fins, fins so many fins.

[danvolker]

K,
This is really a good question, because with the "typical" freediving fins like Mares and Cressi, it is very hard to do effective reverse kicks ( usually most will not have the right angle between foot plane and fin, and often blade charicteristics are poor for this degree of precision control) and less than ideal for helicopter turns. But this is alot like saying "all paddle fins" are "--"...because all freedive fins are not alike. I have found the stiff version of the DiveR freedive fins allows me to reverse kick even against a current, which you wont find too many people with jet fins attempting...and these DiveR fins do spectaculr helicopters and take Frog kicking to an entirely different place---one frog kick and HUGE glide, is a different world. Not smart for low overhead, as they will stick up too high and hit the ceiling, but for Open water diving, they are awesome. Mustang C 4's are carbon fiber, and almost as fast as the DiveR's , with the fins a little too soft to be an ideal control surface for reverse kicks, though everything else works well---except that C4's cost a fortune, and are too fragile to giant stride with
DiveR is supposed to be sending me some shortened versions of the DiveR freedive fin, that the creator or them (Ray Powell) believes will be of a lenth similar to the bigger jetfins, but with control charicteristics that will be a "Game changer" for many divers, along with the efficiency of the bigger DiveR freedive fins...These would be my choice for a low overhead penetration dive, if they are as good as I expect they will be.

To finish answering you though, with the big DiveR's, cruising a silty bottom like our Blue Heron Bridge Marine Park is done using frog kick with amazing results...amazing because frog kick is suddenly absolutely as fast as you could want it to be, or as slow, and with great instant stopping or turning precision. I ALSO use a kick which is a hybrid of a frogkick and a dolphin kick, when just a little higher up over the bottom, if I need to beat an incoming or outgoing tidal flow ( which can run at over 2 mph).

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

I wish I had the deep pockets DanV has!!!

In the last 20+ years I have spent less total $'s on all my fins than Dan has on his current #3 pair.

I broke the piggy bank to buy my first pair of fins that dad didn't buy; used rentals for half of list price ($75). Cressi Rondine Gara's had gone to a polypropylene blade in '88 and for some reason Snorkel Bob's on Kauai had a scratched up rental pair in early '90.

Those fins were trashed in a big wave kayak incident, Nov '02. Just weeks later my business partner "burned in" with a tandem skydive customer and I "inherited" his 5 year old Gara 2000's. Last summer, one of those fins "jumped overboard" off the dive boat I work on; took a few months but eventually I found a less scratched pair of Gara 2000's on eBay for $72, shipped from Florida!

After over 20 years of owning pretty much the same free dive fins, I am comfortable using them to guide cavern dives in surge, surrounded by 6-7 flailing tourist divers, many who would complain to my boss if my long fins made inappropriate contact with; them, coral &/or silt. The only complaint my boss has ever had is that the flail-er who did not follow the briefing and then did not follow my instructions during the dive to hug the bottom, could not keep up with me in current that he was warned twice not to get into.

I did my nearly zero to past hero training, rebreather training and cavern/intro to cave training in old open heel Dacor Rockets (I electric tapped the buckles) that I think cost me $20 at a Santa Cruz second hand sporting goods store.

After becoming a working dive instructor, I got a key man pair of open heel Mares Volo's for $80, which were warrantee replaced in 6 months, and then came apart the same way in the same number of dives. They are still in the bottom of my dive locker; still better than "traditional" split fins, imho.

That was enough of high priced fins for me.

Open heel Mares Plana Avanti X3's were only $45 dollars at Maui's Sports Authority, with no Instructor discount; they sit next up from the bottom in my dive locker, still better than split fins, imho. My first step back to full time free dive fins was a pair of full foot Mares HP's that were left at the resort dive shack where I used to work; I really liked those, but they disappeared off the "drying bush" a few months later.

A near new pair of open heel ScubaPro Twin Jets was similarly left at that resort shack; tried them for a handful of dives. Sold them quickly on Craigslist for $90. :kiss2:

Even before last years "fin overboard" incident, I have "wanted" a pair of Mares Avanti Quattro Power's, but the local distributor will only let me have black at a Key Man Instructor price. Have tried three times over two years but they claim they do not even stock the blue's. Then after the "fin overboard" incident I borrowed the Captains black Quattro's for a few dives; man, they are heavy. :shocked2:

So, I now only use the same style fin I only used for the first year of my ocean life. That last line is probably significant.

 

[danvolker]

Halemano,
Some divers piss their money away on dive computers and rebreathers....I would rather put my money where it will push me someplace

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

Dan, did you notice my sig line?

