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ive often wondered that those that own force fins are so vocal on their performance superiority because they cost so much they have to justify it to themselves

ive never had the opportunity to try out a pair to see if they are as good as the makers advertise them to be but i would like to give them a go one day to find out
 
Their top force fin appears to be about as efficient as the Apollo fin. I'm just going by some test results in a Euro mag which are rather sketchy. Nobody else seems to have much regard for them but actual tests which are in the public domain are hard to come by. Dr Jim Grier could not confirm the company's claims. He is about the best that I've seen, an actual professor with scrupulous methods. You all know me, I don't hand out praise everyday and FF is naturally coming up light until they can walk the walk through the test gauntlet and give us something besides blather.
 
ive often wondered that those that own force fins are so vocal on their performance superiority because they cost so much they have to justify it to themselves

ive never had the opportunity to try out a pair to see if they are as good as the makers advertise them to be but i would like to give them a go one day to find out

I would love to try the Force Fin, but that price range is out of my reach.
 
$786.25 base price for Excellerating Force Fin before other options.
Man...I just want a pair not half a dozen.


First that's not the base price. That is the price for the top fin in the line, in the highest end materials, with bungies, comfort insteps and whiskers. There isn't anything you can add to that fin. If you think that price is crazy then you should look at most other fins on the market, few cost more than $8-$12 to make but sell for $150-200. The Excellerator TanDelta that you refer to cost more to make than the Bio-Fin sells retail.

The base price of the ForceFin line is $152 for the Original (available on Scuba.com right now), this fin is comparible with other dive fins. if you are going to compare prices you compare a oranges to oranges, not a Ford with a Rolls-Royce. Sure they are expensive, but for those of us that want it, we get it, do we NEED it, only you can answer that.
 
First that's not the base price. That is the price for the top fin in the line, in the highest end materials, with bungies, comfort insteps and whiskers. There isn't anything you can add to that fin. If you think that price is crazy then you should look at most other fins on the market, few cost more than $8-$12 to make but sell for $150-200. The Excellerator TanDelta that you refer to cost more to make than the Bio-Fin sells retail.

The base price of the ForceFin line is $152 for the Original (available on Scuba.com right now), this fin is comparible with other dive fins. if you are going to compare prices you compare a oranges to oranges, not a Ford with a Rolls-Royce. Sure they are expensive, but for those of us that want it, we get it, do we NEED it, only you can answer that.

Meesier42,

I stand corrected - $786.25 does include the options you mentioned.

It might be a Rolls-Royce, and you probably get plenty of Ohhhhh and Ahhhs for the design and state of the art material. Yeah, it's neat, but I can't afford to swim the Excellerating model. I guess I have to look else where for performance on small budget. Not an easy task in a sport that equate money with performance.
 
$786.25??? Are you kidding me???? Try out a pair of Morfin Natural Delfins for well under $200. You'll be very happy with these fins.

The whiskers, in my opinion, defeat the smoothness and efficiency of the excellerating tan deltas. They actually add resistance to your kick equating to more leg and ankle strain. I think if you dive with whiskers, then dive without (they are removable I believe) you'll be happier without. The snappiness is cool and they will move you but energy is not free. You'll have to kick hard to get it to snap hard.

I've tried a lot of fins, including several models of Force Fins, but can not justify that kind of money for 'performance'. You're only doing a knot or two at best when you dive! And as far as calling Force Fins the Rolls Royce of fins, what on earth do you base that on?? Out of the league Price? Materials? Design? Performance? Warranty? Social Status? I definitely don't see it that way, does anyone else?

By the way, someone mentioned that you couldn't add anything to make these more expensive. You could actually add the Force Wings to these for only $189.95 more. (I wonder if they would credit you for not going with the whiskers?) I mean, why would they put whiskers on them at $93.69 retail instead of Force Wings at $189.95 retail and sell them as the best in the line?? Wouldn't the price of each option alone lead you to believe the Force Wings are at least twice as good as Whiskers??? Confusing to me and I'm not sold that this is the 'Top of the Line' fin if it has Whiskers instead of Force Wings.

Maybe you're just paying a lot more to have Bob Evans personally sign the fins for you!! HA! I'd do more than just sign them for you if you paid me almost 800 bucks for a pair!! I can see it now in black sharpie on your Sapphire Blue Polyurethane or Amethyst Purple Blades..."Dear scuba moron, thanks for shelling out over a months rent for my fins! Hope you like 'em! BFF, Bob" LOL!! This cracks me up just thinking about it! (Please, no offense scuba moron but your screen name kind of cracks me up too!)

In reading through the Force Fin website I see this: (quote) Optional Force Wings (pictured with Speed Pods) can be turned to increase resistance --intensifying your swim workout even more, or to decrease resistance, for specific swim stroke correction or to target specific muscles.

I guess if you're looking for a muscle workout you may want to increase resistance. To me, increasing my resistance in the water is just making more work for me, thereby leading to overexertion and stress. I don't want to dive like that. I am a big fan on MINIMIZING resistance. You'll never get me to give up my Morfins, they have the least resistance of any fin I've ever tried in the water!

$786.25!! How did they come up with that number anyway?! Blows my mind!
 
