Flippers?!..lol

[DevonDiver]

Cousteau called them flippers.... if it's good enough for him...

 

[CuNanoTube]

I call my dive fins fins, and my full foot fins flippers on occasion to differentiate them.

 

[mk706]

Its almost the same situation as when nondivers mistakingly call air tanks..."oxygen tanks" .

air tank? kinda like when divers assume all diving cylinders contain air.


flippers when they're on my feet, fins when they're in the closet.

 

[Bedros A]

air tank? kinda like when divers assume all diving cylinders contain air.

well most cylinders do....especially since the majority of divers are recreational divers!

 

[sam1]

In Sea Hunt (late 50s, early 60s) Mike Nelson, et al., call them flippers.

 

[DevonDiver]

Its almost the same situation as when nondivers mistakingly call air tanks..."oxygen tanks"

Not really...

A tank containing air and a tank containing oxygen are two very different things. Non-divers are generally confused about what we put into the tanks.

Same for googles and masks. A google doesn't have a nose pocket. A mask does. Two very different things.

Fins and flippers are the same thing - it's just a different word. It makes no difference.

In this case, its obvious why the divers make fun of the beginners who make this mistake. but its not so clear cut when it comes to fins and flippers Any input?

Snobbery? Clique? What other reason is there? It's just a word.... and to be honest... most of us divers know exactly what people mean when they say flippers. So why do some feel the need to belittle people? It isn't a critical term, or a mis-identification of an item. It has no safety issues.

I don't play ego games like that with my students. They can call them flippers if they want.

 

[50Fathom]

I recall reading, (here I believe), that fish, (IE: cold-blooded non-mammals), have "fins", but mammals, like Dolphins and whales, have "flippers".

Since we're mammals swimming underwater, technically, we have "flippers", not fins.

I dunno, but it sounds good to me. (And of course, the fun from using the term "flippers" and watching OCD divers wig out about it. )

 

[warmwaterturner]

This should be fun.....
Definitions of fin (n)
fin [ fin ]
part of fish used for motion: a flexible organ, sometimes paddle-shaped or fan-shaped, extending from the body of a fish or other water animal and helping in balance and propulsion

flip·per (flpr)
n.
1. A wide flat limb, as of a seal, whale, or other aquatic mammal, adapted for swimming.
2. A rubber covering for the foot having a flat flexible portion that widens as it extends forward from the toes, used in swimming and diving. Also called fin1.
3. A flat lever in a pinball machine, used to hit the ball so it stays in play.

 

[Blackwood]

Since I'm neither a fish nor an aquatic mammal, I'll henceforth call them foot-extending-diver-propulsion-devices, or FEDPDs.

Nice ring to it.

 

[DevonDiver]

Prostetic Rigid Intertial Current Kickers

Ballistic Accelerating Lower Leg System

Developed Operations Propulsion Enhancements