Vintage fins

[David Wilson]

I've just chanced upon the Online Spearfishing Museum website with its illustrations and description of six vintage fins, three of them "Duck Fins", at

Spearfishing Museum

One of the other three fins showcased is the Cressi Rondine "V":



which came with two novel features: elongated blades and, probably uniquely in the case of full-foot fins, "anatomical" left-right foot pockets. These fins appear in an early 1970s Cressi catalogue I own, which also featured the only fins in the world with "personalised" sizes, the long-bladed full-foot Rondine L fins with which Jacques Mayol reached 100 metres while freediving. Other fins in the catalogue included the photogenic full-foot Cressi Rondine Extra in light blue or yellow as well as the Jetfin-like full-foot Cressi Rondine S and open-heel Commando USA.

I'm a big fan of Cressi fins of the early 1970s and I enjoyed snorkelling with them, like so many other holidaymakers of the time, in the Mediterranean. I was saddened when the company later began manufacturing fins in plastic instead of natural rubber.

There's an interesting early history of Rondine fins, available in English, at

Rondine Fins | Luigi Ferraro

It can be fascinating to find out about the personalities behind the development of diving gear, in this case Luigi Ferraro, who not only invented the archetypal Rondine full-foot fin with the angled blade, but also the short-lived Caravelle fins of the early 1960s, which was probably the first fin ever to combine a rubber foot pocket with a detachable plastic blade:

Caravelle Fins | Luigi Ferraro

Other great sources of illustrated information about vintage fins are:

The Skin Diving History site at
Skin Diving History Vintage Fins

and Fabio Vitale's illustrated Italian-language monograph at
http://www.hdsitalia.com/articoli/21_attrezzature.pdf

Hope the above is of interest and a change from the topic of regulators!

 

[Nemrod]

My favorite vintage fin is the UDT and followed by the A66 Voit Vikings but since my last pair of Vikings, NOS, are rotted I am done with true vintage stock rubber goods. The Scuba Pro Jet Fin was voted by a NAVED quorum as being vintage compliant.

The new reproduction UDTs are very nice fins, work very well. I hear tales of some urethane Force Fin UDTs, Mr. Bob may be my hero again if he makes them and I can afford them.

N

 

[mdb]

My favorite vintage fin is the UDT and followed by the A66 Voit Vikings but since my last pair of Vikings, NOS, are rotted I am done with true vintage stock rubber goods. The Scuba Pro Jet Fin was voted by a NAVED quorum as being vintage compliant.

The new reproduction UDTs are very nice fins, work very well. I hear tales of some urethane Force Fin UDTs, Mr. Bob may be my hero again if he makes them and I can afford them.

N

This is a great thread.

I still have my Scuba Pro Jets, Swimaster UDT, Healthways, Mares: Plana, Power Plana, Power Plana Graphite, Avanti, Apollo Prestige, etc.

Of course, I also have a pair of Force Fins: Every diver should.

Next weekend I'll be using a pair of Apollo bio-fin pro XT model with spring straps.

It depends on what you are doing and where you are doing it.

 

[captain]

Power Plana Graphite, not vintage but I love them.

 

[Nemrod]

Another great vintage fin with the cool angle cut blades are the Nemrod Super A Professinal, as I sit here in the Lauderdale airport jump off my bag is packed with Mares Power Plana Graphites, full foot and Nemrod Super A full foot. The Jets had to stay home, to heavy, pity that is. N

 

[DA Aquamaster]

My first pair of fins in the early 1980's was a pair of Power Planas - superb power fins if you had the legs to push them.

 

[captain]

I find the Nemrod Super A's too small and way too flexible. OK for snorkeling on the surface but not scuba. I feel like an old truck stuck in granny gear with them, lots of KPM (kicks per min) but not much forward progress.

 

[David Wilson]

I have to say that I preferred Mares fins the way they were before the plastic revolution. Perhaps the commonest Mares fins seen in the late sixties and early seventies on Italian Mediterranean beaches were "Sea Kings", available in black, blue or orange in a full range of child and adult sizes:



These fins live on, not only on eBay, but also in the form of the Free Sub fins below, which are manufactured nowadays in Turkey:



It looks as though Mares sold, or donated, the Sea King fin moulds to Free Sub.

 

[navychop]

So my 1971 ScubaPro Jet Fins AND regulator are vintage?
Cool.

 

[Nemrod]

My Super A Professionals are stiff as boards, the Mares Plana Graphite is more flexible, at least between my two pairs. On a recent trip the fins I brought just happend to be the Mares Plana Graphite and Nemrod Super A Professionals, both full foot fins. After years of praising the Plana Graphites I suppose this is the first time I have used them as my main fins in a number of years day in and day out. Long story short, I switched to the Super As. The Planas are just kinda floppy. I guess my problem is that I am really, deep down, a Jet Fin guy and nothing else really will ever stack up to them for me, Super Jet, the fin I love to hate and hate to love. I was trying to cut down on weight since I was packing two pairs so brought the Planas instead of the Jets and the Nemrods for their old fashioned look since the Mares Plana Graphites are not vintage, won't make that mistake again.

Super As in use:

I don't really flutter kick much, I use either a frog or modified scissor type kick or combine the two. Rarely do I swim continuosly with a scissor kick so perhaps that explains the difference in perception. I often scull the fins side to side twisting my ankles to keep angle of attack and the Supers As are great at that, reverse my ankle twist and I go backwards without all of the Tom Foolery I often read about. I learned that along time ago from a photograper friend. Makes it easy to move in close to the reef and get a pic of a critter and then back off without touching anything or using my hands to do all of the dog paddling especially if carrying a camera.

N