I’ve been diving in the San Diego area a few years shy of two decades. In that time I’ve dove the cove, shores, Marine Room, Scripps Canyon and many others in the La Jolla area from boat or shore swim. In the last few years I’ve been tagging along with Mani to exploring much wider areas using a single tank & DPVs. Previously costing as much as a nice used car, DiveX Blacktip DPVs are reasonably priced and make use of high capacity power tool batteries instead of custom solutions prone to failure and high lifetime costs.
The interesting thing about the scooters is that wildlife doesn’t seem to mind them. Sealions, giant seabass, and other fish don’t seem to care about the electric motor. In some ways, I feel like I get better interactions using the scooter than swimming, though that could simply be another facet of distanced travelled.
The following is some footage from a recent dive in La Jolla and the wildlife interactions along the way: