This homemade submarine really works!
Here at Wide Open Spaces, we often get to see the creativity of the Internet. There are some incredibly talented people out there who build all sorts of useful things completely from scratch. We see this kind of stuff all the time in custom-made RVs and tiny homes. We have also seen how good people are at restoring items back to their original glory.
We really thought we had seen it all. That was until we happened upon the YouTube channel of Hank Pronk. Last summer, much like many of us, he was looking for a summer isolation project during the Covid-19 pandemic. Unbelievably, he decided to build a homemade submarine!
Yes, a submarine. In his garage. It seems too unbelievable to be true, yet in this video, he takes it to the bottom of a lake in British Columbia and films the whole thing for proof. Consider our minds blown.
This one of those projects that just leaves your jaw on the floor. The sub dives to the bottom of the lake with ease and even has a robot arm to pick up anything interesting one might find on the bottom. He documents much of the build on his YouTube channel from start to finish. Most of the specifics on the needed equipment are above my head.
In one video he explains how he had to add things like a CO2 scrubber and other safety and warning systems in case one gets into trouble underwater. In another video, he states that another test run saw them dropping the sub down to an incredible depth of 425 feet!
This is the kind of thing that both looks exciting and terrifying at the same time. As scary as it would be to sink into the depths in such a small craft, we cannot help but be curious about what may be on the bottom of our favorite lakes. Our hat is off to you Hank, what an amazing creation!
For more outdoor content from Travis Smola, be sure to follow him on Twitter and check out his Geocaching and Outdoors with Travis YouTube channels.
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