chrpai
Contributor
My Hollis F1 fins recently developed a rip. It seems I'm not the first to be burned by these fins less then steller quality. After posting on the Hollis forum and being ignored for over a week I decided to abandon ship and sell the remaining fin.
At first I broke out a 1 y/o old pair of ScubaPro Sport Jet fins that I had bought and only used once or twice. These are pretty lightweight paddle fins. At first they felt really really wierd in the water. They offered so little resistance that they almost felt as if they weren't there. But after getting a few hours in them they started to feel alright. My stable platform actually felt better then with my F1s and I could still frog, helicopter and back kick. I decided to spend $30 on them to get spring straps and keep them as my backup fins.
With my F1s sold I decided to order the Hog Tech 2 fins. I read about the measurements and heard others experiences and picked what I hoped would be the right size. I PM'd Jim over at UDM Aquatics and he had a pair out the door that same afternoon.
They arrived two days later and sure enough... they were too big.
My boots are Neosport 5mm with a thin hard rubberized sole. They have about 150 dives on them and are starting to rip and smell. So I decided rather then sending the fins back I'd try bigger boots. First I found a pair of used DUI rockboots on Craigslist. I emailed the seller and it sounded like they would fit (with some neoprene socks) but that he was out of town for a week. I then decided to head over to the LDS and see what they had. I was shown some ScubaPro "heavy duty" boots with some really thick soles. I tried them on and it seemed to solve my Hog Tech 2 fit problem.
This morning I went for a dive at Lake Travis and gave it all a try. Wow, what can I say? After 150 dives I finally find out how crappy my old boots are. Sure they were OK but these new boots felt so much more comfortable walking up and down the rocks. I ]could hardly feel the rocks and my arches had so much better support.
The Hog Tech 2 fins weight about 6.5lbs compared to the 8lbs my Hollis weigh and the 4lbs my ScubaPro's weigh. The rubber is a very soft and supple material. It's almost spongy. They felt really good in the water. Much more resistance compared to the ScubaPro but not nearly as much as the Hollis. Considering I'm in a single tank / wetsuit in waters with no current, I think it's the better choice for me. I sometimes had a hard time going really slow in the Hollis as each kick produced a lot of thrust. Perhaps that's just a skills problem but I think it's easier now with a less aggressive fin.
So that's kind of it. I think the F1s ripping was a blessing in disguise. I've found much more comfortable boots and more enjoyable fins.
One ding against the Hogs though: The spring strap has a plastic / rubber tag for pulling on the spring. On my fins they were udder garbage. After just 2 tugs one of them ripped at the stitching and fell off. I took the other off intentionally when I as adjusting the spring position. Personally I can't see why you need these things in the first place and I kinda expect Hog to be a little better at either giving a higher quality accessory or just dumping it all together as unneeded junk.
At first I broke out a 1 y/o old pair of ScubaPro Sport Jet fins that I had bought and only used once or twice. These are pretty lightweight paddle fins. At first they felt really really wierd in the water. They offered so little resistance that they almost felt as if they weren't there. But after getting a few hours in them they started to feel alright. My stable platform actually felt better then with my F1s and I could still frog, helicopter and back kick. I decided to spend $30 on them to get spring straps and keep them as my backup fins.
With my F1s sold I decided to order the Hog Tech 2 fins. I read about the measurements and heard others experiences and picked what I hoped would be the right size. I PM'd Jim over at UDM Aquatics and he had a pair out the door that same afternoon.
They arrived two days later and sure enough... they were too big.
My boots are Neosport 5mm with a thin hard rubberized sole. They have about 150 dives on them and are starting to rip and smell. So I decided rather then sending the fins back I'd try bigger boots. First I found a pair of used DUI rockboots on Craigslist. I emailed the seller and it sounded like they would fit (with some neoprene socks) but that he was out of town for a week. I then decided to head over to the LDS and see what they had. I was shown some ScubaPro "heavy duty" boots with some really thick soles. I tried them on and it seemed to solve my Hog Tech 2 fit problem. This morning I went for a dive at Lake Travis and gave it all a try. Wow, what can I say? After 150 dives I finally find out how crappy my old boots are. Sure they were OK but these new boots felt so much more comfortable walking up and down the rocks. I ]could hardly feel the rocks and my arches had so much better support.
The Hog Tech 2 fins weight about 6.5lbs compared to the 8lbs my Hollis weigh and the 4lbs my ScubaPro's weigh. The rubber is a very soft and supple material. It's almost spongy. They felt really good in the water. Much more resistance compared to the ScubaPro but not nearly as much as the Hollis. Considering I'm in a single tank / wetsuit in waters with no current, I think it's the better choice for me. I sometimes had a hard time going really slow in the Hollis as each kick produced a lot of thrust. Perhaps that's just a skills problem but I think it's easier now with a less aggressive fin.
So that's kind of it. I think the F1s ripping was a blessing in disguise. I've found much more comfortable boots and more enjoyable fins.
One ding against the Hogs though: The spring strap has a plastic / rubber tag for pulling on the spring. On my fins they were udder garbage. After just 2 tugs one of them ripped at the stitching and fell off. I took the other off intentionally when I as adjusting the spring position. Personally I can't see why you need these things in the first place and I kinda expect Hog to be a little better at either giving a higher quality accessory or just dumping it all together as unneeded junk.
