Disagree. I needed a blue pair when I had a blue wetsuit, then I needed a second, yellow, pair, when I got a new suit. Love my volos!
Mares Volo Race fins...opinions?
- Thread starter StevenP
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Disagree. I needed a blue pair when I had a blue wetsuit, then I needed a second, yellow, pair, when I got a new suit. Love my volos!
lauadibob
Registered
Curious if you think they need to be replaced every so often? I have been diving (scuba and free) with my full foot Volos for nearly three years and I love them. I had a pair of Volo open back fins for years that eventually broke down and I went ahead and bought the full foots. I just recently got back from Tonga where swimming with humpback whales required a lot of surface kicking and I felt like these didn't have quite as much power as they did when brand new. Do the "hinges" break down over time? I'll probably buy a new pair to test this for myself, but I wondered about anyone else's experience. I'm also buying a new pair of Quattro Power full foot for comparison. Still my favorite fin for absolute power and control in cold water with a drysuit.
Phantom Menace
Contributor
Fin choice depends on a number of factors:
* desired depth you want them to
take you to (and back from)
* leg strength
* kick style
* body mass /
weight
* length of time in the water
* ... etc.
Mares make a good fin overall - I have Mares Quattro Power fins that I use for Underwater Rugby (and Underwater Hockey) and some folks I play/train with use the Volo. From my experience the Volo are not as powerful as the Quattro (they flex too much if you kick really hard - hence the comment above that "is that all you got?" I
guess). Volo is more suited to lighter folks with less powerful kicks - I am 6'1" and around 230 lb (in units of measure Americans will understand
).
The Volo would be fine for mooching round on the surface/general snorkelling if you are not too large a character and have a higer rpm kick style. Quattro have the grunt to take you deeper (and back) and deal with swimming a bigger current if you need to. My Quattros have taken me to 60' and been fine.
But in saying that a few years ago I splashed out and bought some fibreglass/carbon composite freediving fins (DiveR from Australia) and have never looked back. I use them for all my ocean stuff now and they have taken me to over 130' depth freediving as well as been used on some long days in the water spearfishing and I have found my legs are still going OK at the end of the day e.g. 3 hrs in the morning, back on the boat for lunch, another 2 hrs, back
for a snack and then a further 2 hrs. (although dinner and one beer later them I am heading for bed!). They also assisted me in doing a 100m (330') one-breath
swim (horizontal distance) at the free-dive club pool training last night. The DiveRs will be way more fin than you will need unless you get into freediving/spearfishing relatively seriously.
On another note - I am about to replace my Underwater Rugby fins - Mares Quattro - with shorter but stiffer fibreglass/carbon composite blades from Ruku (a New Zealand company). We have been trialing prototype Underwater Rugby fins from Ruku and they are great. (they are not generally available at the moment - our clubs order will be the first production run and the blades will be avaialble in soft, medium and hard stiffness to suit different people).
Summary:
Ignore what I wrote above as the Volo will be fine for what you are doing! If you feel the need for more power - then consider Mares Quattro unless you decide to get into freediving seriously in which case freedive fins are a whole different topic.
Have fun!
* desired depth you want them to
take you to (and back from)
* leg strength
* kick style
* body mass /
weight
* length of time in the water
* ... etc.
Mares make a good fin overall - I have Mares Quattro Power fins that I use for Underwater Rugby (and Underwater Hockey) and some folks I play/train with use the Volo. From my experience the Volo are not as powerful as the Quattro (they flex too much if you kick really hard - hence the comment above that "is that all you got?" I
guess). Volo is more suited to lighter folks with less powerful kicks - I am 6'1" and around 230 lb (in units of measure Americans will understand
).The Volo would be fine for mooching round on the surface/general snorkelling if you are not too large a character and have a higer rpm kick style. Quattro have the grunt to take you deeper (and back) and deal with swimming a bigger current if you need to. My Quattros have taken me to 60' and been fine.
But in saying that a few years ago I splashed out and bought some fibreglass/carbon composite freediving fins (DiveR from Australia) and have never looked back. I use them for all my ocean stuff now and they have taken me to over 130' depth freediving as well as been used on some long days in the water spearfishing and I have found my legs are still going OK at the end of the day e.g. 3 hrs in the morning, back on the boat for lunch, another 2 hrs, back
for a snack and then a further 2 hrs. (although dinner and one beer later them I am heading for bed!). They also assisted me in doing a 100m (330') one-breath
swim (horizontal distance) at the free-dive club pool training last night. The DiveRs will be way more fin than you will need unless you get into freediving/spearfishing relatively seriously.
On another note - I am about to replace my Underwater Rugby fins - Mares Quattro - with shorter but stiffer fibreglass/carbon composite blades from Ruku (a New Zealand company). We have been trialing prototype Underwater Rugby fins from Ruku and they are great. (they are not generally available at the moment - our clubs order will be the first production run and the blades will be avaialble in soft, medium and hard stiffness to suit different people).
Summary:
Ignore what I wrote above as the Volo will be fine for what you are doing! If you feel the need for more power - then consider Mares Quattro unless you decide to get into freediving seriously in which case freedive fins are a whole different topic.
Have fun!
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