Anyone use Freediving Fins for Scuba?

[ScottB]

Hello,

Does anyone use longbladed freediving fins for Scuba? If so.. how do you like them.. do they work well?

I am working on a very very minamalist Scuba setup to relax with, as opposed to my technical setup.. and as such I was thinking about possibly using freediving fins since I am getting rid of *alot* of drag.

Thankyou,
Scott

 

[Mike Veitch]

i have used nothing but for the last 3500 dives or so....

love em, they are the ultimate in lazy fins. I use a frog kick or some sort of modified flutter in combination....

I kick once when others have to kick 2 or 3 times....

but a pain to pack! maybe get the ones where the blade can be unattached....

 

[sandjeep]

I have often thought about these types of fins for the lake diving I do. Are they expensive?

 

[Mike Veitch]

$100 for Cressi..... try scubatoys

 

[Doc]

For 95% of my dives (warm water/pretty fish), no other fin could be better.

 

[cjv]

Been using a Picasso Black Team fins both for freediving and scuba. I have a Cressi Gara 3000 also. With my kind of diving the longblades will always fare better than my regular scuba fins. Got mine from subprof (www.subprof.com). The Matrix fins from 20Fathoms are great also. By the way, the Riffe longbladed fins are on sale now for $110 at Spearfishinggear.com. You may check Spearboard for various longblade fins discussions.

Safe diving,

Chris......

 

[DeputyDan]

My AOW instructor in Kona used them.

 

[ScottB]

Wow.. Sound's like I will be moving to longbladed fins..

Any recommendations on stiffness?

 

[sandjeep]

I've looked at some of them and they seem to be all the foot pocket type. I dive a cold lake, even in summer, thats just above 1000'. Does anyone make a bootie type of freediving fin?

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Wow.. Sound's like I will be moving to longbladed fins..

Any recommendations on stiffness?

I like the big fins the best also. Asking an open question about stiffness makes about as much sense as asking "how much weight should I use for the bench press in the gym?" The stiffness depends on your strength, conditioning and this might be correlated somewhat with your weight and size.

Also, people that do a lot of swimming (especially on the surface) will like a softer fin. You should try a few out in a pool if possible.

There is also a big difference in comfort of the foot pocket depending on the shape of your foot and also what type of sock (if any) you will be using. The issue of foot pocket comfort may be the most important issue for you when scuba diving; it is for me. When freediving I want the absolute best fin I can afford even if it is a little uncomfortable (fiberglass). For scuba diving, I feel that you are dragging so much gear around that getting the absolute best fin doesn't matter so much (so I am happy with the Cressi 2000 hf or 3000 LD). You have to try a number of different fins to select the ones that are comfortable. The fit is much more critical than wearing a big dive boot and a typical adjustable open-heel scuba fin.

The big fins are a big pain on a small boat. Usually the only time when I don't use a long fin is when I'm ridding a scooter and the extra hassle of the big fin is not worth the extra efficiency in the water. (Also if I know I'm going inside a wreck, then I will not use the big fins) For scootering I will usually wear the XL Scuba Pro jets which are good fins, but do not allow me to sustain the same crusing speed that I can get with the long fins.