 meters (over 130 feet!) without it. It gradually speeds up when you press the two trigger buttons simultaneously, and the dual trigger button lock will keep you from accidentally thrusting forward when you don’t mean to. It’s resistant to salt corrosion, its lithium-ion batteries fully recharge in just two hours, and the whole thing is small enough to chuck into a suitcase for those vacations we’re all hoping to take just as soon as it’s safe to travel again.
The MixPro’s official crowdfunding page reads: “Bring your WhiteShark MixPro on all your adventures! WhiteShark MixPro’s portable lithium battery is approved by the Federal Aviation Administration to take on board all flights. WhiteShark MixPro is the smallest double propeller underwater scooter on the market. Lightweight yet powerful, WhiteShark MixPro only weighs 3.55 kg (7.82 lbs). Easily pack it in your backpack and take your portable companion on all your adventures.”
Made by Sublue, a company known for its research and development of underwater robots, the WhiteShark MixPro just successfully completed a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter, so it’ll probably be available to the public later this year. It comes in white or black with gold trim. The “beginner pack” comes with one 122Wh battery included at an MSRP of $699, or you can get various combo packages that come with extra batteries, selfie extension sticks, waterproof backpacks, and other add-ons for anywhere between $849 and $1,199.
