Fin Failure

[Isaac-1]

I had a strange thing happen to me last weekend, I took some gear (new Rx Mask, dive computer, etc.) to the swimming pool to test out before going on vacation next week, and just happend to grab a pair of Scubapro Gorilla Seawing fins. These fins are probably 15-17 years old, but were seemingly in fair condition, I had last used them while doing a personal fin comparison between assorted paddle/split fins 3-4 months ago. Anyway I jumped in to try the mask by itself, then decided to see how it would do snorkeling, grabbed the fins, and dropped them into the water, put one on, and when I picked the second one up off the bottom the blade split from the fin pocket. Almost no flexing force was applied, it just tore off, the tear is about 6-7 inches long and smooth almost like it was cut with a sharp knife. So I am wondering if anyone else has had a sudden failure of what seemed to otherwise be a good pair of fins?

Thanks Ike

 

[Damselfish]

When I started diving in 89 I started with a pair of the black Seawings. They started to split like that within a couple weeks - between the different types of materials. According to the shop, SP had a known problem with a batch, basically they were delaminating. Could very well be you got some of those too.

Instead of swapping for another pair of the black I went to the clear Seawings and they lasted longer, but cracked across the blade some years later.

So Seawings weren't big on durability, and I've heard that someplace else. Sitting around unused for all those years probably didn't improve them.

 

[Isaac-1]

This was not on the laminated division, this was straight across the flex notches on the blade.

Ike

 

[Damselfish]

oh, across the flex notches - yes that's where my second failure was. It did it slowly though, not abruptly. I kept hearing a faint clicking noise on every kick of the cracked fin for a number of dives and finally looked closely to see the crack starting to run across the blade.