Having only tried Jet fins since I took up Scuba (I tried several other paddle type fins before that) I have been meaning to try a pair of split fins to see what all the "hype" is about that surrounds them.
First here is my bias:
1) I like Jets and know the arguments for them.
2) I have heard the arguments against split fins.
3) I already own Jets (5 pair + 1 pair of Turtles) so I'm financially bound to Jet fins as well...
Today my buddy "Pops" and I dove on Mala Warf in Lahaina. Total bottom time 72 minutes, max depth 31ft, average depth was 21 ft. Current seemed to be pretty normal for the area and was running 1.5 ft per second at it's strongest point (Sorry I don't know how that converts to knots)
The dive is around a lot of fallen concrete blocks and twisted iron rails, etc.. Nice coral formations and good habitat for lots of fish.
I asked "Pops" if I could borrow his split fins for the day to try them out (he has another pair of full foot split fins) and he was nice enough to let me use his Scubapro Twin Jet fins (the Gray variety, slightly positively bouyant) while he used his full foot fins (which are too small for me and the black negatively bouyant variety)
Being at the mouth of a river the vis at this site is normally 15-30 ft and frequently worse. Today the vis was the best either of us had ever seen at this site, with most of the dive in the 50-60ft range.
One of the reasons why I wanted to try his split fins on this dive is because the warf is a perfect place to test the agility and finesse of fins. I normally use a wide variety of kick styles on this site. Frog for going around the perimeter. Modified flutter going through narrow "channels" of debris. Helicopter turns to reposition in the current and change directions in the confined areas (no overhead, just lots of obstructions) and this is the site that forced me to learn a backward kick to avoid being pushed into sea urchins by the current while looking at things and trying not to touch and stir up the large amounts of silt sitting on everything.
Since I knew the area was designed as a "Jet" fin course according to all the reports and comments I've come across on SB I figured this would be a good place to run the Twin Jets through their "paces" and see how they compared.
On the initial surface swim I noticed what everyone seems to point out, it feels like you're not wearing any fins at all. I did notice a slight foot cramp but that was because the fins were one size too small for my feet (I was wearing the thinnest boots I had available) but the cramps went away and didn't seem to present much in the way of problems for the rest of the dive. swimming out went quite fast and it did appear that we were moving quite quickly. Normally on a surface swim I do a frog kick on my back, and while I was able to move along at a decent pace with a frog kick, switching to a short flutter stroke really made me move. This is one dive where that is nice as you cross a boat ramp and want to get out of the way of the boat traffic in the area as quickly as possible. We got to our descent point (about a 100 yard swim from the entry point) and dropped down. I anchored our flag and we started swimming around the old warf on the "up current" side.
I tested out my frog kick, and it did work acceptably well, though I had difficulty making fine adjustments to it. A helicopter turn resulted in the same response. It worked, but took about twice as many kicks to complete and it was slower getting started. Once going it was fine though. It took me several trys to get a backward kick out of them and even then it was very weak. Normally it takes me 1-2 strokes with my jets to bring myself to a stop, then begin reversing. With the Twin Jets it took nearly 6 strokes to go from forward to reverse "gear" and I moved with much less determination and speed in reverse. But it did work. The modified flutter kick was wonderful and I found to be much easier with the Twin Jets.
During a recent storm the surge had shifted the sand a great deal and we were able to find numerous old bottles littering the bottom. We found 8 total - including 3 old coke bottles (When they still had smooth bottoms, not sure of the date though) 2 unidentified bottles, but neither had the modern "scalloping" on the bottom used in assembly lines. 2 of them were marked TH (Territory of Hawaii) which meant pre 60's and the last was an old Howdy Orange soda Bottle (we think early 1930's) All in all a good dive for finding bottles
We moved to the structure itself, which is where the current picks up - I found myself finning much more frequently and having more trouble than usual, so I switched to a Modified flutter kick in order to make headway into the current (no choice and for short distances in this area)
At the end of the dive I had used 200 psi more than Pops, which is a little larger margin than normal - we are normally within 100 psi of each other. And my SAC was quite a bit higher than the last few times on the same dive. I think this was mostly due to the second half of the dive when we spent more time going into the current as I felt like I was working much harder than I usually do with my Jets. My normal SAC for this dive site is around .45 and today it was slightly over .5 - which again I think was mostly due to the second half of the dive.
While this is hardly an objective review, I at least wanted to share my observations. Perhaps next time I need to try them out on a calm reef and see how they compare, but for now, with all things considered I think I'll stick with my old Jet fins.
