Aquatech Duo Vortex Fins

[timakempton]

Aquatech Duo Vortex Fins
Just got given a set of these brand new from a friend that got me to rebuild an old first stage for him. He said he has resorted to giving them away because of all the bad reviews on the internet have put off all the customers in his shop. They look the goods a sort of split fin with a hydrofoil arrangement (very high tech) at the tip but apparently they are very slow?? Has anybody tried them? If so is there a technique for using them that gives the performance they claim on the packaging? I will say this for them they are really long and have a massive foot pocket. I take a US size 14 shoe and these things are huge no problem fitting me with 5mm boots on. I will be most interested in trying them out when the warmer weather comes around down here in a couple of months. If I have had no feed back by then I will give a comparison between these and my IST Bora Bora's which I got to replace my ancient US Divers fins.

Tiny Tim

 

[timakempton]

Finally got around to trying these out.... They are great for cruising slowly effort required is next to nothing, but try to accelerate and you go nowhere!!?
It seems that they have a speed limit once you reach that speed (which is a slow cruise) they just don't go any faster.
Overall Don't Buy.
These fins retail at $80 plus so I figure that seeing I have 2 pairs that cost next to nothing I am happy to experiment on them.
So next plan is to try the 2 obvious modifications to them.
Set number 1; I will cut the center bar and the Hydrofoil off there buy making them shorter and converting them to a fairly standard split fin.
(Split Fin haters don't bother commenting, I know I will die......)
Set number 2; I will use some 2 pack epoxy to glue the splits closed and convert them into a solid fin.

I will then try both variations and report back.

 

[danvolker]

You could also dive only with other split fin users, and they will then go about trying to convince you that your splits really are fast

 

[timakempton]

Tried them out in the pool...
Conclusion the split fin idea was a huge failure they were slower and useless...
However the glued version (slits closed with epoxy) were a significant improvement so if you have been caught out by these highly experimental fins I recommend getting some epoxy cement (the flexible rubber kind would be best) and gluing the slits closed. it gives you much more thrust and a much higher top speed and turns a set of slow fins into something much more usable.

 

[SangP]

If you got em free it's worth tinkering around with it however, if you could get rid of them for something better it would certainly be better then patching up this doozer.