vixtor
Contributor
Hello,
This week-end I had the opportunity to borrow&test a pair of black Force Fins Pro during a sea shore dive. I was very curious about them and also had great expectations, considering their reputation.
It was the most disappointing pair of fins I have ever used. During the whole dive, staying near my buddy was a tough experience. He was not going fast at all, but for each two kicks of him (with some cheap Seemann rental fins), he was then having to wait for me, while I was swimming as fast as I was able, just to match him.
I found them to be definitely horrible for any kind of flutter kick. The direct (down) kick bends the fin backwards, with not enough support from the foot pocket. My ankles were very tired from this. The reverse (up) part of the kick was slightly better, as the fin was resting on the sole. Still, the fin felt too soft, too small and extremely underpowered. It wasn't very far away from not having fins at all.
Frog kick was better as the active move is against the sole (the direction that works better for these fins). Unfortunatelly I was still feeling the fact that they are very soft and underpowered. Even in TwinJets (splits) the frog kick works better and is more efficient than in those fins.
The only thing that I liked was turning arround. I was able to rotate myself like a crazy helicopter, in almost no time.
Tired by this low performance and running after my slowly swimming buddy, I have started to swim more like a dolphin, arching my whole body and keeping both legs glued to each other. It was less tiring for the legs, but of course very tiring for the whole body.
I will not even mention the surface swim part, this was the place where, at the end of the dive, hating the way a flutter kick felt into those fins, I used some kind of scissors movement, opening in V and closing my legs, which was slightly more bearable.
While probably higher end Force Fins might perform better, this almost basic version is way behind any other fin that I know. In the end, I have concluded that I would not get these fins even if I would receive them as a gift. The guys from the dive shop that allowed me to test this pair felt the same - they all used this pair once or twice, then dropped it as not confortable enough to be used more than once for fun.
I don't know what I have missed (considering that some people love them), but they didn't match any style of swiming that I use in a confortable manner. I hated this dive enough to think about ending it earlier; I pushed it hoping that I will start to get used to the fins if I insist enough, but this never happened.
This week-end I had the opportunity to borrow&test a pair of black Force Fins Pro during a sea shore dive. I was very curious about them and also had great expectations, considering their reputation.
It was the most disappointing pair of fins I have ever used. During the whole dive, staying near my buddy was a tough experience. He was not going fast at all, but for each two kicks of him (with some cheap Seemann rental fins), he was then having to wait for me, while I was swimming as fast as I was able, just to match him.
I found them to be definitely horrible for any kind of flutter kick. The direct (down) kick bends the fin backwards, with not enough support from the foot pocket. My ankles were very tired from this. The reverse (up) part of the kick was slightly better, as the fin was resting on the sole. Still, the fin felt too soft, too small and extremely underpowered. It wasn't very far away from not having fins at all.
Frog kick was better as the active move is against the sole (the direction that works better for these fins). Unfortunatelly I was still feeling the fact that they are very soft and underpowered. Even in TwinJets (splits) the frog kick works better and is more efficient than in those fins.
The only thing that I liked was turning arround. I was able to rotate myself like a crazy helicopter, in almost no time.
Tired by this low performance and running after my slowly swimming buddy, I have started to swim more like a dolphin, arching my whole body and keeping both legs glued to each other. It was less tiring for the legs, but of course very tiring for the whole body.
I will not even mention the surface swim part, this was the place where, at the end of the dive, hating the way a flutter kick felt into those fins, I used some kind of scissors movement, opening in V and closing my legs, which was slightly more bearable.
While probably higher end Force Fins might perform better, this almost basic version is way behind any other fin that I know. In the end, I have concluded that I would not get these fins even if I would receive them as a gift. The guys from the dive shop that allowed me to test this pair felt the same - they all used this pair once or twice, then dropped it as not confortable enough to be used more than once for fun.
I don't know what I have missed (considering that some people love them), but they didn't match any style of swiming that I use in a confortable manner. I hated this dive enough to think about ending it earlier; I pushed it hoping that I will start to get used to the fins if I insist enough, but this never happened.
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to avoid the general feeling of tired feet), when I walked out of the water I was feeling like after one full day of mountain trecking and my ankles almost hurt.