It was a great day and a great dive -
Aloha for now,
Tim
First here is my bias:
1) I like Jets and know the arguments for them.
2) I have heard the arguments against split fins.
3) I already own Jets (5 pair + 1 pair of Turtles) so I'm financially bound to Jet fins as well...
Today my buddy "Pops" and I dove on Mala Warf in Lahaina. Total bottom time 72 minutes, max depth 31ft, average depth was 21 ft. Current seemed to be pretty normal for the area and was running 1.5 ft per second at it's strongest point (Sorry I don't know how that converts to knots)
The dive is around a lot of fallen concrete blocks and twisted iron rails, etc.. Nice coral formations and good habitat for lots of fish.
I asked "Pops" if I could borrow his split fins for the day to try them out (he has another pair of full foot split fins) and he was nice enough to let me use his Scubapro Twin Jet fins (the Gray variety, slightly positively bouyant) while he used his full foot fins (which are too small for me and the black negatively bouyant variety)
Being at the mouth of a river the vis at this site is normally 15-30 ft and frequently worse. Today the vis was the best either of us had ever seen at this site, with most of the dive in the 50-60ft range.
One of the reasons why I wanted to try his split fins on this dive is because the warf is a perfect place to test the agility and finesse of fins. I normally use a wide variety of kick styles on this site. Frog for going around the perimeter. Modified flutter going through narrow "channels" of debris. Helicopter turns to reposition in the current and change directions in the confined areas (no overhead, just lots of obstructions) and this is the site that forced me to learn a backward kick to avoid being pushed into sea urchins by the current while looking at things and trying not to touch and stir up the large amounts of silt sitting on everything.
Since I knew the area was designed as a "Jet" fin course according to all the reports and comments I've come across on SB I figured this would be a good place to run the Twin Jets through their "paces" and see how they compared.
On the initial surface swim I noticed what everyone seems to point out, it feels like you're not wearing any fins at all. I did notice a slight foot cramp but that was because the fins were one size too small for my feet (I was wearing the thinnest boots I had available) but the cramps went away and didn't seem to present much in the way of problems for the rest of the dive. swimming out went quite fast and it did appear that we were moving quite quickly. Normally on a surface swim I do a frog kick on my back, and while I was able to move along at a decent pace with a frog kick, switching to a short flutter stroke really made me move. This is one dive where that is nice as you cross a boat ramp and want to get out of the way of the boat traffic in the area as quickly as possible. We got to our descent point (about a 100 yard swim from the entry point) and dropped down. I anchored our flag and we started swimming around the old warf on the "up current" side.
I tested out my frog kick, and it did work acceptably well, though I had difficulty making fine adjustments to it. A helicopter turn resulted in the same response. It worked, but took about twice as many kicks to complete and it was slower getting started. Once going it was fine though. It took me several trys to get a backward kick out of them and even then it was very weak. Normally it takes me 1-2 strokes with my jets to bring myself to a stop, then begin reversing. With the Twin Jets it took nearly 6 strokes to go from forward to reverse "gear" and I moved with much less determination and speed in reverse. But it did work. The modified flutter kick was wonderful and I found to be much easier with the Twin Jets.
During a recent storm the surge had shifted the sand a great deal and we were able to find numerous old bottles littering the bottom. We found 8 total - including 3 old coke bottles (When they still had smooth bottoms, not sure of the date though) 2 unidentified bottles, but neither had the modern "scalloping" on the bottom used in assembly lines. 2 of them were marked TH (Territory of Hawaii) which meant pre 60's and the last was an old Howdy Orange soda Bottle (we think early 1930's) All in all a good dive for finding bottles
We moved to the structure itself, which is where the current picks up - I found myself finning much more frequently and having more trouble than usual, so I switched to a Modified flutter kick in order to make headway into the current (no choice and for short distances in this area)
At the end of the dive I had used 200 psi more than Pops, which is a little larger margin than normal - we are normally within 100 psi of each other. And my SAC was quite a bit higher than the last few times on the same dive. I think this was mostly due to the second half of the dive when we spent more time going into the current as I felt like I was working much harder than I usually do with my Jets. My normal SAC for this dive site is around .45 and today it was slightly over .5 - which again I think was mostly due to the second half of the dive.
While this is hardly an objective review, I at least wanted to share my observations. Perhaps next time I need to try them out on a calm reef and see how they compare, but for now, with all things considered I think I'll stick with my old Jet fins.
It was a great day and a great dive -
Aloha for now,
Tim
