Can you suggest a pair of split fins for warm water diving?

[pescador775]

It is outrageous to claim that a full foot fin is not suitable for scuba. The tests conducted by Scubalab included well known divers, people with credentials who were all using Scuba during the tests. The results indicated that the full foot paddle fins made by Oceanic and Aeris performed with the top rated open heel split, the Apollo Bio, and outperformed everything else in hand for those particular trials, including a single pair of new Mares long fins, the Matrix, I think it is called. Tests conducted by Jim Grier,( all tests done with Scuba), indicated that full foot fins, of the same model as the open heels tested under the same conditions, always performed better than the open heel fins. The secret here is that some very light and flexible fins perform as well or better than comparable stiff bladed models like the Quattro. The efficiency of these fins does not only extend to all out speed but to maneuverability and air consumption. It is a mistake to assume that a lighter, "travel" fin is "smaller" than a Scuba fin. The best fins like Caribe, Tre, Velocity all run about two feet + , the same as most so called Scuba fins. Speed rules! A fast, flexible fin can also be used for cruising at low speed, that should be obvious. These advantages in performance cannot be explained by physical conditioning or "kick style", they simply cannot.

 

[Torontonian]

Hi.

I'm seeing disagreements in use of full foot fins for scuba. For several of the well touted split fins, the full foot version is much cheaper than the open heel version. Do the full foot version actually perform as well as the open heel version? Because I have a hard time understanding the price difference.

Is the Tusa X-pert zoom full foot fins actually shorter than the open heel version, and have the same angle? The full foot version looks in pictures to be straight rather than the open heel version. The full foot version is also a lot cheaper ($35) than open heel ($129).


Or looking at Scubapro twin speed. The full foot version is $40 while the open heel is $100.

If the full foot fins perform the same, then since I'm doing only warm water diving, I'd rather spend the $40 rather than $100+ for open heel version.

 

[pescador775]

Oh, boy. Look, back in the day, Scuba users of FF fins were in the majority. The main exception was the Churchill fin which was used by the UDT and by paddle boarders. Until the advent of larger, fixed strap fins like the Duckfoot, most divers used FF Cressi Rondine or FF Voit Viking. When serious adjustable strap versions became available there was a trend away from FF and fixed strap. The reasons had to do adjustability and boots. Voit/Swimaster, for example, developed an adjustable strap version of the Duckfoot as did others. Beginning in 1970, the adjustable strap Jetfin dominated the market with many imitators. All along, as the market evolved, there were holdouts in Europe who favored the FF fin. This resulted in a specialty offshoot called the "long fin" favored by freedivers. Meanwhile, the open heel split came on the scene. With the popularity of travel, once again, the lighter, cheaper FF fin came under further engineering development. Surprisingly to some, this full foot design had much reserve capacity to exploit. In fact, it gradually became known that modern FF fins generally perform better than open heel strap fins. This is true with paddle blades and sometimes with split blades, it depends. When selecting a FF split fin it will be necessary to do some research. Even I have trouble keeping up with tests. The dive shops are no help. For example, Scuba Toys advertises the Apollo Uni in association with test results for the Apollo Biofin. That is misleading. Among all the FF splits, the Uni is one of the few that is 20% slower than the strap version. The Tusa FF 9 split is probably a good fin but I can't guarantee it. The angle of the blade has been softened to allow for surface swimming with which FF fins have become associated. If you absolutely have to have a split and you prefer FF, I would suggest the Aeris Duo or FF Twinspeed. If you want a strap fin then the FF 8 looks good. If you can ascertain that the blade length of the FF 9 is the same as the FF 8, then it would probably be a good choice. I'm flying a little blind because I don't know who you are. Your intro says nothing. I would not recommend the same fins to a big, hairy, knuckle cracker as I would a woman. I personally like the FF paddle blade Caribe and Velocity which are as fast as any split. The Mares Plana Avanti Tre would be a good choice for most men, and I use those, too, all while freediving. I can easily see them as Scuba fins but I generally use my Biofins for that. I made the decision to size the FF fins with socks, not boots. This is solely to reduce buoyancy of the feet. I use thick boots for Scuba so the strap type Bio comes into use. However, I would have no problem with carrying just the FF fin on a Scuba jaunt to southern latitudes.

 

[pescador775]

Ok, I did your research for you. The Tusa FF 9 is definitely a top performer, better than the Twinspeed. I agree, it doesn't look like much in the pics but it is the real thing.
http://www.ndsu.nodak.edu/instruct/grier/fins-full-foot.html

 

[Torontonian]

Wow, thanks pescador775.

You are super. Great info. I will go try the full foot Tusa X-pert Zoom split.

Thanks a lot.