Why do some fins have a hole in the blade tip and some do not

[divezonescuba]

It is truly amazing how many recreational instructors teach their students to throw their fins onto the dock or give them to someone on the dock. They then perpetuate that behavior on board dive boats.

Just last weekend, an instructor from another shop was totally perplexed as to why I would not let my students give him their fins.

 

[Wookie]

It is truly amazing how many recreational instructors teach their students to throw their fins onto the dock or give them to someone on the dock. They then perpetuate that behavior on board dive boats.

Just last weekend, an instructor from another shop was totally perplexed as to why I would not let my students give him their fins.

I can only like this once, but I'll carry it in my heart of hearts forever....

 

[BoltSnap]

I can only like this once, but I'll carry it in my heart of hearts forever....

So in dive-boat/liveaboard etiquette, it isn't proper to hand your fins to the DM standing at the top of the ladder when you are climbing back onto the boat?

(I teach my students to hold on to their fins with mask on and climb the ladder).

 

[scubadada]

During the briefing on some boats, they specifically tell you to remove and hand up your fins. I occasionally do this, especially if it is calm and flat. In general, I simply slip them onto my wrists and board. I find this quicker and easier, particularly when it is rough. In addition, if you happen to be thrown off the ladder, you have your fins. This is easy with open heel fins, not sure what the folks with closed heel fins do. This might be the time to have that hole in the blade tip, to securely clip them off

 

[Anthony A.]

This happened to me once. I handed 1 fin to the DM, the current threw me off the ladder and it took me 15 mins of swimming hard with only 1 fin. Not fun, but im sure it looked funny from the boat. Never again lol

 

[Gradester]

So you guys are telling me that the hole on the fin doesn't affect the performance of the fin at all and that everybody now receives fins with holes in them?

Cause I just got mine and I was like what...

 

[JohnnyC]

The hole only exists so that Navy SEALs can look super badass coming out of the water with their Dräger LAR-V's and MP5's. It's purely so that some publicity weenie can get their picture in the base newspaper and 2 inches on page 7.

hashtagpewpew

Seriously though, they're just for hanging. There is no performance difference that would be remotely detectable to a human.

 

[RyanT]

They are actually so you can create a monkey chain and get your buddy back on the line in current. On a recent dive in a team of three, one of us missed the line in a strong current. She was making very little progress back to the line in the current. So we created a chain, one buddy held the line, I move down to my buddy's fins and held on using the hole in the tip, that gave me as much extension as possible. My other buddy was able to grab my fin and we climbed our way back to the line. In retrospect, that was a good way for the buddy on the line to lose his fins altogether, shoulda just grabbed his ankle. It worked, but don't do that!