Has anyone tried Aqua Lung Hot Shot travel fins?

[johnnyscience]

The Sling Shots have caught my eye also... they look really cool & its nice to hear they out perform a lot of other fins.

Anyone have an exact length & weight on the Sling Shots? AL doesnt have it listed on their site. The Hot shots are 20.9" but anyone know the weight?

Do the Sling Shots accept boots?

 

[kfilly]

Johnnyscience,

I have an XL pair of Slingshot fins. They are roughly 27" long. They also weigh about five and a half pounds according to Aqua Lung's product weight calculator (hidden on their website). They do accept boots, and they are very comfortable. Additionally, the Slingshots generate a lot of thrust with very little effort. I love those fins but they can be bulky for air travel which is why I also purchased a pair of Hot Shot fins. To answer your last question, according to the Aqua Lung's website, the Hot Shot fins weigh roughly three and half pounds. I just got my pair tonight. They are super comfortable, but I won't be able to test them until February. Sorry, my review of these will have to wait until then as the cold Wisconsin water requires some type of thermal protection.

kfilly

 

[johnnyscience]

Johnnyscience,

I have an XL pair of Slingshot fins. They are roughly 27" long. They also weigh about five and a half pounds according to Aqua Lung's product weight calculator (hidden on their website). They do accept boots, and they are very comfortable. Additionally, the Slingshots generate a lot of thrust with very little effort. I love those fins but they can be bulky for air travel which is why I also purchased a pair of Hot Shot fins. To answer your last question, according to the Aqua Lung's website, the Hot Shot fins weigh roughly three and half pounds. I just got my pair tonight. They are super comfortable, but I won't be able to test them until February. Sorry, my review of these will have to wait until then as the cold Wisconsin water requires some type of thermal protection.

kfilly

I would probably need a large, I wear size 10 shoes.

Those sound almost identical to the Atomic Split fins, but are actually 2 lbs lighter!

I am going to be buying a Dive Caddy when they come out with gen 2 soon, so I dont think I'll have an issue either way.

A lot of people have been raving about these fins. They even say on #1 that they are almost identical to split fins...

 

[goboilers]

Understand this is a pretty old thread, but it's the first one (practically the only one) that popped up on google when I was looking for reviews, thus I thought I'd pass on my thoughts on this fin which I just used for the first time.

Overall: Loved it!! While I'm no expert on fins, I do consider myself an expert on traveling, and traveling with my old enormous fins was getting to be too much. Thus I specifically wanted a "travel" fin. At 22", this fits the bill. Not to mention, not having to travel with my boots was awesome, as that's just one more thing that takes up space...

While diving, they easily got me from point A to point B, and I didn't notice much difference in ease of use when compared to my old fins.

THAT SAID: there's a couple things you should probably be aware of when considering these (not deal-breakers, but things to keep in mind).

- Aqualung seems to brag about these fins' ability to be used with or without a boot. I agree. What they don't really mention, though, is that with the 3 (or 4?) sizes this fin comes in, you either buy a size that fits your foot WITH a boot or you buy a size that fits your foot WITHOUT a boot. You can't have both... The fin has a non-adjustable elastic ankle strap.

- Along those lines, I love me some shore-diving, and this was my primary entry on my last vacation. No boot made for some REALLY unpleasant entries and exits... If my wife was diving with these fins, they would probably still be floating off the coast of Bonaire.

- Also, without the boot, it seems that my ankles aren't quite as strong as I've been made to believe. Turns out those boots add a good deal of strength and stability and my ankles were pretty sore after a couple days of diving. This, however, is just a growing pain, and the benefit is that I think my ankles are stronger now. (side note: if I were a better diver, I probably wouldn't be kicking so much, so take this comment with a grain of salt)

- Finally, and this is minor, but worth mentioning: USE SUNSCREEN!! My pristine white ankles took a major beating by the sun and made things like shoes, sandals, and showering very uncomfortable...

Long story short, I loved these fins. I'm thinking most of my issues might be solved by finding a good pair of neoprene socks (assuming these exist) or perhaps a pair of those high-end socks that have little treads/soles on them. Just something to protect the foot for entries/exits on shore dives.

Hope this helps those folks out there looking for the same answers I was just a few weeks ago!!

 

[brucetrinity]

Yup! .... I love mine. They are almost as good as the Slingshot (a tiny bit less thrust in a swift current). I normally dive full-foot fins to avoid the weight issue but the Hotshots are MUCH easier to remove (and hang onto) when getting back in a boat.