"Dear scuba moron, thanks for shelling out over a months rent for my fins! Hope you like 'em! BFF, Bob" LOL!! This cracks me up just thinking about it! (Please, no offense scuba moron but your screen name kind of cracks me up too!)

No offense taken. I could hardly keep a straight face as I read your quote. That is some funny stuff.

Well, someone has to pay for R&D. I'll just stick with my good old Avanti Quattros.
 
Meesier42,

I stand corrected - $786.25 does include the options you mentioned.

It might be a Rolls-Royce, and you probably get plenty of Ohhhhh and Ahhhs for the design and state of the art material. Yeah, it's neat, but I can't afford to swim the Excellerating model. I guess I have to look else where for performance on small budget. Not an easy task in a sport that equate money with performance.

If you are looking for performance on a reasonable budget, look into the Original or the Pro ForceFin. Nearly every diver that gives them a fair and open minded test ends up loving them and will never leave them, but very few divers truly give them an open minded test because they have a preconsived notion of how a fin should feel and the ForceFins feel different. As for the testing that I have done, more than once, and most recently with Spearing Magazine, the Pro Force outperformed the Atomic Smoke on the Water with every diver that used them. Is a $20 upgrade really outragous??

The whiskers, in my opinion, defeat the smoothness and efficiency of the excellerating tan deltas. They actually add resistance to your kick equating to more leg and ankle strain. I think if you dive with whiskers, then dive without (they are removable I believe) you'll be happier without. The snappiness is cool and they will move you but energy is not free. You'll have to kick hard to get it to snap hard.

I've tried a lot of fins, including several models of Force Fins, but can not justify that kind of money for 'performance'. You're only doing a knot or two at best when you dive! And as far as calling Force Fins the Rolls Royce of fins, what on earth do you base that on?? Out of the league Price? Materials? Design? Performance? Warranty? Social Status? I definitely don't see it that way, does anyone else?

By the way, someone mentioned that you couldn't add anything to make these more expensive. You could actually add the Force Wings to these for only $189.95 more. (I wonder if they would credit you for not going with the whiskers?) I mean, why would they put whiskers on them at $93.69 retail instead of Force Wings at $189.95 retail and sell them as the best in the line?? Wouldn't the price of each option alone lead you to believe the Force Wings are at least twice as good as Whiskers??? Confusing to me and I'm not sold that this is the 'Top of the Line' fin if it has Whiskers instead of Force Wings.

Maybe you're just paying a lot more to have Bob Evans personally sign the fins for you!! HA! I'd do more than just sign them for you if you paid me almost 800 bucks for a pair!! I can see it now in black sharpie on your Sapphire Blue Polyurethane or Amethyst Purple Blades..."Dear scuba moron, thanks for shelling out over a months rent for my fins! Hope you like 'em! BFF, Bob" LOL!! This cracks me up just thinking about it! (Please, no offense scuba moron but your screen name kind of cracks me up too!)

In reading through the Force Fin website I see this: (quote) Optional Force Wings (pictured with Speed Pods) can be turned to increase resistance --intensifying your swim workout even more, or to decrease resistance, for specific swim stroke correction or to target specific muscles.

I guess if you're looking for a muscle workout you may want to increase resistance. To me, increasing my resistance in the water is just making more work for me, thereby leading to overexertion and stress. I don't want to dive like that. I am a big fan on MINIMIZING resistance. You'll never get me to give up my Morfins, they have the least resistance of any fin I've ever tried in the water!

If you actually knew how to read you would know that ForceWings are a collection of add-ons to the fins. That includes the Whiskers, Speed Pods, and the Sharks Teeth. Since the fin already comes with the Whiskers (what most divers prefer) you have no need to buy anything and buying a second set of Whiskers would be wasteful. And for those of us that have ACTUALLY TRIED THE FINS know removing the Whiskers does not improve the fin at all, infact it is bad for the fin as it removes the water channeling effects that they were put there to create.

The point behind the Quote that you pulled from the website was beautifully taken out of context. Where in fact you are looking at a swim training fin not a scuba fin. In no way was that fin meant to be used for highly efficient distance swimming or scuba diving. The quote you meant to use "Whiskers are designed to give you control of the volume and speed of the water that passes over your fins.
For maximum thrust, adjust Whiskers inward to channel the water from around your body and over the surface of the blade. Water accelerates as it travels between the Whiskers into a focused jetstream, to propel you forward.
For easy kicking over long distances, set Whiskers parallel to one another. This limits the spread of rapidly moving water. Water is guided directly behind you, the blade is stabilized, and efficiency is increased"


as for your comments on the Mor-Fin,
1) if they have such little resistence then why are they so slow? I admit, its rare that I have go do 3+ knots while diving, but a fin that requires me to sprint to reach 1.5 knots, thats a recipe for disaster and downright dangerous
2) why did they copy the exact same outline as the ForceFin Original?
 
All I have to say is that the cost/benefit ratio isn't there. Sure, they may be twice or even three times as efficient as a pair of $100 Dive Rite fins, but they would have to be eight times as efficient as the Dive Rites to make it worth it. No thanks man, I'm going to put the $700 I save and put it towards a set of doubles or something.
 

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