Hello everyone. I stumbled, and I mean stumbled (you know how the Internet goes) upon the Finclip this morning. I first found it on YouTube. Based on what I've seen and read, I love it! I'm really looking forward to the product being realized and out on the market! Some background: I've been a certified diver since the summer after graduating high school, clear back in 1974. I'm 61 now and still enjoying my love affair with diving. In 2006 I had both carpal tunnel and cubital tunnel surgery on my right hand/arm. It was a botched surgery! 22 months later I had the same surgeries done again by a different surgeon attempting to undo the damage done by the first surgeon--to no avail. My personal doctor tells me (she conducted the many nerve conductivity tests in my arm) that mine is the worst she has ever seen! From my fingers to my elbow its buzzing all of the time. Movement on my part make it 50 times worse. So donning and doffing my fins is far worse for me than other people. Some time ago I moved from normal fin straps to the strap springs--definite improvement. About 15 months ago Mares came out with their Bungee Fin Straps. They're made from an almost indestructible elastic rubber, plus, they have a fairly large loop attached to the cord right at the back of the heel. I can definitely state that these are the easiest invention yet for allowing one to either put the fins on or remove them. Far easier than anything else I have found! And, I would use these even if I didn't have this malady! Today I found the Finclips and to me, they look that much easier and better again! If they make it to market, I WILL have a pair! I live in Washington state and much of my diving is in cold water--I use a dry suit almost exclusively. I don't have to tell the experienced among you that diving in colder water is just plain physically harder to do than warmer waters. I've always felt that anything (within the limits of economics and safety, of course) that makes my diving easier by virtue of the design or function of the dive gear, is something that will benefit my diving experience by some amount. And if it makes me exert less effort to accomplish the same task, its making my diving just that much safer too. Now that I have this added problem (especially with my excessively dominant right hand) I appreciate things that make my life underwater easier just that much more! In my diving career I have seen both major and minor improvements to the gear just keep marching along, and I am one guy that really likes that. Why when I started diving, BC's were mostly viewed as a luxury item or worse it was some kind of a crutch! And SPG's were totally optional! Why, all you really needed was a Mae West vest--and for emergencies a CO2 cartridge! Within a year or two that had changed where the vests were no longer adequate, and Horse Collar BC's were generally required. But you'd better be careful, that power inflator might just fail when you need it most! In fact, you really should be inflating the BC orally--otherwise you're wasting too much air! I'll bet that anyone here reading these words would not roll over the side of a boat today, in open water, without a proper BCD and some version of a SPG! It's almost hilarious looking back and realizing a lot of the things that were being preached as gospel. Someone posted here earlier something to the effect that there have been mostly just two major improvements in diving equipment--the computer and Nitrox. I mostly agree with that. Most everything else was smaller, almost incremental improvements. But if we take those small improvements as a larger whole and look where we came from, the differences are huge! For me, I'll take them all, or at least try them. If they're safe or safer and they stick around because they work, they all add up to more enjoyable, safer and easier diving! (OK, I'll shut up now, I've walked in here and given my .75 cents worth, gator-mouthed until I've probably made someone mad at me and I sure don't want to start my membership here in that way!) Thanks.
