My personal fin shootout - X-stream, Slingshot and Seawing Nova

[GoAnywherePhoto]

I did not as for a consensus on price but what gave the best value for money.

No, you asked what the general consensus was and I was just making a joke about how there is always disagreement about everything here. Not that it is a bad thing, it gives a good range of perspective, but it is entertaining to read some of the debates.

My comment had nothing to do with price of gear, I think you may have mis-read where I said Piece of gear. No worries though!

Have you decided on fins or have any feedback on what you picked? Hopefully this thread was useful to you.

 

[cmburch]

I have the Novas. They are very comfortable and easy to put on with the bungie strap. I am use to neutral or negatively buoyant fins though. The NOVAS are positive and do not feel as good as a neutral Mares or negative rubber fin when surface kicking. The upswept tips on mine sometimes hit. I got the XL, so they may be a little big. The L may work better for me.

 

[melissabeads]

I posted a separate thread about this.. sorry to derail from the original post....but I haven't received any answers...

Has anyone had experience with the WHITE Novas? My local dive op said they fade to a tan after 10-15 dives..

Thanks!

 

[Doubler]

I know that a lot of photographers use them. Gives that a target for setting White Balance at depth. If they faded to tan after 10-15 dives they wouldn't sell many I would think. They are usually a special order item.

 

[NorthO]

I bought the white novas about 2 weeks ago. Got 11 dives with them. Great for flutter kicks, weird for frog kicks at first but they get the job done, and I have yet to find a way to back kick with them. The color is still perfect white after 11 dives and a good rinse between each dive. They're great for white balance. Buoyancy is ok for me with a wetsuit but I'd never dive dry with them...

Hope this helps!

 

[GoAnywherePhoto]

I posted a separate thread about this.. sorry to derail from the original post....but I haven't received any answers...

Has anyone had experience with the WHITE Novas? My local dive op said they fade to a tan after 10-15 dives..

Thanks!

I don't have any personal expierience with this, but I would think if they did discolor so quickly it would be more of an issue with something discoloring the plastic than the plastic just fading. Is there freshwater diving in your area with iron or tannins in the water - usually red/brown water? Were they able to show you some that had faded? The shop here sells the white fins, but I haven't heard anything like this before.

The white fins seem kind of uncommon is this a recurring thing or just a report they got from someone? If it isn't an accross the board thing, it may have something to do more with the way that individual owner used or took care of them.

Last, I'm not sure it would be a big deal if they did fade a bit. You wouldn't be able to tell much difference under water if you're that concerned about the looks. If you're planning on using them to white balance, the impact would probably be minimal and will only result in leaving a hint of blue in your images. Not perfect, but it would still leave you much closer to proper color balance when you get the images into the computer. To be honest I like a little blue left in the images, with the exception of macros intended to show off colorful critters, you are underwater after all.

If you get some more info on this, please post it here.

Edditid four grammur.

 

[melissabeads]

Thanks so much for the feedback. I sent an email to ScubaPro yesterday and am awaiting their reply as well.. I hate to say it, but I am inclined to think the man at the dive shop might just have been trying to sell the excess of black fins.... since the white weren't in stock?

I am not really concerned about the look as much as performance.. My husband bought the black ones and I want white for white balancing and just to be able to quickly tell them apart.

I will certainly post after I get a response back from ScubaPro..

Thanks again for the replies... and again, sorry for the hijack..

 

[hazmat]

Good luck getting a reply from ScubaPro. I emailed them I last week with a question and haven't gotten a reply.

 

[melissabeads]

Good luck getting a reply from ScubaPro. I emailed them I last week with a question and haven't gotten a reply.

Nice.... well I guess I won't hold my breath! Hope you get a reply soon!

 

[peterbj7]

Around Britain there are lots of harbour and other seals, and they love yellow. If you wear yellow fins when diving around the kelp fields (not quite forests in the Californian sense!) you can guarantee to have seals coming up and playing with your fins. Just a thought.