Have you ever lost a Fin?

[tterry1]

Yep. Nearly drowned a buddy doing it.

About a year and a half ago, I was getting ready to dive in Lake Michigan. I apparently didn't do such a good job of purging the air out of my drysuit because, when I backrolled off the boat, the excess air rushed upward into my left boot and blew the fin off my foot. Being a Jetfin, it immediately dove for the bottom never to be seen again. Moreover, there was enough air that it blew the boot off my foot so that my foot was up in the leg of the drysuit and the boot was dangling.

I'm now sitting on the surface of the lake wearing doubles, a couple of deco bottles and one useless fin. The captain suggested I swim back to the boat. For anyone who's ever worn the gear I had on, you can imagine the futility of trying to make the swim, now about 40 feet, with one fin . . . especially with only about 17 percent O2 in the doubles (yes, I could've switched to one of the deco regs but that would have taken all the fun out of it). So I asked my buddy to swim me another fin.

About nearly drowning that buddy . . . She jumps in the water and swims out to me to perform her heroic rescue. Then she sees my left boot dangling uselessly. Then she starts laughing hysterically. Then she starts choking on the water (but never quits laughing). Then the captain throws us a line, drags us both back to the boat where I can put on another fin, do the dive and get away from the embarrasment of the surface.

Moral of the story: Always get ALL the air of your drysuit before backrolling.

Real moral: You need a sense of humor to be a diver.

Tom

PS - If you're ever diving the wreck of the Grace Channon off Milwaukee and find a Jetfin with a springstrap, you'll know where it came from.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Somewhere, deep in Redondo Canyon is a growing collection of Jetfins. I know of at least nine black Jetfins, two of which are mine that now reside down there. We can't even look for them after they are dropped. The water there swallows Jetfins immediately and no amount of searching ever brings them back.

 

[tedtim]

Yep, lost one fin during my first deep dive. We were around 80' going down a line and my fin came off. It started to float away in the current but the bottom was at around 90' so I was able to retrieve it. My buddy didn't have a clue what had happened. I had a lot of trouble when I tried to put it back on so I just stayed in place on the bottom waiting for my buddy to return. The DM on the dive saw what happened and helped me out. We both waited until my buddy finally figured out that I was not there and returned to the line. Needless to say it was a rather short dive.

 

[IceIce]

lol at tterry1
Lost one of my fins in my first OW dive. We were on the surface, I heard 'bulb' and it appeared in front of me and my instructor's nose.
But I swear I saw an advertisement in local forum, there was one diver selling a fin, half a pair because he lost one, and a week later, it was sold.

 

[mnfsh]

found a jetfin amongst the coral in Bonaire, someone's not fessing up.

 

[Mustangfreak]

I did sorta. The surf was bad and was getting worse. I thought I was good so I took them off and bam, got hit my some waves and I accidently let go of them. I recovered one but the other got away. Thankfully m dive buddy found it

I have a friend who lost one, and he bought a second pair, went back to the same sight a week later and lost another one lol.

 

[Charlie99]

found a jetfin amongst the coral in Bonaire, someone's not fessing up.

I've found 3 fins here in Maui. One was a jetfin. The other two were IST jetfin look-alike. That pair also came with a weightbelt and 16 pounds. Never did find out who left them 200' south of the outer reef of Ulua. Only found them because I was swimming alongside a manta over the sand.

 

[NW_DiverDude]

Add me to the list...

Had just entered the salt water where a river of fresh water poors into Pudget Sound (Washington). Dungeoness crab frequent the area so we occassionally make a crabbing dive to capture a few select individuals to cook up for an outstanding dinner.

With several hundred dives under my belt, I had experienced a number of different equipment issues but fins had never been one of them. This was the first dive with a brand new pair of Mares Plana Avanti fins (a few years back now). The strap on one of the fins simply came apart - brand new fin mind you. The fin was long gone. When I returned home I immediately spoke to the dive shop about the fin problem and they of course said to contact Mares. I did and that went absolutely nowhere - unless I could send them the defective fin, they would not send a replacement. Not surprised but still disappointed.

Long story short, I have been using my old TUSA fins from 1988. Never once had a strap failure with these old faithfuls so whenever I decide to upgrade fins again, I will stay with TUSA.

So, if anyone needs a single blue Mares Plana Avanti fin, I am willing to make you a good deal...

 

[tstormdiver]

I lost a fin the first time I went diving. I was on a Western Caribbean cruise and one of the ports of call was Grand Cayman. I decided to do some beginner's SCUBA while in port. It was, to say the least an amazing experience. We started out from shore and after the dive, the dive shop sent out a boat to pick us up. When I boarded the ship I was collecting my mask and had gotten 1 fin in hand, when the boat pilot backed the boat up to pick up another diver nearby. As we went backwards a wave washed over the dive platform before I could grab the fin. It got washed off the platform and sank quickly to the bottom. To the best of my knowlege the fin still rests at the bottom of the bay at Georgetown. After the cruise I ditched the stray fin and started over. Oh, well it's one of those things that happens.

 

[mcclete22]

I haven't lost a fin, but I was on a dive when we were in waist deep water and someone else lost one. I stood where I was so we could form a circle and do a search. After a long time of looking through the already very murky water we were about to give up. It was then people went under again to look the last time, and one diver started right next to me, I hadn't moved but had been about 5 feet from the lady that lost hers, the fin was right next to my foot. So lost and recovered.