A fun and low-cost electric underwater sea scooter: Testing the Outdoor Master Marlin
Wouldn’t it be great if you could experience the joys of life “under the sea” even without being as adept an underwater swimmer as Ariel or her mermaid compatriots? That’s exactly what the Outdoor Master Sea Scooter Marlin does for you.
Every summer recently I’ve been fortunate enough to get the chance to try out some new form of electric watersport gadget. Sometimes I’m flying through the air on an electric hydrofoil board. Sometimes I’m skimming the surface on an electric surfboard. And sometimes I’m being dragged along by a semisubmersible personal electric tugboat.
Somehow I managed to fit all three of those into this summer (aided by the fact that summer doesn’t really end in Florida until mid-November), turning it into the trifecta of water toys. And the final piece of the puzzle to make that happen was the Outdoor Master Sea Scooter, which is an electrically powered personal water vehicle design to tow your uncoordinated butt around the water with the elegance of a robotic dolphin.
Check it out in my video below where I explore the reefs and become one with the fishes, tricking them into thinking I’m one of their own on account of my new electronic enhancement. Then keep reading for all the wet and juicy details on this odd little undersea gadget.
Sea scooter video review
Scootin’ on (and under) the water
When I first walked into the water, electric salad spinner in hand, I expected to be able to get my butt dragged along the surface just like that electric boogie board I tested last summer.
But as it turns out, the Outdoor Master Sea Scooter Marlin is a bit like a freshmen poetry class – it works better the deeper you go.
The surface treatment was a bit underwhelming, as if your friend was holding your hand and just sort of tugging you along at a couple of miles an hour. But as soon as your point your double-barreled food processor downwards and take in a big gulp of air (not in that order), the magic of a sea scooter comes alive.
Under the surface, the devices feels much faster than its true 3.4 mph (5.4 km/h) top speed. As you spin and bend your body, it steers and pulls you along behind it. It’s like the nose of a dolphin and you’re the rest.
The anemic performance on the surface is somehow greatly magnified underwater once the propellors can stop sucking in a bubbly mixture and instead start throwing heavy water backwards.
There are two triggers to control the motors, one on each handle. You have to pull both at the same time to work the device, meaning you also have to keep both hands in place.
Once you pull in both triggers simultaneously like two NORAD officers each turning their launch keys, the motors spring to life and you get that instant “well this is what a fish must feel like” sensation.
You’re zipping through the water as if you were an elegant swimmer, except that it takes almost no exertion. You’re free to just enjoy the sea life and sandy bottom around you instead of huffing and puffing as you quickly burn through your lungful of oxygen.
There are three power levels that can be accessed by double tapping on the right trigger to increase power or the left trigger to decrease power.
While the instructions say that you’re supposed to keep both triggers held down to keep the motors spinning, I found that once you’re going for a few seconds, you can actually release one trigger and the motors will stay on.
If it’s the left trigger though, that action will be interpreted as a “downshift” and you’ll be zipping around in gear two instead of three.
If you release the right trigger and keep holding on with your left hand, you can stay in top gear while operating the Outdoor Master Sea Scooter one handed.
For power, there’s a cute little power drill-style battery that is removable. Theoretically you could have a few batteries to swap in as the power runs down, which I’d actually recommend.
The full power run time of the Sea Scooter isn’t impressive, at close to 12 minutes. I let my nephews play with it and didn’t explain how to change gears, meaning they got around 30 minutes of action in low gear.
It was still fun for them, but that’s because they didn’t know that more speed was an option. Once you know there are higher power levels, the lower power levels aren’t quite as fun.
But then again, if your goal is to check out pretty coral reefs and enjoy the sights down there, going fast might not be a priority. In that case, 30 minutes of run time in low power mode doesn’t seem so bad, especially when your main goal is to actually take in what is around you instead of blowing past it quickly.
In fact, it’d be fun to combine with one of those cheap mini-SCUBA kits with the little tank containing 10 minutes of air. You could scoot around a reef or other snorkeling area without even having to bob to the surface. Plus you wouldn’t get exhausted from holding your breath for as long as possible to avoid having to dive back down.
Another thing to keep in mind is that after 30 minutes, you’re going to be fairly spent. This isn’t a low-effort activity, even if it seems like it. You’re not exactly playing a passive role back there. It’s more than just getting dragged around the sandy bottom like a fish that never learned to swim.
You’re constantly steering with your body movements, and just holding on uses some decent hand and arm strength after a while. Plus if you’re like me, you’re holding your breath for as long as possible because you’re having so much fun that you don’t want to keep coming up for air.
After draining a full battery I was surprisingly tired, both from exertion and breath holding.
So after a 30-minute session, you’re going to be fairly exhausted anyways.
Many of these electric watersport gadgets are surprisingly expensive, often costing several thousand dollars. But for a current sale price of $299 for the Outdoor Master Sea Scooter Marlin, you get an experience that you really wouldn’t have any other way.
As just a toy, it’s slightly pricey but not nearly as much as some other electric sea scooters we’ve tried.
But if your goal is to go places you couldn’t normally go, stay down for longer to explore things that you normally couldn’t see for very long, or just for feeling like a dolphin for a day, then the Outdoor Master Sea Scooter will get you there. It feels well built, well balanced, and works well to boot.
And it was a great cap to my summer of electric watersports testing!
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National Grid Renewables has broken ground on its 100 MW Apple River Solar Project in Polk County, Wisconsin.
