Fin basics

[Mergulhador do Delray]

Thanks for everyone's input.

I went to the LDS in S. Fla. I use when I am here and showed them the problem. Both the video and the Aqua Lung fins. The general comment was nice fins for the BHB, snorkeling, etc. but not really a good choice for much else. Ended up walking out with a pair of Avanti Quattros to try tomorrow.

 

[gqllc007]

Avanti Quattros have been around for a long time....my wife dives them...they should be better fin for your purpose...will they let you return/exchange them if you aren't happy with them?

 

[Mergulhador do Delray]

Avanti Quattros have been around for a long time....my wife dives them...they should be better fin for your purpose...will they let you return/exchange them if you aren't happy with them?

Yes. They have a generous return policy. And I have spent a lot of money with them in the past month

I asked a couple of the guys about the Seawings and the comments were all the same. They used to be good, but they changed the manufacturing and they are now susceptible to breaking.

i hope to report back tomorrow that these are a huge improvement. Being tested on the Spiegel.

 

[Jafo19D]

I’m a new diver and it seems my air consumption got much better soon after OW when I got my SP Nova Sea Wings. But who knows if that’s correlation or causation because while this was going on my buoyancy was also improving.

i do feel that they are more efficient than the fins the DCs were lending me.

 

[johndiver999]

Thanks for everyone's input.

I went to the LDS in S. Fla. I use when I am here and showed them the problem. Both the video and the Aqua Lung fins. The general comment was nice fins for the BHB, snorkeling, etc. but not really a good choice for much else. Ended up walking out with a pair of Avanti Quattros to try tomorrow.

Those are good fins, a lot of serious divers use those as well.

 

[lowwall]

Since you are diving off a boat, you can try Mares SuperChannel full foots. I've used them for years and they can provide a lot of power. Scuba Diving magazine used to do instrumented tests of fins and the SuperChannel full foots scored the highest speed and greatest thrust of any fin they ever tested. That included all the usual scuba fins mentioned on this thread, but notably does not include freediving fins.

Here's the slalom course test results from their big fin test of 2007 at 18 New Fins - Scuba Diving Magazine . Unlike the top speed and thrust test results, slalom test results are not comparable year over year, but this gives you an idea of just how good these fins are if you insist on fighting currents

"Slalom Course

Six test divers, using a flutter kick, followed a zig-zag course laid out in the sand in approximately 10 feet of water. While on the course, divers clutched either weight belts or BC straps to ensure all maneuvering power was generated by the fins. Divers swam two round-trip circuits per fin, recording their course times with digital stopwatches. The fastest time for each fin was taken from each diver, then averaged, to come up with the following course times.

Average Course Time (In Seconds)

Open-Heels

64 Apollo Sports Bio-Fin Pro C-Series
65 Aeris Mako
66 Atomic Aquatic Smoke on the Water
67 Oceanic Viper
Aqua Lung Blades 2 Flex
69 Oceanic Vortex V-8
Mares Quattro Excel
70 Mor-fin Natural Delfin
71 Mares Avanti Superchannel
72 Cressi-sub Reaction
Scubapro Twin Jet Max
74 Scubapro Kinetix
H2Odyssey Eclipse
75 APS Mantaray
77 Aquatec Duo-Vortex

Full-Foots

55 Mares Avanti Superchannel
59 Oceanic Caribe X
62 Mares Avanti Excel"

 

[Nemrod]

That was a good article when it came out and many of the fins are still made today or a variation thereof. But Novas, Eddys, Slipstreams are not there nor are any free dive fin (commonly used as per the OP in many areas by scuba divers). Additionally, as noted, most more experienced divers do not use the flutter kick as their primary kick style therefore a test which uses only the flutter kick is an incomplete and misleading test. And the testing should also include maneuvering (backing, turning, stopping) to be truly useful.

OP, please let us know how the Mares Avanti Quattros did for you? I hope they do well for you.

James

 

[lowwall]

That was a good article when it came out and many of the fins are still made today or a variation thereof. But Novas, Eddys, Slipstreams are not there nor are any free dive fin (commonly used as per the OP in many areas by scuba divers). Additionally, as noted, most more experienced divers do not use the flutter kick as their primary kick style therefore a test which uses only the flutter kick is an incomplete and misleading test. And the testing should also include maneuvering (backing, turning, stopping) to be truly useful.

They tested many other fins in other years using the same protocols, the full-foot Superchannels were their overall best. I'm going to put together a separate post with all the results.

Flutter kick was the appropriate kick because they were looking for top speed and thrust. Which is also what you want while fighting current. Frog kick is nice for minimizing effort and avoiding disturbing the bottom, but that's not what was being tested. As to maneuvering, look at the slalom times. That covers acceleration and top speed, but is primarily about control in turns.

 

[lowwall]

Flutter kick was the appropriate kick because they were looking for top speed and thrust. Which is also what you want while fighting current. Frog kick is nice for minimizing effort and avoiding disturbing the bottom, but that's not what was being tested.

In a 2003 test of full-foot fins, they did test both flutter and frog kick. The finishing order was very similar with the top three being identical for each kick. The frog kick speed was 0.6 - 1.0mph slower than the flutter kick for each fin, with 7 of the 12 fins tested being 0.8mph slower.

Light Speed - Scuba Diving Magazine

 

[Nemrod]

That is all good info for comparative purpose but still, the SP Jet Fin, SP Go Sport Fin, Deeps Six Eddy Fin, OMS Slipstream, Mares Avanti Quattro were not included nor were a host of popular and currently produced fins included and many of the fins in the test are NLA. Slalom would not include backing up, helicopter turns or holding position, not sure what slalom would test other than a diver's ability to zig zag about? I would certainly expect the frog kick to be slower than a flutter kick. Basically, those tests are so out of date as to be marginal use. For example:


Seems things have changed since the testing in 2004. Well, one thing has not changed, split fins are not tech popular and seem to be loosing in popularity, blade fins seem more popular than ever, Mares Quattros are everywhere and travel size fins are on the rise.

James