Keep your fins!

[kelemvor]

I've usually doffed fins at the ladder or on the line. I don't believe I've ever climbed the ladder with fins still on. That said, I don't doff until I've got a good grip on the ladder (or line), either.

Since I've never tried it I'm just guessing. It seems like climbing a ladder with fins ON in rough seas would be very difficult. You'd be catching all that wave action! I think it would be easy for you to get your feet pushed off the side of the ladder when the back of the boat was on the downstroke.

Any way you do it, boarding a boat in rough seas can be an interesting experience. Personally, I wouldn't want to be close enough to the diver in front of me that it would be possible for them to accidentally fall off and onto my head. I know it's not much to look at but I want to keep my head mostly the way it is. Tank dents would not be appealing, well maybe some of those guys who are into tattoos/piercings/body modifications may disagree.

 

[lowviz]

Swimming to the ladder with your fins on works okay in calm water - no need for a granny line then.

This practise is extremely dangerous in rough seas - a granny line is required and you need to be able to climb the ladder as soon as you reach it. I have been on boats with the center post ladder - you can not climb them in rough seas. ...//...

I will give my opinion and then drop off. Nobody's mind will be changed on this thread, but some really dangerous "information" is being bandied about.

A christmas tree ladder is meant to be mounted and climbed with fins on (and reg in mouth) until you are standing on deck. You grab the ladder firmly with both hands just before the very bottom of its downstroke. You will get footholds on the upstroke whether you planned to or not. One more dunk to get stable and get both feet at the same elevation. How you climb is personal preference.

If you take your fins off on a local "tied-in" boat you will never dive that boat again. Finless is helpless if you get blown off the ladder.

O&O.

 

[Steyr]

I have been on boats with the center post ladder - you can not climb them in rough seas.

Well, clearly you can. We do it all the time. Here in Melbourne, Australia, all the charter boats have center post ladders and we frequently dive in "rough" seas. Rough is a subjective term of course, but what we consider typical conditions often make tourist divers squirm. There is no way the charter operators are prepared to risk divers falling back into rough seas without their fins on, reg in, and wing/BC inflated.

Our charter boats are almost never moored/anchored either. All divers, or at least all buddy groups, must carry and use an SMB. The boats are equipped with hand rails along the side of the hull just above the waterline. For pickup, the boat approaches a diver, cuts the engines and turns side on at the last moment. The divers grab the hand rail (often passing up the SMB to boat crew), pull themselves to the back of the boat and make a grab for the ladder. The ladder is usually bouncing around a bit, but because it's hinged and not fixed in position it moves with the waves, as does the diver. So relative to the diver it's not moving all that much and we can clamber onto it ok. Climbing up the ladder is easy enough. The final step onto the boat can be a bit tricky getting the tip of your fins over the lip of the boat, but by then you're within reach of crew to help if needed.

 

[claymore]

Taking your fins off and putting them over your arm is fine in warm water but in cold water with a dry suit and dry gloves with big wrist rings putting your fins on your arm is not going to work well at all.

 

[KevinNM]

Taking your fins off and putting them over your arm is fine in warm water but in cold water with a dry suit and dry gloves with big wrist rings putting your fins on your arm is not going to work well at all.

I pretty much always dive in a dry suit with wrist rings and I don't have a lot of trouble getting the spring clips on the jets over them.

 

[uncfnp]

And how would you do it with full foot fins on a boat without a christmas tree style ladder?

 

[KevinNM]

I can kind of swim in full gear with bare feet. In boots, not so much.

 

[2airishuman]

And how would you do it with full foot fins on a boat without a christmas tree style ladder?

Both fins under right arm, climb ladder mainly with left arm using right arm only to maintain balance when repositioning left hand.

 

[uncfnp]

Both fins under right arm, climb ladder mainly with left arm using right arm only to maintain balance when repositioning left hand.

Sorry but that sounds like a recipe to fall off the ladder, especially in high seas. At least for me. And then a high likelihood of losing the fins. Have you tried this or just thinking through the possibilities?

 

[clownfishsydney]

I do not think I have ever seen a boat ladder I have not been able to easily climb up with my fins on (apart from one or two small private boats). This includes T type ladders, ladders like steps and H type ladders. I am not young (almost 60) and we dive in rough seas most of the time. On my private boat, I have a T type ladder, very easy to climb with fins on and I insist that no one takes fins off in the water. However the other day someone who had not been on the boat for a long time did this and drifted away, had to throw him a line to pull him back.