58 years old, looking for fins to help with efficiency?

[scubadada]

Hi @Marty Bess

I'm with @boulderjohn but was trying not to offend you on my first reply. I nearly 65 years old, do fairly challenging dives and do all my dives with Dive Rites XTs. Great, powerful fins, good for all kicks. You're as old as think and behave, I've been accused of being a child

 

[EireDiver606]

What @boulderjohn said. Jet fins. Just because they’re stiff doesn’t mean they have to tire or you or make you sore for propulsion. Go at your own speed. They’re only taxing if you have bad technique or are using flutter kick for the whole dive. Actually they’re the best fins for currents and if used properly with actual finning technique, you can overcome your “efficiency” need. I think this is a personal fitness/ finning technique problem and you’re trying to fix it by buying a softer fin per se. Try do a little mobility and light calisthenics with your legs. Only 5 mins a day if you want. Everyone has 5 mins to spare, get at it! Get those legs better!

 

[Joris Vd]

If you are suffering from joint pains, just get a soft fin. There are many decent to good ones out there. Aqualung Stratos is a very soft easy going blade on the knees for example. Mares Wave, Mares Xstream are also pretty soft. Scubapro seawing nova's are popular with alot of older divers as well.

At the risk of putting my hand in a hornet's nest, I'd not recommend any of the technical heavy fins at all. Especially with frog kicking.
Whatever guys say, it's hard on the joints. It's very efficient and good at preventing silting up the place, but it's a kick that's hard on the knees.
Blame it on technique, blame it on whatever you like. Fact is the movement we are making while frog kicking in scuba puts stress on the meniscus.
I love the movement, think it's very useful, but I'm not buying into the argument that it's the superior kick for every person in every situation.

There's a reason many swimmers who do breaststroke in competition get meniscus tears. The circular whiplike movement we make is a disaster on the knee joints.
And when swimming it without scuba atleast we pull the legs in which gives a better angle so there's less stress on the joint.

 

[Chilly_Diver]

I highly recommend the Seawing Nova. Plenty of power for vacation diving, yet easy on the knees and ankles.

 

[tursiops]

What @boulderjohn said. Jet fins. Just because they’re stiff doesn’t mean they have to tire or you or make you sore for propulsion. Go at your own speed. They’re only taxing if you have bad technique or are using flutter kick for the whole dive. Actually they’re the best fins for currents and if used properly with actual finning technique, you can overcome your “efficiency” need. I think this is a personal fitness/ finning technique problem and you’re trying to fix it by buying a softer fin per se. Try do a little mobility and light calisthenics with your legs. Only 5 mins a day if you want. Everyone has 5 mins to spare, get at it! Get those legs better!

Not everyone agrees about how great jet Fins are. They are heavy and they have a weird-shaped foot pocket. Other manufacturers' similar-style fins work just as well but might fit YOUR foot better, and might work out better for YOUR trim.

 

[rongoodman]

And yet, I suffered either a knee sprain or a meniscus tear from a slip ascending a ladder after the first dive on my Palau trip in September and proceeded to do 38 more dives using a frog kick almost exclusively, with Deep 6 Eddy fins. The problem didn't go away, but it didn't get any worse with the additional dives either. (FWIW, I'm 71.)

 

[JackD342]

I love my Mares X-Stream. MSRP is about $200. Efficient, powerful "hinge" design, and slightly positively buoyant, salt or fresh.

Note on split fins: Tend to be heavy, and are very efficient for short flutter kick, less so for long kick. So if mobility is an issue, they might be better than some others for that reason.

 

[outofofficebrb]

At the risk of putting my hand in a hornet's nest, I'd not recommend any of the technical heavy fins at all. Especially with frog kicking.
Whatever guys say, it's hard on the joints. It's very efficient and good at preventing silting up the place, but it's a kick that's hard on the knees.
Blame it on technique, blame it on whatever you like. Fact is the movement we are making while frog kicking in scuba puts stress on the meniscus.
I love the movement, think it's very useful, but I'm not buying into the argument that it's the superior kick for every person in every situation.

There's a reason many swimmers who do breaststroke in competition get meniscus tears. The circular whiplike movement we make is a disaster on the knee joints.
And when swimming it without scuba atleast we pull the legs in which gives a better angle so there's less stress on the joint.

I think a lot of people associate a frog kick to be exactly that - a frog kick that they know from breaststroke. In execution, it is very different for me. I have a video of me kicking like this next to a diver flutter/scissor kicking next to me but I am unable to share the video because of Facebook privacy from another user that shared the video.

 

[Hank49]

I guess it’s how you define efficiency. Free divers use these long carbon fiber blades because they can go farther (deeper) per kick, using less oxygen and energy per kick.
An average day free dive spearing for me consists of at least a couple miles swimming and diving. Short fins of any design can’t perform at that level of efficiency. I’m 63 and have had some knee pains now and then. I use long fins for scuba and free diving.

 

[scubadada]

Hi @Hank49

Sorry, but, do you have a personal interest in these fins or is it purely experiential?