Dan Volker's Hockey Fin Evaluation

[MichaelMc]

Mk 10/156 is not any regulator, but I think he did answer the core of your question. More money focus on fins then expensive regs. So why the 'preaching to choir' and 'should have been more' response?

I'm not sure I would be happy with any reg/BC, but I am looking at getting the Hockeys, I just would like if they come in smaller that XXL.

As I collect gear, any time I order miscellaneous stuff from DGX it runs at least $100. And I've done that many times over. Thinking of an extra reg set for side-mount, they run several hundred. A side mount BC, several hundred. See where I'm going with this...? Yeah, several hundred for fins is a lot. So is several hundred each for regs or BC. And the fins look so relatively low tech. I mean they're some type of plastic, right? But they are what I use to move around. Normally I'm in decent shape, but the fins are my interface to the water. So if I could spend an extra several days at the gym a week every week, or skip a few DGX orders and get better fins instead... Mmmm.

 

[charlier]

As a guide and instructor that uses freedive fins in SE Asia, I am interested. But a bit skeptical. Unfortunately, Dan Volker cannot answer my questions on scubaboard.

Bob - seriously. When I teach scuba, it’s nice to use a compact fin. It seems that your fins might be the ticket. Although free dive fins have there place in current-rich Indonesia, it’s a big ocean for an alternaitve. As I sit in the airport lounge, boarding for West Papua, a small, compact, and efficient fin would be welcome.

Be skeptical . Mr. Volkner did more to kill Force Fin sales than any other person I met...At some point he changed and started to understand what I did for 40 years...At this point keep in your freediving fins, they look cool and are so long.

Even with Bob’s cryptic response, I am still interested in Hockey fins. Perhaps I might get to visit a Bob during a summer dive trip to lovely Santa Barbara and the Channel Islands

 

[Pnd]

Here’s the problem: I’d like to see someone not named @meesier42 or @TN Traveler make the statement below!

Also hard to sell a $795 pair of fins to JUST the three of us! Especially when you guys seem to get the prototypes and samples for free!

I am neither of the contributors referenced. I also have no relationship with anyone in the dive industry. I have spoken to Bob on the phone a few times, in the course of making orders, and found him to be extremely friendly and quite apparently idealistic (product integrity above all else) and and he made a better product for it. I am not a wealthy person, but my excellerators were a fantastic deal for the quality (as you know). I have switched my usual gear a few times and barely noticed the difference. The one time I was dumb enough to swap fins so someone could try mine out, the difference was huge. That was a sacrifice of epic proportions. I won’t make it again. I can’t imagine going back to the days of sore legs and miserable foot blisters. We dive off the beach every weekend it’s not winter, and the swim to and from our home site would be so much more time consuming and tiring without our fins. On boat dives, we never miss the big critters, and it’s effortless.

Maybe we could find some way to gauge how many people would commit to paying for a pair of hockey fins, to see if there is enough interest to make it worth his while. Bob is working on a big project, an idealist’s project that he might not want to put aside. I wouldn’t blame him. In any case, we are talking about a human being here, and one whose idealistic nature is the backbone of the excellent product we all admire. Can we not thank him for his life’s work by focusing on how he dealt with the industry? When we realized the hockey fins were likely a no-go, my husband picked up excellerators like mine (and loves them). I would buy him a pair of hockey fins and win the wife of the year award anyway.