NOAA prohibits split fins

[pilot fish]

NOAA Nixes Split Fins : The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Diving Safety Board has just issued a report about the USCG incident last August when two Coast Guard divers perished during an ice dive near Barrow, Alaska. Part of the report: prohibits the use of split fins.

Why? Have they been found to be ineffective against strong current, or not able to propel tech divers forward enough with a lot of heavy gear? Has a fatal split fin flaw been found ?

 

[Soggy]

Do you have a citation?

My guess would be entanglement hazard as a reason, but who knows.

 

[pilot fish]

Do you have a citation?

My guess would be entanglement hazard as a reason, but who knows.

Not sure what you mean by citation? I can tell you that this is being report in one of the Dive mags.

 

[Soggy]

Not sure what you mean by citation? I can tell you that this is being report in one of the Dive mags.

I wasn't using an obscure definition of citation
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/citation

Please provide information referencing your source. Where did this information come from, who authored it, when was it written, etc, etc...

 

[mynamehere]

this is an article google found for me
http://www.blueplanetdivers.org/archives/news/

 

[Geoff_H]

Soggy, a very quick Google lead me to here

http://www.ndc.noaa.gov/newsltr/ts_07march.pdf

NOAA DIVING SAFETY BOARD
RECOMMENDED ACTIONS RELATED TO THE USCGC HEALY DIVING INCIDENT

.....
6. Prohibit the use of split fins for diving when heavy loads or high currents may be encountered or when wearing a drysuit.

 

[D_B]

Not sure what you mean by citation? I can tell you that this is being report in one of the Dive mags.

nice blurb .. looks as good as the ones in the Enquirer

 

[Gene_Hobbs]

NOAA Nixes Split Fins : The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Diving Safety Board has just issued a report about the USCG incident last August when two Coast Guard divers perished during an ice dive near Barrow, Alaska. Part of the report: prohibits the use of split fins.

Why? Have they been found to be ineffective against strong current, or not able to propel tech divers forward enough with a lot of heavy gear? Has a fatal split fin flaw been found ?

I would not be surprised...

Evaluation of fins used in underwater swimming.
Pendergast et. al. Undersea Hyperb Med. 2003 Spring;30(1):57-73.
RRR ID: 3936

In talking to Dave about this project, he also looked at force fins and split fins with a "bicycle" type kick. The different kick did show an improved efficiency in those fins. As a bicycle kick is not a proper or even efficient method, it is not reported in the article above. The paper above was tested with a proper flutter kick. (Another interesting note was that you could improve VO2 efficiency with split fins by using duct tape on the split.)

 

[fisherdvm]

NOAA Nixes Split Fins : The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Diving Safety Board has just issued a report about the USCG incident last August when two Coast Guard divers perished during an ice dive near Barrow, Alaska. Part of the report: prohibits the use of split fins.

Why? Have they been found to be ineffective against strong current, or not able to propel tech divers forward enough with a lot of heavy gear? Has a fatal split fin flaw been found ?

Wonder if you can duct tape the split, and so they work better in current? It's about time that they make split fins with zippers. You can zip them up underwater when you need to?

I need to get a patent on zipperred split fins.

 

[UndrWatrDan]

In the March 2007 edition of Topside, the The NDP Newsletter for NOAA Diving Supervisors and Divers I found the following under NOAA DIVING SAFETY BOARD
RECOMMENDED ACTIONS RELATED TO THE USCGC HEALY DIVING INCIDENT

7. Prohibit the use of split fins for diving when heavy loads or high currents may be encountered or when wearing a drysuit.

Here is the link: http://www.ndc.noaa.gov/newsltr/ts_07march.pdf