sambolino44
Contributor
It's good to have efficient fins, but I try to arrange it so that I don't need to swim a lot. Usually I'm just gently flowing with the current, positioning my body relative to my buddy or the terrain, or maneuvering to get a look at (or photo of) something. I make headway, but it's not like I'm trying to cover a lot of distance in a short amount of time.
The exception to that is the surface swim to get to and from the dive site; sometimes this can be pretty far. I almost always surface swim backwards, and have to look around to see where I'm going. And even though I'm not in a hurry, I don't want to spend all day doing this, so the surface swim is when I do the most sustained power finning. Also, during the dive I usually use the frog kick; the surface swim is when I do the most scissor-kicking.
The other night we had one of the longest drifts - and longest return surface-swims - I've ever done. So I had a lot of time to think about my stroke. When I got my first pair of Force Fins I noticed that they felt different, and I spent a lot of time thinking about how to kick with them. I watched the Force Fin videos (don't drop your knees!), and read the advice on this board. I agonized over whether I should bicycle-kick, keep my legs straight, or something in-between. Over time I got used to them and mostly stopped thinking about it. I can do anything I want with these fins, go fast, go close to the bottom without silting, turn, go backwards, go hard and never get cramps... OK, well, I guess I can't go sideways (see my recent thread in the Basic Scuba Discussions forum), but that doesn't have anything to do do with the fins. Anyway, the point is I stopped worrying about my form, or stroke technique - until the other night.
That's when I noticed that what seems to work the best is if I kick like I'm naked. When I made the same motion I make when I'm just swimming with no fins at all, that's when they seemed to work the best.
If anyone can make a simple thing complicated, I can, and I've known this for a long time. Nevertheless, I was amazed at how this revelation exposed itself after standing right in front of me all this time.
The exception to that is the surface swim to get to and from the dive site; sometimes this can be pretty far. I almost always surface swim backwards, and have to look around to see where I'm going. And even though I'm not in a hurry, I don't want to spend all day doing this, so the surface swim is when I do the most sustained power finning. Also, during the dive I usually use the frog kick; the surface swim is when I do the most scissor-kicking.
The other night we had one of the longest drifts - and longest return surface-swims - I've ever done. So I had a lot of time to think about my stroke. When I got my first pair of Force Fins I noticed that they felt different, and I spent a lot of time thinking about how to kick with them. I watched the Force Fin videos (don't drop your knees!), and read the advice on this board. I agonized over whether I should bicycle-kick, keep my legs straight, or something in-between. Over time I got used to them and mostly stopped thinking about it. I can do anything I want with these fins, go fast, go close to the bottom without silting, turn, go backwards, go hard and never get cramps... OK, well, I guess I can't go sideways (see my recent thread in the Basic Scuba Discussions forum), but that doesn't have anything to do do with the fins. Anyway, the point is I stopped worrying about my form, or stroke technique - until the other night.
That's when I noticed that what seems to work the best is if I kick like I'm naked. When I made the same motion I make when I'm just swimming with no fins at all, that's when they seemed to work the best.
If anyone can make a simple thing complicated, I can, and I've known this for a long time. Nevertheless, I was amazed at how this revelation exposed itself after standing right in front of me all this time.
