Bubblesong
Contributor
I saw this ankle support and thought it can help protect your ankle from getting over-extended on the downstroke of finning.
Pro-Tec Ankle Sleeve Support
Pro-Tec Ankle Sleeve Support
Ankle fatigue
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ScubaJill
Contributor
I have two pairs of fins: one pair of full-foot for travel and warm water diving and one pair for cold water diving that require boots. My travel fins are positively buoyant, but the cold water fins are at least 3-4 pounds negative and I can feel the difference in my trim and when I fin. I'm buying a new pair of cold water fins because I have to change how I fin to prevent ankle and knee pain. That's why I asked how heavy your fins are. You could try a lighter pair and see if you experience the same issues.
I think this is actually the answer. I used to have issues with intermittently stiff and sore ankles associated with flutter kick. I initially addressed this the same way you are pondering, by switching to lighter and more flexible fins. This helped a little...but as pointed out already, softer fins can have less thrust, resulting in more kicking required on your part, which I found didn't help me much over several days in a row of diving. Once I switched to frog kick, though, my ankle problems went away. I also found that stiff fins no longer resulted in any problems, but did lead to better control in the water, so now I actually PREFER stiffer fins. Since frog kick has so many advantages as compared to flutter kick for scuba, there really isn't any reason NOT to try switching to a frog kick.
theodorthiele
Registered
With the risk of being publicly executed for suggesting "fancy" fins - I can really recommend the Mares Volo Race
I don't know what kind of diving you do usually, but for tropical diving without too much gear they are great. I have used the same pair of full-foot fins for the majority of my diving, the two holes on the sides make them convenient to strap to the side of a backpack, and I find that the combination of softness and extra length results in a fin that gives you good speed and acceleration (with a light gear setup) with no or very little ankle strain. - I can do flutter, frog, turns and back-kicks in them (you may have to alter you back-kick technique a bit due to softness), and they have the bonus of being super good in the surface as well. - I may be slightly biased seeing as I have used them for 10 years (out of my 25 years on this planet) and they basically feel like natural extensions of my feet by now.
I consider myself as being in good shape, but my ankles are not the strongest spot on my body, so stiffer fins tend to hurt, while some other soft fins I've tried have felt like not wearing any fins at all - with the Volo you move when you wanna, but it doesn't hurt. I could probably train my ankles to get used to stiffer fins, and I'll probably have to when I start doing more cold-water diving, but I'll probably always keep a pair of Volo full-footers around for all of my tropical trips.
Try them out when finding the fin you like, they come in an open-heel version too, but haven't tried those.
I don't know what kind of diving you do usually, but for tropical diving without too much gear they are great. I have used the same pair of full-foot fins for the majority of my diving, the two holes on the sides make them convenient to strap to the side of a backpack, and I find that the combination of softness and extra length results in a fin that gives you good speed and acceleration (with a light gear setup) with no or very little ankle strain. - I can do flutter, frog, turns and back-kicks in them (you may have to alter you back-kick technique a bit due to softness), and they have the bonus of being super good in the surface as well. - I may be slightly biased seeing as I have used them for 10 years (out of my 25 years on this planet) and they basically feel like natural extensions of my feet by now.
I consider myself as being in good shape, but my ankles are not the strongest spot on my body, so stiffer fins tend to hurt, while some other soft fins I've tried have felt like not wearing any fins at all - with the Volo you move when you wanna, but it doesn't hurt. I could probably train my ankles to get used to stiffer fins, and I'll probably have to when I start doing more cold-water diving, but I'll probably always keep a pair of Volo full-footers around for all of my tropical trips.
Try them out when finding the fin you like, they come in an open-heel version too, but haven't tried those.
Nobody has mentioned this, but stop finning. You're likely passing over thousands of interesting animals during a dive. I've found that I can enjoy a dive even more if I don't cover more ground than a small apartment. I don't kick much doing that.
Stop finning and switch to frog kick are the standard SB answers. For some reason few suggest getting fins that work well as a solution. 
Good fins that can flutter kick are hard to find. Most divers don't actually understand the details of how fins work, and therefore, cannot make good judgements on what to look for when shopping. As a result, the market has become dominated by cosmetic gimmicks and manufacturers catering to the lowest common denominator. As can be expected, there are a lot of products that don't work very well and that can cause issues like you are having if you try to get a reasonable level of performance from them.
Fins that cannot flutter kick well are frog kicked instead. It is an effective workaround as long as you are okay with not going faster than about 1/3 knots. When you are slow, you don't need a good fin and there will be little ankle stress as well. The issue comes in when you actually need to have some speed and mobility in the water.
Feel free to PM me if you want to discuss your fin requirements and the design features to look for to try to find something likely to meet those requirements.
Good fins that can flutter kick are hard to find. Most divers don't actually understand the details of how fins work, and therefore, cannot make good judgements on what to look for when shopping. As a result, the market has become dominated by cosmetic gimmicks and manufacturers catering to the lowest common denominator. As can be expected, there are a lot of products that don't work very well and that can cause issues like you are having if you try to get a reasonable level of performance from them.
Fins that cannot flutter kick well are frog kicked instead. It is an effective workaround as long as you are okay with not going faster than about 1/3 knots. When you are slow, you don't need a good fin and there will be little ankle stress as well. The issue comes in when you actually need to have some speed and mobility in the water.
Feel free to PM me if you want to discuss your fin requirements and the design features to look for to try to find something likely to meet those requirements.
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I switch once in a while to frog kicking and "side kicking" as I like to call it just to switch things up a bit for the muscles. I have used split fins for years as they are good for cramp prevention (though it may be just the potassium pills that have basically eliminated my cramping). Is it at all possible that splits would also put much less pressure on ankles? I have never had any ankle pains with either the splits or my various non-split fins, so I wouldn't know. This is honestly not a "split fin" troll, just curious if anyone has heard of or experienced this.
Stop finning and switch to frog kick are the standard SB answers. For some reason few suggest getting fins that work well as a solution.
Sigh. That is because over 90% of the divers will not, ever, give a damn about "going faster than 1/3 knots" if it means "let's kick silt up everywhere" or "swim in the blue" or "you wont be able to turn properly and/or go backwards to manoeuvre". It has nothing to do with "don't actually understand the details of how fins work, and therefore, cannot make good judgements on what to look for when shopping".
Thanks for all the suggestions! Just a small update: I ended up compromising a bit -- got a pair of Scubapro Go for traveling (they're pretty small/light), switched to predominantly frog kicks, and also started swimming more in the pool for exercise (with fins). Just came back from a trip to Bonaire and no ankle pain so far!
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