The aquaSketch Minno was created by a New York illustrator searching for a way to draw while scuba diving, and an industrial designer who worked with NASA’s Mars Phoenix Lander program.
The result was the aquaSketch Minno, a rugged underwater tablet, sketchpad and reference platform that brings the convenience and versatility of paper to the marine environment and other extreme conditions.
This patented device is small enough to be worn on the wrist or stored in your pocket, but still holds up to 8 feet of waterproof, printable, scanable and reusable material. It is non-electronic, and rather than using multiple pages, the aquaSketch Minno uses the ancient technology of scrolls. All writing and handling of the material can be done with one hand. AquaSketch also offers a collection of pre-printed reference “Apps” to accommodate a wide variety of industries, field research and sports.
AquaSketch is the only existing practical and effective way to do permanent work in writing, drafting or illustrating underwater or any extreme environment.
If you are a technical diver, carrying a slate is general not considered optional. At the very least, this is where you keep your decompression tables along with backup decompressions tables. A slate is handy for recording information about the dive and keeping notes about navigation or critical dive data. It is also for communicating when hand signals just aren’t enough.
If you are an instructor you no doubt have a stack of slates for every diving course you teach. Depending on the agency, you’ll have around 9 slates for Open Water, 4-6 more for Advanced Open Water, and several for each specialty you teach. Some, like Rescue Diver require over a dozen!
AquaSketch is the only existing practical and effective way to do PERMANENT work in writing, drafting or illustration underwater, or in any extreme environment that may be subjected to water.
The aquaSketch Minno Scrolling Slate combines the durability of a dive slate with the versatility of paper under extreme conditions. It's a wind/waterproof miniature desk with limitless writing and referencing capacity that can fit in your pocket.
The diver writes on replaceable rolls of waterproof vellum up to 8 feet long- the most capacity of any existing underwater notation device.
The Minno is small enough to fit in your pocket, can be worn on the wrist and has an attachment point for an additional lanyard.
The aquaSketch vellum can be printed inexpensively with low minimum quantities unlike plastic slates that cannot be loaded into standard printers. Custom printing of maps, guides and reference material for dive operators, resorts and organizations is now possible and affordable.
Individual reusable templates and reference sheets can be created on the vellum using the aquaSketch waterproof pen.
aquaSketch has developed and now offers an extensive library of pre-printed underwater reference materials that we call “Apps.” We offer Color Fish ID Charts, Decompression Schedules, and Dive Safety Checklists among others. Check out the View App Collection to see if we have an App that fits your needs.
The aquaSketch Minno has all the durability of a dive slate without the slate’s limitations. It is simple, non-electronic, and the rugged polycarbonate and stainless steel make it virtually indestructible. All aquaSketch products are made to withstand extremes in depth and temperature. It was deliberately designed to be low-tech and dependable in the most adverse conditions.
When worn on the wrist it is optimized for easy, single-handed use. The aquaSketch pencil is made of solid graphite to eliminate the need to sharpen during a dive, and the use of sacrolls rather than pages enables the writing surface to be kept flat and manageable in strong currents or heavy wind.
Notes can be saved by rolling the scroll into the protective casting of the Minno with a simple turn of the knob, and it can be unwound to review your notes. The vellum is one continuous scroll so there is no possibility of losing pages like with a notebook or wrist slate. After a dive the vellum can be scanned or photographed for a digital archive.
The aquaSketch vellum is made of a virtually indestructible waterproof material that was originally engineered for architectural drafting at construction sites. It was designed with a textured surface for ideal use with graphite or ink. This enables divers to achieve much darker and readable lines than possible on slates.
The backplate of the aquaSketch Minno is made of a phosphorescent material. By shining a dive light over the writing surface, the vellum will backlight the writing surface for an equal duration of time to allow the diver to write without having to hold a light.
The textured surface of the aquaSketch vellum makes it very easy to erase completely underwater during a dive. After a dive, the entire roll of vellum can be erased in seconds by using the aquaSketch Eraser Pad.
Once notes are scanned or photographed the vellum can be erased completely and reused indefinitely.
A unique aspect of the aquaSketch is that you are not writing on the device itself, unlike slates, but on the loaded vellum. If the vellum wears out or becomes damaged it can be easily replaced at a low cost without replacing the unit.
aquaSketch is currently in use by the U.S. Navy, NASA, NOAA, The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, geologist in the petroleum industry, search and rescue programs, police SWAT teams, bird watchers, ski patrollers, and alpinists to name a few.
The dynamic and durable design of the aquaSketch Minno makes it suitable for any condition on Earth, underwater or in low gravity. Notation and reference in extreme conditions is now made easy with the aquaSketch.
