I’ve always enjoyed electric watersports devices, and have a long history with everything from electric surfboards to electric boats. But it’s the category of electric sea scooters that likely offers the most accessiblity to the average person, providing fast and fun water excitement without the larger upfront cost and complexity of larger vessels. The Sublue Vapor is the latest in a string of electric sea scooters I’ve tested over the years, and it’s the fanciest one yet.
Of course, fancy features come with higher prices, which are already higher than you’d expect, thanks to the law of nature where anything marine-related costs significantly more than it should.
This sucker is no different, carrying an exorbitant price tag of $2,799.
Sure, there’s some important waterproofing going on here, necessitated by the device’s ability to operate at depths down to an impressive 40 meters (131 feet). But that’s still a lot of cash.
Despite the 40 meter rating, I was testing this on a Florida beach and I couldn’t get much more than a meter or two before I ran into sand. However, the Sublue Vapor is just as much fun on the surface, towing you (or your nephews, who helped me test it out) across the surface of the water at speeds of up 10 km/h (6 mph).
The impeller and nozzle work together to output some serious force, as I discovered the first time I pulled the throttle trigger while standing in waist-height water and holding the device directly in front of me. You only do that once, at least if you’re a male.
The better way to get started is laying out in a swimming position and then engaging the throttle to rocket forwards.
That also puts you in the best position to begin steering right away.
The Vapor uses a 385 Wh battery stored inside the nose, which can easily be swapped out for a second battery. There’s even room for two batteries in the carrying case, which is quite nicely designed.
I felt like I was walking onto the beach with a nuclear football, and opening the foam briefcase up didn’t immediately change that picture.
Speaking of the battery, I found that a single battery lasts a bit less than the 60 minutes they claim, though we were mostly keeping it in the highest of the three power levels to take advantage of the 21 kg (46 lb) of thrust in high power mode. If you’re using lower power modes, you can likely make it to the full 60-minute run time.
It was really hard to capture any good photos of the screen for some reason, perhaps due to a coating on the display, but it actually does show up quite vibrantly in the water.
It’s a bright, well-lit display and easy to read even while twisting and turning underneath the waves.
As you can see from the marketing image below, a big part of the hard sell here appears to be in the form of “keep a couple of these on your yacht!”, which makes sense to me. If you’ve got yacht money, you can definitely afford the fun shenanigans that come with a sea scooter (and you’re likely out in some deeper water to enjoy exploring even further down).
If any of you have seen my electric boat, you’ll know this is not something I’d likely be buying for my own vessel (especially since it costs over twice what my boat costs!).
When it comes to controlling the device, it doesn’t take very much athletic ability at all to use the Sublue Vapor. That helps overcome the higher barriers to entry with electric surfboards and other electric watersports.
As long as you can hold on to the handles and pull the trigger to start the motor, you’ll pretty much be able to get the hang of it. There is some arm strength and core strength involved in steering the device, especially if you want to get more acrobatic at higher speeds, but low speed is quite gentle and won’t require much strength from the user. My five-year-old niece gave it a try and ended up with a faceful of waterjet (don’t worry, she’s a trooper), so there may be a minimum age at which this device is advisable. She’s fine on our lower-power sea scooters, but this one is more of a beast.
All told, the Sublue Vapor is an impressively powerful, nicely designed electric water scooter that would be great for diving, snorkeling, or just playing around at the beach. This is way more than a pool toy, but it also carries an ‘open water’ price.
It’s definitely priced out of the general recreation ballpark, but if you’ve got boat money, you’ve probably got high power electric seascooter money too. And hey, it’s a lot more portable than a jet ski!
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