Trusted site for (fin) reviews?

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

short rapid kicks don't work well with long blades, you want a deep steady stroke with those

Google claims apparently you can actually "ripple" a softer blade with a short rapid kick and lose most of the propulsion on that. Oh well the proper kick with those is a full-body dolphin kick anyway. :D
 
Flutter kick and frog kick. Which kick style do you prefer or use most often ? In general, if you mostly flutter kick, get softer flexing fins. Split fins are in this category, but there are also non split fins that are soft and designed for flutter kicking. If you mostly frog kick, get stiffer fins. Everyone says they do both, but it is rarely 50/50. Quattros are generally considered a fin that is good at both, but not great at either.

The people on this board responding to equipment threads lean towards technical or colder diving. The results is frog kicking and stiffer fins being recommended most often.
 
My response will be short. A fin review is only as good as its evaluation criteria. One of the best historical models of fin comparison is the US Navy Experimental Diving Unit 57-page, table-filled report "Comparative evaluation of swim fins" by W. G. Fischer, published in March 1957 and available online at http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/780665.pdf. It begins with what is scientifically measurable, including internal and external dimensions, buoyancy, hardness and stiffness, rather than leaping to subjective "approval" ratings as the decisive factor. I wish all modern fin reviews emulated this approach.

In this document I especially liked the conclusion:

“To have the best suitability for naval use, a swim fin must obviously be as efficient and as comfortable as possible. Although this study shows that these qualities are not found together in many available types, they should not be incompatible.”

This got me thinking why are we still, after all these decades, having fins that are either efficient OR comfortable? Why can we not have fins that are efficient AND comfortable?

I concluded that in order to make efficient AND comfortable fins, you need to make fins differently, and start by building them around individual diver's legs (or casts taken from them), and then work your way to cover other inefficiencies and problems in current fins.

And since other companies were not doing too much to fix this, I set up a company of my own to make this kind of fully custom high-performance diving fins: www.finnfin.fi. I would love to hear what you think of the concept and approach! What else would you want to fix in current diving fins?
 
This got me thinking why are we still, after all these decades, having fins that are either efficient OR comfortable? Why can we not have fins that are efficient AND comfortable?

We can:

Deep 6 Eddy Fin - Fins

F1 -

F1 LT

XT Fins | Dive Rite

And others...

The thing that I would love to see is every manufacturer to publish buoyancy specs on all their fins. And offer their "good" fins in different buoyancy options.

I use 3 different fins, Deep6 Eddy, Hollis F1 LT, and Hollis F1. They are neutral, 1.0# negative, and 2.0# negative, respectively. Which fins I use depends on what gear configuration I am diving and what fin buoyancy I need in order to achieve ideal trim.

I would love it if I could just have 3 pairs of Deep6 Eddy fins, in 3 different buoyancy versions. 1# of fin buoyancy makes a big different in trim. I could possibly try to optimize all my different configurations so that they all yield ideal trim with the same fins, but since I almost never dive with any weight (beyond possibly a steel back plate and a V-weight for my doubles w/drysuit), changing fins to ones with different buoyancy seems easier and better (to me).

Hollis, with their F1 and F1 LT comes closest. If they came out with an F1 Neutral, they would be there. Well, and tighten up the toe box of their foot pocket just a smidge, to make it equal in comfort to the Deep6 fin.

I don't need special shoes for walking/running/hiking that are cast to my actual feet. I don't think I need that for my fins, either.
 
And since other companies were not doing too much to fix this, I set up a company of my own to make this kind of fully custom high-performance diving fins: www.finnfin.fi. I would love to hear what you think of the concept and approach! What else would you want to fix in current diving fins?

Some kicks work best with the ability to roll the ankle side to side (e.g. frog kick, helicopter turn, and back kick). It looks like your foot mold would totally prevent that.

While wearing your fins, can you extend your legs and put the bottoms of the blades (i.e. the soles of your feet) together (or nearly so)? Like this?

cave_diver_open_water_blktop.jpg
 
Some kicks work best with the ability to roll the ankle side to side (e.g. frog kick, helicopter turn, and back kick). It looks like your foot mold would totally prevent that.

While wearing your fins, can you extend your legs and put the bottoms of the blades (i.e. the soles of your feet) together (or nearly so)? Like this?

View attachment 433016
Yes, you can roll the ankles together when the ankle lock is not attached to the foot pocket. I used this frog kick yesterday when I was training in the pool, but unfortunately that was the one thing I did not capture on video... Anyway, I was able to progress on a very nice speed using only minimal range of silt-causing motion, as the stiff foot pocket sole transferred the power very efficiently to the fin blade.

Helicopter turns and back-kicks on the other hand are more difficult as the blades are so streamlined to the diver's direction. But, if a diver would want to have this ability (and compromise gliding drag in exchange), I can always make a foot pocket with less angle correction (since every pair is fully custom from start to finish), so the fins would perform more like the conventional fins on this account.
 
My response will be short. A fin review is only as good as its evaluation criteria. One of the best historical models of fin comparison is the US Navy Experimental Diving Unit 57-page, table-filled report "Comparative evaluation of swim fins" by W. G. Fischer, published in March 1957 and available online at http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/780665.pdf. It begins with what is scientifically measurable, including internal and external dimensions, buoyancy, hardness and stiffness, rather than leaping to subjective "approval" ratings as the decisive factor. I wish all modern fin reviews emulated this approach.
Should I post the Navy study we received thur the FOIA..which was to be classified? Might add some spice? Pages and pages....pages.....and guess who hit the top ?
 
Should I post the Navy study we received thur the FOIA..which was to be classified? Might add some spice? Pages and pages....pages.....and guess who hit the top ?

Uhhh, why would you not?
 

Back
Top Bottom