Scubapro--twin Jet Fin

[Purofino]

Thanks Guam_Diver!

That is a good price. It looks, though not really clear, like those have the swivel strap. I'm not too worried about the shipping since my company in the U.S. will forward them to me at no charge.
I thought I read somewhere that the black were negatively bouyant and the other colors were positively buoyant. I'll have to check since that site you linked says they are all positively buoyant.

Thanks again,
Purofino

 

[gentlegiant]

I can tell you from personal experience that the black twin jets are negative, but not by too much. When my wife and I dove in Jamaica there were no rinse facilities at the dock so when I got back to the hotel I noticed that the freshwater pool was not in use and used it as giant rinse tank. The fins sank to the bottom. BTW...if you can do it without ticking off he hotel management the swimming pool makes a great rinse tank after saltwater dives.

On a different subject I have heard from a couple of different sources that the full foot twin jets are actually faster and more efficient than the heel-strap fins. I guess this has something to do with a better foot-to-fin fit and thus less slop in the finning action. I don't even want to think about diving full-foot fins in water below 78 degrees though.

 

[HERB KING]

I have used the ScubaPro split fins for about a year and a half no and love them. Only one area they seem to fail, when on the surface and on my back they seem not to have much power. But that is the only flaw I can find with them. I was used to using the old ScubaPro Jet fins and it took alot to switch. I still use the jets in certain conditions.
DSAO

 

[DivingDoc]

The comparison I would really like to hear is a direct comparison between the Mares Volos and some of the better splitfins (like SP twinjets or Atomic splitfins or Apollo Biofins or possibly the Oceanic version of splitfins).

I have the SP twinjets and have completed around 17 or 18 dives with them -- all in Cozumel -- 5 in January and 12-13 (13 if you count a shore dive) this June (2 weeks ago). All these dives were drift dives -- mostly effortless drifting with the current. But there were a couple of times when we had to swim up-current -- once at night, when I had no prob staying right behind the divemaster. The other was on the Santa Rosa Wall on a day when there was one heck of a current. This was only our second or third day, and I had not yet discovered or been told that the way to stay out of the heavy current is to stay close to the wall and/or go between the coral heads, where the current is much less. What flubbed us up was that 9 minutes into the dive, my husband suddenly disappeared and my son and myself kept looking around for him. As we looked around, we drifted up current from the rest of the group -- most of which were following the divemaster in between a couple of the coral heads and toward the sandy flats. We were now around 40 feet off the wall and the current was trying to sweep us further out to sea and away from the group. We tried to swim back toward the wall, and were making some headway, but it was quite strenuous. In the end, we decided to surface and signal the boat to pick us up.

After we got up, we found out that my husband started to rise and then pressed what he thought was the deflate button on his inflator hose. But since he was really pressing the inflate button by mistake (new BC), he shot up to the surface and the dive was over. To us it looked like a disappearing act -- one minute he was there and one minute he wasn't.

Anyway -- the reason I am telling you all this is that after we got up, we found out that even the most experienced divers in our group of 25 said that that dive was one of the most difficult they had done. One estimated that the current was running at around 3.0 mph -- so I guess I did OK to make any headway against it with my twinjet fins.

The other thing about this trip was that even though I am a novice diver, I had one of the lower levels of air consumption in the group -- I would end up coming out around 5th or so from the end out of 25 divers. Split fins have been shown to reduce air consumption, but I'm not sure how much that contributed to my personal low consumption. My husband (who has Cressi Frogs) is convinced it's my fins and is out to buy some new ones.

I'd like him to take a look at the Mares Volos and also the Atomic Splitfins as well as the SP Twinjets.

Has anyone directly compared any of these????

ET

 

[tigerdiver]

I bought the black SP Twin Jets (b/c they are a little stiffer) and so far have been impressed. I am new to diving but I remember using my dad's old black U.S. Divers or DACOR Rockets from the late 70's as a kid. Using the flutter kick during my OW cert. my instructor told me to slow the hell down. I thought I was going slow.

However, while diving in Costa Rica, I noticed that it was hard to make headway in some pretty good surge. The DM told me that I may try to switch to blades since I have muscular legs and could get more power out of a full blade fin similar to a free diving fin.

I did a fair amount of research and decided on the twin jets accordingly, but does the DM's advice seem plauisble? Despite the packing problem the large blades pose, will a blade provide more efficient energy transfer than the splits? It seems that flies in the face of most of what I've read? Thoughts?

 

[Scubaroo]

Originally posted by gentlegiant
BTW...if you can do it without ticking off he hotel management the swimming pool makes a great rinse tank after saltwater dives.

erm..... that just means you've swapped salt crystals for chlorine...

 

[MikeMc]

Hi Guam Diver,
Do you live in Guam ? If so.....We are going to Guam in December (As we did last year) and are looking for a dive shop that doesn't charge a fortune boat dives with a dive master - any suggestions ?
Is Guinness sold in Guam now ? If so lets go for a Pint, I'll be at Santa Fe Hotel from 21st.December !
Bye
MIke

 

[sea nmf]

My last dive was only about the fourth time I've used my new fins. I had read that they don't perform well in currents. If that is true, then my old fins REALLY sucked! Because I was able to make headway in a current that I would normally not be able to without tremendous effort and zero enjoyment. It was still work but so much easier.

I may not be able to frog kick or fin backwards, (I don't know how anyway - someday I'll learn) but I really like them, at least compared to my old crappy board fins (two different pair).

 

[Mitch421]

I recently tried out my SP Twin Jets. They were great. I used the typical flutter kick which is what I have always used. The dive master used Jet Fins with the frog kick--very impressive. I had no trouble keeping up with him and I am usually unable to keep up with these younger guys. Also, I was pushing double 104s vs. his single Al80.

These fins are way better than my Mares Quattros. No cramps. Heel strap not constantly falling off. Less energy expended.

One thing I did notice odd about the Twin Jets, however, was that my left foot tended to move a little sideways when I kicked and it may be that I didn't have the fin on straight. I'll see next time.

The SP Jets may be a little too small for my size 13s in a drysuit. The Frogs are just too ugly.

 

[Guam_Diver]

Yup, I'm in Guam....and NO on the Guinness! Not on tap anyway, that I know of. I was in Okinawa recently where I got some on tap, but we paid like $8.50 a pint!!!! Ah, but t'was worth it... About the dive shops.... I've only dove with 2 of the major ones, MDA and Guam Tropical Dive Station (GTDS). I prefer MDA because they seem to cater more to local divers, as opposed to others who cater to tourists. They don't pack their boats like sardine cans like others do. There are a few smaller ones, but I don't know anyone who deals with them.....probably because they're strictly tourist traps for the Japanese.

I see you're at Nagoya...I flew through there on my way back from Okinawa!

Cheers!