JCAT:
I recently dove with someone who had them. First time I had ever seen these type of fins with attachments, that looked like upside down devil horns. Sorry I didn't get a chance to ask him anything, but did observe that, although he seemed to move quickly in the water, he was having to work for it. A very wide flutter kick.
That's really odd, I dive them exclusively, and none required any substaintial effort, nor to they require a wide kick. The way to use them is with a real freestyle flutter kick, maybe 12 -16 inches at most. The type of kick is completely different than a standard paddle fin where the power comes from you thigh/knee joint, the force fin uses the power of the thigh/hip joint. There is very little or no work involved to make them produce big speed, not to mention I have to ability to scull and maintain position (great for camera work) and even move backward.
I have 2 pairs right now, 1) Extra Force Tan Delta, and 2) the new Military SD-1 fin (only available to military). I love them both, Bob Evans really hit on something, its too bad that most of the diving world isn't ready for them. I had a pair of Pro Model Force Fin (these are the ones that I used for the below testing), but a friend borrowed them for a dive never gave them back.
I have done multiple test with them, against the Dacor Black Tigers, and Apollo splitfin, Atomic Splits, and Mares Plana Avanti Quattro. The force fin won in every category that I came up with (speed, air consumption, comfort, and hovering abilty).
Speed was easy to measure, simply kicking down a 50meter pool underwater for time, did this over about 3 days, in different orders to make sure that previous efforts were not affecting my results.
Air Consumption was not as easy, I did a series of dives at the same site, measuring time to use 2000psi. I know this is very subjective, as there are so many environmental conditions that will affect air comsumption, but it was the best I could do, I also did my best to ensure that the dives were as similar in speed and profile as I could. The FF topped everything, but the Apollo Bio-fin was really close, the others were not good at all. I want to quote times for you, but I don't remember for sure, I want to say it was 46 min with FF and 36 min with Black Tigers.
Hovering Ability was even more subjective, what I did, was to try and see how easy it was to keep myself in position while using my camera. I found the only fins that I could effectively scull with were the FF and the Plana Avanti. The others were completely ineffective at anything other than foward.
Comfort is unmatched, never once have I had a foot cramp, hot spot, blister or anything in FF.
The big problem with the Force Fins is that they are $$$. The basic fin in the Standard or Pro urethane are fantastic fins and from my testing were better than the other fins, but still MRSP is $150-180, comparible with other fins on the market. But the high end fins, ie the Extra Force Tan Delta and the Excellerating Force Fin are $350-$700. But for me, they are absolutely worth the money as I have been diving the exact same fin with no replacement part (no straps or buckles) for 10 years now with anywhere from 50-150 dives a year. I take great piece of mind knowing that I don't need spare parts and failures are just short of impossible.
For a more objective review of the fins check this out,
Navy Fin Study, I know that its on Force Fins Website, but as I said I have spoken to Bob Evans about this and he assures me that this information is straight from the FIOA (freedom of information act) and that he didn't muck with the information. In fact he was anoyned that they wouldn't release the names and models of the other fins as it would be highly prejudical to the other fins.
I hope that you found my review helpful, I have spoken with Bob Evans but I don't work for them, not sponsored by them and have no interest in Force Fin, except that I believe that they are the best fins on the market. Feel free to PM me and I talk for days about them.
