Painting your Fins

[monster]

Anyone else paint the bottom of their fins?

Yup, I have a distinct tooth-like pattern and my name on the bottom of my jetfins. Done with acrylic, and since most of my dives are boat dives, I don't have to redo the paint job too often, probably once every couple hundred dives.

The markings make it easier to spot my fins, although it's not usually a problem where I dive because vis is pretty good year round. I also usually dive in brightly-colored shorts and a rash guard, so telling my jetfins apart from other dive leaders' jetfins (they're popular) isn't a big deal either. Helps maybe at night, though I really mark my fins just for fun, and for personal identification.

Am wondering -- would you know if there's a generic name for this Fusion spray paint? Just in case I can't find Krylon here in the Philippines. Thanks.

 

[monster]

Am wondering -- would you know if there's a generic name for this Fusion spray paint? Just in case I can't find Krylon here in the Philippines. Thanks.

I did manage to find Krylon Fusion, but the guy at the hardware store said it might not do too well if the surface being painted flexes a lot; he recommended rubberized paints, like the ones used to mark the lines on a basketball court.

So I have to ask -- how does the Fusion hold up on your fins? Do you have to re-spray every now and then? Your Apollo BioFins are rubber, too, right, MyDiveLog? They don't make them in graphite, unlike the TwinJets right?

 

[SDAnderson]

For lettering: Sanford Uni-Paint markers. The paint will eventually wear off but remains readable for a long time - I easily get a full season (100+ dives) of mostly boat diving before I touch up the paint during the winter months. Shore divers or those who walk around in their fins might need to touch them up sooner.
http://www.officeworld.com/search_results/static/S102426/

For painting: Rubberize-It rubberized plastic coating. A single coat will provide opaque coverage and is still thin enough that you can flex your fingers. Multiple coats will last a long, long time but makes things stiff.
http://www.homaxproducts.com/catalog/rubberizeit.html

Remember, altering the flexibility of your fins will effect their efficiency in the water - it may look cool having a dolphin painted on them but it won't make you swim like one.

 

[jkennedy]

Anything you paint requires maintainence. Scuba Pro makes the fins in color. My wife has the "electric yellow" Scuba Pro Twin Jets and I follow her on night dives..........

 

[spyder]

The rubberize suggestions are good ones and got me to thinking. To make the application a little easier/cleaner, how about using a latex surgical glove?

1) put on the latex glove
2) put on the dive glove
3) take out hand and blow the surgical glove up with air

This would allow for dipping or painting easily and keep the glove expanded while drying. Probably a potential solution for a non-existent problem but you know how the mind starts turning...

 

[Mr. X]

I like the idea of yellow for dive kit, as it makes it easier to see. However, don't surfers refer to yellow (as in wetsuits) as "yummy yellow" -- because it attracts sharks?!

[Checking out marking material myself, in the UK at least, reflective material is VERY EXPENSIVE & hard to buy is non-tiny, non-huge quantities. Dayglo (strontium aliminate) is cheaper -- but I think somebody mentioned that its no much good.]

 

[Sideband]

What would surfers know? They haven't even figured out that all the fun is 30' straight down. Besides, I think the common thought now is it is the silhouette of them on their board looks a lot like a seal or sealion from below. Unless they are off their board and swimming the color of their suit isn't even visible in the water. That's my take anyway.

Joe

 

[MyDiveLog]

The paint seems to be holding up quite well...the surface cracked a bit, but all of the paint has stayed on after about 80 dives. The Biofins are rubber. I used the "paint pen" sold in a local dive shop for two other pair of fins and that paint has just about worn off after 25 or so dives.

I also saw some reflective tape circles in the "outdoor gear" section of Sports Chalet. The circles have remained stuck to the bottom of the bio fins very nicely. They fell off a pair of relatively new ScubaPro jet fins; I think, being new, they still had a lot of oil in the material used to make the fins (rubber?), despite me washing them with paint remover prior to applying the stickers.

I did manage to find Krylon Fusion, but the guy at the hardware store said it might not do too well if the surface being painted flexes a lot; he recommended rubberized paints, like the ones used to mark the lines on a basketball court.

So I have to ask -- how does the Fusion hold up on your fins? Do you have to re-spray every now and then? Your Apollo BioFins are rubber, too, right, MyDiveLog? They don't make them in graphite, unlike the TwinJets right?

 

[akscubainst]

Got fed up with my wife renting my fins out thinking they were rentals (couldn'thave had anything to do with my habit of throwing them in the pile). Anyway just grabbed red Krylon off the shelf and went at it, no pattern just sprayed red paint on the bottoms. Black TwinJets, that was 3 years ago and it's mostly worn off but you can still see it in the cracks and grooves.

Dave

 

[slingshot]

Following on to SeanQ's comment: I thought about slapping some SOLAS tape onto my fin tips, but in the murky waters here in northern California, the flashing of reflected light from my fins might look like the thrashing of some wounded fish, particularly to those really big fish with pointy teeth that frequent the waters hereabout.