The Wisconsin solar farm, which will use US-made First Solar Series 6 Plus bifacial modules, will be constructed by The Boldt Company, creating 150 construction and service jobs. Apple River Solar will generate over $36 million in direct economic benefits over its first 20 years.
Once it comes online in late 2025, Apple River Solar will supply clean energy to Xcel Energy, which serves customers throughout the Upper Midwest. According to National Grid Renewables, the solar farm will generate enough energy to power around 26,000 homes annually. It will also offset about 129,900 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year – equivalent to taking 30,900 cars off the road.
“We are excited to see this project begin as it underscores our dedication to delivering clean, reliable and affordable energy to our customers,” said Karl Hoesly, President, Xcel Energy-Wisconsin and Michigan. “This project is an important step in those goals while bringing significant economic benefits to Polk County and the local townships.”
Electrek reported in February that Xcel Energy, Minnesota’s largest utility, expects to cut more than 80% – and possibly up to 88% – of its emissions by 2030, putting it on track to hit Minnesota’s goal of net zero by 2040. It also says it’s on track to achieve its clean energy goals for all the Upper Midwest states it serves – Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Michigan.
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Tesla has announced that it will finally deliver 500 kW charging as it is about to install its long-awaited V4 Supercharger cabinets.
The rollout of Supercharger V4 has been a strange one, to say the least.
Tesla has been deploying the new charging stations for two years and calling them “Supercharger V4”, but it has only been deploying the charging stalls.
Supercharger stations are made of two main parts: the stalls, which are where the charging cable is located, and the cabinets, which are generally located further back and include all the power electronics.
For all these new “Supercharger V4”, Tesla was actually using Supercharger V3 cabinets. This has been limiting the power output of the charging stations to 250 kW – although
Today, Tesla officially announced its “V4 Cabinet”, which the automaker claims will enable of “delivering up to 500kW for cars and 1.2MW for Semi.”
Here are the main features of the V4 Cabinet as per Tesla:
- Faster charging: Supports 400V-1000V vehicle architectures, including 30% faster charging for Cybertruck. S3XY vehicles enjoy 250kW charge rates they already experience on V3 Cabinet — charging up to 200 miles in 15 minutes.
- Faster deployments: V4 Cabinet powers 8 posts, 2X the stalls per cabinet. Lower footprint and complexity = more sites coming online faster.
- Next-generation hardware: Cutting-edge power electronics designed to be the most reliable on the planet, with 3X power density enabling higher throughput with lower costs.
Tesla reports that its first sites with the new V4 Cabinets are going into permitting now. The company expects its first sites to open next year.
We recently reported about Tesla’s new Oasis Supercharger project, which includes larger solar arrays and battery packs to operate the charging station mostly off-grid.
Early in the deployment of the Supercharger network, Tesla promised to add solar arrays and batteries to all Supercharger stations, and Musk even said that most stations would be able to operate off-grid.
While Tesla did add solar and batteries to a few stations, the vast majority of them don’t have their own power system or have only minimal solar canopies.
Back in 2016, I asked Musk about this, and he said that it would now happen as Tesla had the “pieces now in place” with Supercharger V3, Powerpack V2, and SolarCity:
It took about 8 years, but it sounds like the pieces are now getting actually in place with Supercharger V4, Megapacks, and this new Oasis project.
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Hyundai has a new secret weapon it’s about ready to unleash. To revamp the brand in China and counter BYD’s surge, Hyundai is launching a new AI-powered EV next year. The new model will be Hyundai’s first dedicated electric car for the world’s largest EV market.
With the help of Haomo, a Chinese autonomous startup, Hyundai will launch its first EV equipped with generative AI. It will also be its first model designed specifically for China.
A Hyundai Motor official said (via The Korea Herald) the company is “working to load the software” onto the new EV model, “which will be released in the Chinese market next year.” The spokesperson added, “The level of autonomous driving is somewhere between 2 and 2.5.”
In comparison, Tesla’s Autopilot is considered a level 2 advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) on the SAE scale (0 to 5), meaning it offers limited hands-free features.
With Autopilot, you still have to keep your eyes on the road and hands on the steering wheel, or the system will notify you and eventually disengage.
Haomo’s system, DriveGPT, unveiled last spring, takes inspiration from the OpenAI’s popular ChatGPT.
The system can continuously update in real-time to optimize decision-making by absorbing traffic data patterns. According to Haomo, DriveGPT is used in around 20 models as it looks to play a bigger role in China.
Hyundai hopes new AI-powered EV boosts sales in China
Electric vehicle sales continue surging in China. According to Rho Motion, China set another EV sales record last month with 1.2 million units sold, up 50% from October 2023.
Over 8.4 million EVs were sold in China in the first ten months of 2024, a notable 38% increase from last year.
BYD continues to dominate its home market. According to Autovista24, BYD accounted for 32.9% of all PHEV and EV (NEV) sales in China through September, with over half of the top 20 best-selling EV models.
Tesla was second with a 6.5% share of the market, but keep in mind these numbers only include plug-in models (PHEV).
Like most foreign automakers, Hyundai is struggling to keep up with the influx of low-cost electric models in China. Beijing Hyundai’s sales have been slipping since 2017. Through September, Korean automaker’s share of the Chinese market fell to just 1.2%.
Last month, Hyundai opened its first overseas digital R&D center in China to help kick off its return to the region.
According to local reports, Hyundai is partnering with other local tech companies like Thundersoft, a smart cockpit provider, and others in China to power up its next-gen EVs
With its first AI-powered EV launching next year, Hyundai hopes to turn things around in the region quickly. The new model will be one of five to launch in China through 2026.
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