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Free As A Fish: Underwater Wheelchairing

August 30, 2012 / artist, beautiful, good idea, good lookin', having a great time, i'd still carry a spear gun just in case there's a shark attack, it's just so beautiful, mermaids, modding things, now i wanna do some underwater wheelchairing, sure why not, that looks like fun, underwater, whee!, wheelchair, wheels? where we're going we don't need wheels

underwater-wheelchairing.jpg

Seen here proving she's not just limited to taking long ramps instead of the stairs, wheelchairer Sue Austin cruises around in the ocean on her modified wheelchair. No word how many mermen fell in love with her, but I suspect at least one plus a tuna.

With a pair of underwater engines, a custom fin and a foot-operated rudder, she's able to glide around underwater with ease. She made the chair as a performance piece for "Creating the Spectacle!," which is a series of filmed and live artistic exhibitions that will feature Austin and her underwater chair.

Sue says there's been some commercial interest in her underwater wheelchair design, and she's already working on a new version. Fingers crossed it's a Hover Round. Also, I'm gonna need a basket on the front of mine for collecting seashells.

Hit the jump for the worthwhile video.

Thanks to PYY, who agrees everything is better down where it's wetter. FACT.

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There are Comments

  • Does it always have to be about need? I think designing a submersible wheel chair is cool.

  • BillGatesIsYourDaddy

    I am fairly certain one of the first thing you think about when you start a design process is purpose and need.

  • lorobird

    Yeah. Which is probably why she fucking designed and built herself a fucking scuba diving fucking wheelchair: BECAUSE IT IS USEFUL TO HER. TO. HER. A PERSONAL WHEELCHAIR FIXED UP FOR PERSONAL USE. Which has the purpose of being USEFUL FOR HER.

    Yeah I know your brain must be melting, keep calm and let it sink in...

  • BillGatesIsYourDaddy

    Who the hell are you and what the hell do you have stuck sideways up your ass? You come into a blog site which is based around people having fun and not taking life so damn seriously and you post the most self-righteous comments I have ever come across.

    Put down your sword because in real life you are a pitiful excuse for a white knight. I don’t think anyone gives a flying monkey ass about your opinions. It’s called humor. Learn it someday and stop being a dry shriveled up prick for once in your life.

    Now we all know that you will not ever lighten up and you will always be the flaming cunt that you are and that you will face every day with the same gusto you always do, with the goal of how you are going to push your smug judgments on the world around you and scream to the heavens when someone doesn’t cower down and accept your warped reality.

    Let me be the group voice to tell you to go pound sand you haggardly old troll. You don’t appreciate our opinions and we sure as hell don’t appreciate yours. You fancy yourself a white knight? Grow some balls and try that drivel in the real world face to face with someone instead of trolling behind a computer and see how that works out for you.

  • why would she need wheels underwater

  • BillGatesIsYourDaddy

    in case she happens across Atlantis. she can just zip around on all those streets of gold.

  • Heh. Sue is one of our former students.

  • Brightshark

    Assuming her arms are still functional, why would she need that? It's not like she has to walk underwater.

  • lorobird

    You arrogant cretin. She can't move her feet/legs so she would have trouble keeping them either bent or keeping herself in horizontal position to be able to swim. Clearly if she has developed a friggin' wheelchair for her personal use it's because it's useful to her and more comfortable. Clearly she knows her shit better than you do, considering she's gone through the trouble. So why do you care? Are you on a wheelchair? No? You just need to feel like you are smart? Well sorry but you fail, you are just an ableist disrespectful idiot.

  • Actually, lorobird, she CAN move her feet/legs. I work with her, and her chair serves a supportive role, but she can move without it. Maybe you should check things like that before getting so indignant about what struck me as a valid, inoffensive question.

  • BillGatesIsYourDaddy

    couldn't they just tie a rope around her and drag her behind a boat?

  • rikster81

    LMAO! dude your so wrong

  • Dan Charlebois

    "a foot-operated rudder" Don't people in wheelchairs usual have problems moving their feet?

  • jimmy

    it's probably for lazy divers then, not for handicapped people!

  • You never seen the film 'My Left Foot'?

  • BillGatesIsYourDaddy

    yes but this Sue character is coming off as discriminatory. what if there is someone that is paralyzed from the waist down? how will this device help them? the smart thing would have been to convert a motorized wheelchair and use the hand controls so everyone can enjoy this. Sue is a little bitch.

  • This one is for Sue. Pretty sure they would make the chair fit the user.

  • lorobird

    You are a little lonely shit who needs to pick on people with disabilities to feel like he has a penis.

  • BillGatesIsYourDaddy

    that does make one to stop and scratch one's head does it not?

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