Spring straps?

I just got back from 5 days of diving and had a small problem with my fins. I have Cressi Frog Fin Plus fins and the strap just tore a hole above my ankle. It is right where the fin hits my skin when I point the foot, not where the fin sits on my ankle when my foot is neutral.

Would switching to spring straps prevent this? The fin has a kind of bump at the top of it that was doing the rubbing, so I'm wondering if eliminating that will fix the problem. I have short boots I wear with the fins, but my wetsuit is long enough it goes down to my heel- maybe it rides up during the dive and the fins do make bare skin contact, not sure.

Or, can I just cut the curve off the strap? Will that effect their ability to stay on?

My legs are really beat up from the week, between this, belly flopping into the boat (oops...) and kicking the boat on a roll entry (THAT is one hell of a bruise- keep your legs bent). This seems like the one problem that can be solved through gear- the other two I just need to stop being stupid.

I would say get better booties.

My old straps had a tab to help grip the ends while donning/doffing the fins. When on a week long dive vacation towards the end I noticed that the tab started to rub painfully on the back of one of my heels. I had a pair of water shoes for the warmer tropical waters but in retrospect could have used my cold water full booties since the higher boot would have prevented the tab from rubbing. Don't have to worry much about it anymore since I've switched to spring straps and they don't rub even in my tropical boots.

I did buy a generic brand of spring straps for my nephew. It seems he was having trouble with the thick gloves and the straps on his fins while doing beach entries/exits. Fortunately the waves were not very big but he was spending way too much time in the surf zone. He told me that it wasn't necessary for me to buy him the straps. I told him it was for my safety not his and anything to reduce the time in the surf zone was worth the small price.

tomfcrist:

I would say get better booties.

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Makes sense. Spring straps are one of the best $40 I've ever spent, but they may not help with your problem.

2 words for spring straps

Own them!

Spring straps can be a pain when climbing up narrow ladders on pier dives as you can't loosen them up to get them up your arms and out of the road. I would suggest getting better booties


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Not sure I understand your problem, but if your fins accept them, I don't see any reason not to use spring straps. They certainly won't tear any time soon.

It sounds to me like you are saying the top of the rubber fin strap digs in to your achilles area when you point your foot. If this strap is over your booty but is still rubbing and digging in then higher booties won't make much difference because they will not add any more padding.

Spring straps may help however I think you need to find out why it is rubbing first, and I would start by checking the fit of your fins. if they fit snugly then there should not be much movement in them and so the strap should not move much when correctly fitted. If the booty fits snugly it should not be necessary to have the strap too tight which could be another reason it digs in or rubs.

It may just be that the strap itself is very stiff and inflexible so will dig in anyway, in which case a different shaped strap, or a spring strap will help.

I have also found that spring straps take the guesswork out of the strap tightness issue, and I have used them for some time now without any problems of comfort or fins coming off. But if the fins are not a good fit to start with I would not be confident that they will work for you or solve your problem. So I would be inclined to make sure you have eliminated all the other possible causes before rushing off to change to spring straps. - Regards - Phil.

So my booties are the short kind- but it sounds like some people don't think long ones will necessarily help. But that might be one thing to try. My booties do fit me well, and I think my fins fit me well too... I'm not sure how you judge fin fit though- I mean, my booties fit in them, and what else? Is it possible I'm over tightening the straps?

I wore these fins through all my OW pool classes and my first 10 dives and never had this problem, I don't know if it was the salt-water or the repetitive diving that made the issue apparent (we dove 5 days in a row).

So I guess I'll put high boots and spring straps on my Christmas list and hope one of the two things solves the problem.

---------- Post added December 20th, 2013 at 07:32 AM ----------

Phil_C:

It sounds to me like you are saying the top of the rubber fin strap digs in to your achilles area when you point your foot. If this strap is over your booty but is still rubbing and digging in then higher booties won't make much difference because they will not add any more padding.

Spring straps may help however I think you need to find out why it is rubbing first, and I would start by checking the fit of your fins. if they fit snugly then there should not be much movement in them and so the strap should not move much when correctly fitted. If the booty fits snugly it should not be necessary to have the strap too tight which could be another reason it digs in or rubs.

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The top of the strap is over my wetsuit, but not over my boots.
The strap does not move around on my foot when I move the foot side to side, it fits snuggly- but the contour on the top does move against my achilles when I move my foot up and down.

Just a suggestion. It may or may not help. I wear a pair of lycra scuba socks. My feet get chewed up when they are wet all day for several days in a row. They also serve to make getting a wetsuit on easier and also pulling boots on. They may also help in protecting your ankles etc from being rubbed raw. I know they help me. Also, get the spring strips. They are one of the best thing ever invented for Scuba.