Eric Sedletzky
Contributor
Last weekend I had the pleasure of diving warmer water down in Southern California.
It was wonderful being able to dive in a one piece 7 mil with a hooded vest for 70 minute dives and not get cold.
We did three dives on this particular dive boat I was on.
I had an opportunity to use three different fins on each dive to do a comparison side by side of three different fins.
Dive one - Hollis F1's
Dive two - Picasso full foot freediving fins (used with socks)
Dive three - Scubapro Jet fins.
The Hollis fins where loaned to me by a friend.
When I splashed for my first dive and after got situated on the way down and on the bottom, my buddy and I decided to ditch the crowds and hit the island walls to look for lobsters. We covered a lot of ground. The F1's were OK for me.
I didn't notice any more power with them than Jets, frog kicking was OK but not as good as I would have hoped. It almost seemed like with the slightly rounded sides they didn't dig in quite like Jet's do. I can't quite put my finger on it but they seemed to slightly lack in any fin kick style I tried. I even tried to do some porpoise kicks and toe kicks. They seemed to fall a little flat even doing those. For scissor kicking it seemed like they were fairly hard to kick with not much payoff.
To tell you the truth I was a little disapointed. I was hoping for more. It's not that they didn't work, they just they didn't work that well.
Freediving fins provided a lot of power but wore me out. My hamstrings are still feeling it. On the second dive we covered an immense amout of ground including a very long sand trip back to the boat looking for halibut, which we didn't see any. The freediving fins provided the most power and thrust but I payed heavily for it. In order to use those I would need to be in way better shape. I would have to do regular pool work with them to stay in shape to use them with scuba gear.
We were using big steel 130's and getting 70 to 75 minutes of dive time and still coming back wiyth 1600 to 1800 PSI.
Both of us use low profile Freedom Plates.
The last dive I used Jets. My buddy uses Jets and he wanted to try the F1's so we traded.
Ah, good 'ol Jets, still my favorite. The best for frog kicking, porpoise kicking, toe flip kicking, and are OK fpor scissor kicking, not great but OK. There are fins that are worse.
Overall, I still come full circle back to Jets. I just think they will hold a record for a very long time as the overall best tried and trued fin of all time.
Besides me doing a fin test, my buddy was doing a drysuit vs wetsuit drag test on his own (I found out later). He started in his DUI drysuit and did a dive, then decided he was too warm and stuffy so decided to go wet for the second and third dives. He was amazed at the added slickness and slipstreaming of a wetsuit vs a drysuit. The drysuit he claimed was like dragging a parachute or a clump of kelp (his words). I wouldn't know, I've never used a bag drysuit but it sounds like it makes sense?
It was wonderful being able to dive in a one piece 7 mil with a hooded vest for 70 minute dives and not get cold.
We did three dives on this particular dive boat I was on.
I had an opportunity to use three different fins on each dive to do a comparison side by side of three different fins.
Dive one - Hollis F1's
Dive two - Picasso full foot freediving fins (used with socks)
Dive three - Scubapro Jet fins.
The Hollis fins where loaned to me by a friend.
When I splashed for my first dive and after got situated on the way down and on the bottom, my buddy and I decided to ditch the crowds and hit the island walls to look for lobsters. We covered a lot of ground. The F1's were OK for me.
I didn't notice any more power with them than Jets, frog kicking was OK but not as good as I would have hoped. It almost seemed like with the slightly rounded sides they didn't dig in quite like Jet's do. I can't quite put my finger on it but they seemed to slightly lack in any fin kick style I tried. I even tried to do some porpoise kicks and toe kicks. They seemed to fall a little flat even doing those. For scissor kicking it seemed like they were fairly hard to kick with not much payoff.
To tell you the truth I was a little disapointed. I was hoping for more. It's not that they didn't work, they just they didn't work that well.
Freediving fins provided a lot of power but wore me out. My hamstrings are still feeling it. On the second dive we covered an immense amout of ground including a very long sand trip back to the boat looking for halibut, which we didn't see any. The freediving fins provided the most power and thrust but I payed heavily for it. In order to use those I would need to be in way better shape. I would have to do regular pool work with them to stay in shape to use them with scuba gear.
We were using big steel 130's and getting 70 to 75 minutes of dive time and still coming back wiyth 1600 to 1800 PSI.
Both of us use low profile Freedom Plates.
The last dive I used Jets. My buddy uses Jets and he wanted to try the F1's so we traded.
Ah, good 'ol Jets, still my favorite. The best for frog kicking, porpoise kicking, toe flip kicking, and are OK fpor scissor kicking, not great but OK. There are fins that are worse.
Overall, I still come full circle back to Jets. I just think they will hold a record for a very long time as the overall best tried and trued fin of all time.
Besides me doing a fin test, my buddy was doing a drysuit vs wetsuit drag test on his own (I found out later). He started in his DUI drysuit and did a dive, then decided he was too warm and stuffy so decided to go wet for the second and third dives. He was amazed at the added slickness and slipstreaming of a wetsuit vs a drysuit. The drysuit he claimed was like dragging a parachute or a clump of kelp (his words). I wouldn't know, I've never used a bag drysuit but it sounds like it makes sense?