 

[danvolker]

Dan, did you notice my sig line?

Now I do

Cameras are WAAAAYY more investment than my fins

 

[Scott L]

I was a quick converter to the DiveR fins at first glance of the rather comely Mermaid graphic. I initially thought Dan special ordered, but eventually learned that they all ship that way.

http://www.diveraustralia.com.au/equipment.php

 

[brucetrinity]

Kevin,
I think this is a key difference that has never really been addressed--for years it has been-- "hey, the Navy Seals use these____"..but that is not really a plus for our purpose in choosing fins.

Dan, given the following:
1) I am 6'3" and 230 lb. in decent 65 yr. old condition and been diving since 1959;
2) I spend 1/3 of my time at BHB, 1/2 of my time on boats out of West Palm, Boynton, and the Keys and the remainder on trips to the Caribbean;
3) I dive about 1 day/wk.;
4) I'm in no hurry when I'm in the water;
5) my primary kick is frog;
6) I like Mares Superchannel closed heel fins the best (size 12);
7) I exit from a boat with a back roll or giant stride (boat dependent), then:

assuming $100 to $150 is ok for a new set of long fins, do you have a recommendation (and that can include "stick with what ya' got")?

Thanks, Bruce

 

[Scott L]

In my case, when I got back into diving in 1999 after a long inactive period. I had no choice but to switch to longblades as all my new dive partners were utilizing. It is immposiable to remain as a team (or even keep close) with regular fins if your teammates utilize free diving fins IMHO...

 

[Hoomi]

When we were preparing for our OW class almost three years ago, I did some online research on fin styles. At that time, the Mares Superchannels received a good rating for having the best balance between speed and agility of the different fins tested. I've been quite happy with my pair of Superchannels since buying them.

When we did the shark dive in Fiji, my yellow fins were a "no-no", so I was loaned a pair of split fins. Getting to try the splits for the two dives, I still prefer my Superchannels. It could very well have been my personal kick style, but with the splits, I felt as if I wasn't getting anywhere near the same push per kick that I did with my Mares.

I know others, though, who love their split fins, and have their own reasons for that preference. I figure, if it works for them, why should it bother me? If you were using a piece of dive gear that had been shown to pose a serious risk to yourself or other divers, I could accept the instructor telling you that you shouldn't use it. Just not liking that gear? That's subjective. He's free to use what he likes, and you're free to use what you like. If he's too rigid to accept that, I wouldn't want to take a class with him, anyway.

 

[danvolker]

Dan, given the following:
1) I am 6'3" and 230 lb. in decent 65 yr. old condition and been diving since 1959;
2) I spend 1/3 of my time at BHB, 1/2 of my time on boats out of West Palm, Boynton, and the Keys and the remainder on trips to the Caribbean;
3) I dive about 1 day/wk.;
4) I'm in no hurry when I'm in the water;
5) my primary kick is frog;
6) I like Mares Superchannel closed heel fins the best (size 12);
7) I exit from a boat with a back roll or giant stride (boat dependent), then:

assuming $100 to $150 is ok for a new set of long fins, do you have a recommendation (and that can include "stick with what ya' got")?

Thanks, Bruce

First, if you only dove the BHB, the time that you would appreciate the freedive fins is durring tidal changes---you would find it fairly irrelevant to you, whereas for MOST of the regulars at the BHB, a large tidal change current means they will have a hard time going where they want to go.

On all your trips on boats, there will be big benefits in ease of moving around underwater, and lower sac rate/longer bottom time.

I recomend the DiveR fins as my favorites, and they do have a soft or medium blade rather than the stiffest model which I use..They are closer to $300, but may be more...the difference between them and the cressi gara 3000 alternative for $80 to 120 ( depending on where you buy them) is the amount of "return" you get back from each kick...the DiveR's are insane in the way they return far more from each kick effort....the other difference is precision control..the DiverR's work like a precision tool, the cressis will not...unless you have a need for precision control though, this may not matter so much..The cressis will be far more efficient than the superchannels, quatros, splits or jets...

I can let you try my DiveR fins at bhb sometime soon...I had them customized to be in open heel, so I could use them with my dry suit....I ended up liking them so much, I dont want to switch back to the other freedive fins I have which are all full foot versions--typically better power transfer. I kind of wish the DiveR's were full foot, but they so outperform everything else, I am not going to worry about it.

Let me know if you want to try them....Your size 12 foot should fit if you use a low profile booty.