Best Full-Foot Fins on the market?
- Thread starter TheShark1
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dumpsterDiver
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i normally use the black fiberglass ones below:
Competition Fiberglass Fins Black | MAKO Spearguns
These fins (below) are much cheaper and will perform well for scuba. You do need to be in reasonably good shape for these less expensive ones. The fibeglass above can be ordered with soft blades, which are very popular with freedivers.
I have them in medium and beat the hell out of them, my current pair is about 3 years old and has literally several hundreds of miles of swimming on them (in the pool and in the ocean when freediving and scuba). They are all scratched and beat up and still work perfectly. The trailing edge is worn down to a knife edge from a gazillion push offs from the concrete pool wall.
The fins below are VERY similar to the Cressi 3000 LD fins which are popular, but cost considerably more.
Freedive Hunter Freediving Fins | MAKO Spearguns
To the OP, I'm not sure your getting much help in your question.......anyways, if it must be scuba pro full foot then the novas are a good fin. Light and capable of good quality kicks.....as an instructor I hope you find out the limitations of split fins, not a great fin for the most widely used kicks (frog, flutter, modified and back). Just my 2 PSI.
Thank you, and for your concern!!
-By no means do I need to go Scubapro.. that's just what I'm used to hearing is the best.
-And the main instructor I train under uses split fins.. so I'm afraid I might be missing out on some of those styles. I have been reading around the internets that they aren't that great for instructors, though
olphart
Contributor
+1 for Mares Superchannel...YMMV.
Uber Dave
Contributor
I used sell scubapro equipment. I dig most of their dive gear but quite honestly I never cared for their fins and snorkels.
Caveeagle
Contributor
Yea, my wife worked a couple years as a divemaster down in the keys and preferred a pair of cressi full foot longer "free dive" fins just for better feel and swimming efficiency.
Jus this past Feb down in Jupiter, we had a young female DM using a more updated version of those similar cressi fins. FWIW, I also noticed her rig was a very minimalist BP/W, and she managed to get on the boat with pretty much all her gear in a med sized dive bag.
Take a look at AquaLung Express Full Foot fins. They are stif, broad, and fairly long with lots of power. I work a dive boat as DM and use them exclusively until water temperature gets below 70. The Express open heal fins now come standard with great spring straps, and are great fins at a great price.
I used to dive with freediving fins when I was working in the Caribbean and Hawaii. They are great if you can get used to the different kick style. Frog kick, helicopter turns and flutter all work well. I never tried a back kick but I imagine it would be close to impossible. They do have down sides; lugging them around is a pain, they are unwieldy in tight confines, if you have to do any sort of significant giant stride they can snap. I went through 3 pair that way over the years and is eventually the reason I stopped diving them since the boat I dive off of now has about an 8 foot drop. Cost can be about $100 for cheap plastic ones up to eye-watering for carbon fiber with custom molded boots and everything in between.
For non-freediving fins, hands down the best full foot out there are the Mares quatro avanti, or whatever they are calling the 4 channel ones these days. I have over a thousand dives on mine and they are still going strong. Mares discontinued them for a few years in the late 90s/00's, and dive guides I knew were going through a pair of fins every year. They did a limited release of silver ones in about 2005 and we all bought them. Almost every guide on Maui that had a foot size that was offered was swimming around in silver avantis.
I can get deals on a lot of brands, but I happily pay full price for the avantis. I guess that has worked out to about $14/year so far. I'm in need of some new ones as the little pull tabs on the foot pocket ripped off about 2 years ago. One of these days they'll get bad enough I have to replace them...
I still have my open heel Avantis from 1993 too. Can't tell the difference between the old ones and new ones.
-Chris
For non-freediving fins, hands down the best full foot out there are the Mares quatro avanti, or whatever they are calling the 4 channel ones these days. I have over a thousand dives on mine and they are still going strong. Mares discontinued them for a few years in the late 90s/00's, and dive guides I knew were going through a pair of fins every year. They did a limited release of silver ones in about 2005 and we all bought them. Almost every guide on Maui that had a foot size that was offered was swimming around in silver avantis.
I can get deals on a lot of brands, but I happily pay full price for the avantis. I guess that has worked out to about $14/year so far. I'm in need of some new ones as the little pull tabs on the foot pocket ripped off about 2 years ago. One of these days they'll get bad enough I have to replace them...
I still have my open heel Avantis from 1993 too. Can't tell the difference between the old ones and new ones.
-Chris
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