lavachickie
Contributor
EDIT: I am posting my thoughts and experience. I am not telling anyone else what to dive. I will of course keep my splits and use them in certain situations.
I've read, thoroughly, the reviews, discussions, and pissing matches about split vs paddle fins. In 1.5 years of diving and 100 dives, I'd pretty much loved my Tusa Xpert Zooms I slapped on in my Open Water class.
I was motivated a few months ago to try a set of Hollis F1s. One dive, hated them, threw them back at the owner. Later I took the ScubaPro SeaWing Novas on a liveaboard trip. First dive with them on I was getting NOWHERE... went back to the boat, threw them at the deck help and asked for my Tusas and didn't touch them again.
But as of late I'd experienced some issues:
- I started to frog kick. These split fins did good moving forward, but as promised by some writers, reverse would be nonexistent regardless of how you tried, and something akin to a helicopter turn was also out of the question. I found this it certainly be true.
- In a few current situations, the fins showed their weak spot -- they would simply fold if tried in anything more than a very short flutter kick in a current, and it wasn't generating enough to overcome the current.
- All the cool kids were wearing paddles.
This weekend I committed to those Hollis fins again.
Dive #1: Worse than riding a bicycle for the first time. Exhausted by a short surface swim, I spent the whole dive cursing how much I hated those damn things. Frog kicking but not as productive as with the more comfy fins. I've never worked so hard to get nowhere in my life! Despite all that work, I did not cramp, though. It was clear the fin needed... something different... but I wasn't sure what. I also noticed that on the surface, any fin movement generated some impressive thrust -- of course thrusting me right onto my face, so I had to assume the "recliner" position and get those fins UP in order to hang around.
Dive #2: same site, night dive shortly later. I love night dives, so that helped me stop focusing on the hating, and there were periods of that dive I actually stopped cursing the fins. I think during that time my brain started to figure out what was needed.
I awoke the next day, utterly shocked that my legs did NOT hurt. I'd figured I'd be in a bad way.
Dive #3: Okay, I'm starting to get this. One frog kick lends a lot more propulsion than it did with the split fins. For surface swims it's not an ankle and knee motion, but a motion from the hip/thigh. More like... operating a paddle boat! I was making some time on the surface, finally. And while certainly not a heli turn, I found out that a little wiggle of the foot on one side will get you moving in that direction.
Dive #4: Later the same day, a nice long dive where we did cover a fair amount of ground. No hating, not even a bit. Still realizing I've got dif leg muscles that need to be developed... "Holy crap did I just BACK UP? OMG, I did!" It wasn't expertly executed but I actually stopped myself from running into my buddy's behind AND backed up without anything but the frog kick in reverse. WOW. Then I promptly lost it and couldn't do it again, but "found" it again later in the dive.
I'd read volumes on the subject and all I can say is: stick with it, try to make the change in unchallenging conditions, and understand it's like a bicycle... you can read, explain, even demonstrate to someone all the concepts... but you just gotta do it yourself so your brain connects the signals you get from feedback to the actions you are doing and their end result. Rinse, repeat until you get it.
The one issue is that I have a very soft and flexible hard soled boot; the tops are a thin, lycra like thing, like a light Chuck Taylor from Converse. The force of the fin in a good kick causes the pocket edge to dig into my foot (Through the boot, White's drysuit foot, and thick wool sock). Hurt. I need a more substantial upper on my boots to distribute the force.
I've read, thoroughly, the reviews, discussions, and pissing matches about split vs paddle fins. In 1.5 years of diving and 100 dives, I'd pretty much loved my Tusa Xpert Zooms I slapped on in my Open Water class.
I was motivated a few months ago to try a set of Hollis F1s. One dive, hated them, threw them back at the owner. Later I took the ScubaPro SeaWing Novas on a liveaboard trip. First dive with them on I was getting NOWHERE... went back to the boat, threw them at the deck help and asked for my Tusas and didn't touch them again.
But as of late I'd experienced some issues:
- I started to frog kick. These split fins did good moving forward, but as promised by some writers, reverse would be nonexistent regardless of how you tried, and something akin to a helicopter turn was also out of the question. I found this it certainly be true.
- In a few current situations, the fins showed their weak spot -- they would simply fold if tried in anything more than a very short flutter kick in a current, and it wasn't generating enough to overcome the current.
- All the cool kids were wearing paddles.
This weekend I committed to those Hollis fins again.
Dive #1: Worse than riding a bicycle for the first time. Exhausted by a short surface swim, I spent the whole dive cursing how much I hated those damn things. Frog kicking but not as productive as with the more comfy fins. I've never worked so hard to get nowhere in my life! Despite all that work, I did not cramp, though. It was clear the fin needed... something different... but I wasn't sure what. I also noticed that on the surface, any fin movement generated some impressive thrust -- of course thrusting me right onto my face, so I had to assume the "recliner" position and get those fins UP in order to hang around.
Dive #2: same site, night dive shortly later. I love night dives, so that helped me stop focusing on the hating, and there were periods of that dive I actually stopped cursing the fins. I think during that time my brain started to figure out what was needed.
I awoke the next day, utterly shocked that my legs did NOT hurt. I'd figured I'd be in a bad way.
Dive #3: Okay, I'm starting to get this. One frog kick lends a lot more propulsion than it did with the split fins. For surface swims it's not an ankle and knee motion, but a motion from the hip/thigh. More like... operating a paddle boat! I was making some time on the surface, finally. And while certainly not a heli turn, I found out that a little wiggle of the foot on one side will get you moving in that direction.
Dive #4: Later the same day, a nice long dive where we did cover a fair amount of ground. No hating, not even a bit. Still realizing I've got dif leg muscles that need to be developed... "Holy crap did I just BACK UP? OMG, I did!" It wasn't expertly executed but I actually stopped myself from running into my buddy's behind AND backed up without anything but the frog kick in reverse. WOW. Then I promptly lost it and couldn't do it again, but "found" it again later in the dive.
I'd read volumes on the subject and all I can say is: stick with it, try to make the change in unchallenging conditions, and understand it's like a bicycle... you can read, explain, even demonstrate to someone all the concepts... but you just gotta do it yourself so your brain connects the signals you get from feedback to the actions you are doing and their end result. Rinse, repeat until you get it.
The one issue is that I have a very soft and flexible hard soled boot; the tops are a thin, lycra like thing, like a light Chuck Taylor from Converse. The force of the fin in a good kick causes the pocket edge to dig into my foot (Through the boot, White's drysuit foot, and thick wool sock). Hurt. I need a more substantial upper on my boots to distribute the force.
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