Atomic Split Fins vs. Scubapro Jet Fins

[Rick Inman]

I kind of relate the differences to automobile power steering.

I used to own a big old 1967 Chrysler Newport that was as big as the Titanic. It had a huge steering wheel that had such amazing power steering that if you blew on it, the wheel turned and easy as air. Of course, you had to turn it around about five times to make a right turn. To just change lanes, you had to spin the wheel an entire turn. It was easy as pie, but not very "tight".

When I drove my brothers '71 Roadrunner (tricked out for racing with rack and pinion steering), it was like entering another realm. The wheel was small and the turning was tight. One little move on the wheel had the car jumping in the direction of the turn. It was awesome! Talk about control. It was not as "easy" or light as the Newport, but if you wanted accurate control, the Roadrunner's steering had it.

With fins, not everyone is after control. Some prefer easy.

 

[Charlie99]

<snipped all the boring Splits vs. Jets stuff>
Check this out! The old Blades beat both the Atomic Split Fins and the ScubaPro Jet fins, ......

The original US Divers/Aqualung Blades fins rock! Not only do they work well when flutter kicking, their large flat paddle blades excel at frog kicking. They even work very nicely for puttering around a reef just frog-kicking or sculling using only the ankles rather than having to wave my whole legs around like one has to do with the smaller area blades of Jet Fins.


Charlie Allen
(very biased owner/user of original USD Blades)

 

[Pullmyfinger]

I just bought a pair of Jets. My wife own the Atomic liquid blue split fins. I've had a couple of opportunities to try them both out in a pool, back to back.
For me, I prefer the Jets....they feel like a more powerful fin, as opposed to the splits, which don't seem to give me a feeling of much resistance when I fin. There's no doubt that you have to adopt a different type of kick with either fin.
I don't feel that the differences really boil down to a huge speed difference between the two fins.
The difference is mainly in how hard your working, or perceived effort.
For me the Jets were faster, but the splits covered the distance only a little slower....with less effort.
Splits = higher kick rate, smaller range of motion.
Jets= slower kick rate, a little larger range of motion.

The jets grab more water with each stroke and have more thrust.
The splits, the oposite of course, but with less effort. More efficient in this sense.
I noticed while watching my wife fin underwater, that the splits seemed to bend back (or "breaking")quite a bit, with eack stroke.
If I were going to get splits, I'd get the harder, normal compound, not the softer liquid blue one. For me at least.
I won't be buying the splits however. I much prefer the Jets, they get more "traction".
My wife couldn't stand the jets, she didn't like the way they felt. She laughs at the way they look when I'm wearing them. ;-)
It probably really boils down to how you kick more than anything else.
I do find it knid of odd that 3 dive shops that I went into before I bought my Jets all told me to get split fins, that I wouldn't want anything else after I tried a pair (not true):no. Of course splits are a high markup item for a shop, no wonder they push them. (If only the splits pushed me as strong as the shops push the splits.)
I really like my Jets. Now for some spring straps.

Mitch

 

[D_B]

The "big hole" in splits is not there to make it easier to kick them, it makes them more efficient at redirecting the flow, increasing thrust for a given leg movement and lessoning drag , and work if you kick them right ... much like the "holes" in jet fins ... flaps on planes have big holes in them too and for the same reason ..

 

[BuoyantC]

I've said this before, different fins work with different physiologies. That's why so many people love so many types and styles of fins.

As for me, I've dived for years with paddle fins (mostly BladesII), but I was never able to master backwards finning until I switched to TwinJets. The frog kick works fine, and in fact my wife uses the frogkick almost exclusively with her TwinJets. I feel my control is as good with the splits as any fin I've ever used, plus it's easy on a bum knee. What more could I want?

Dennis

 

[blues_diver]

I used the Atomic Split Fins for about 3 years. In the water, they are pretty ok, except when you going against current, it will required a bit more effort.

On the surface, it requires a LOT more kicking effort to move a given distance, unless my kicking style was wrong. One time, we spotted a Whale Shark and was chasing after it to get a closer look. I was kicking like mad to cover the same distance as my buddy, which was using an off the shelf paddle fin....