newbs and split fins

[rstofer]

Different jobs, different tools. It takes a bit of time to figure out what jobs you are interested in doing and what skills are needed to do that job. Only then can you figure out what tools are best for the job at hand.

Kind of like hammers in that regard. I have several different types and there are many more beyond the few I own. But I don't drive framing nails with my small ball-peen hammer and I don't do picture frames with my framing hammer. And my 3# sledge stays mostly in the toolbox.

Richard

 

[fnfalman]

It seems to me instructors don't teach newbies how to proper execute a kick cycle any more regardless of split fins or paddle fins being used. If you don't know the proper technique for kicking with either fins, you ain't goin' nowhere but wasting energy, getting leg cramps and burn up air.

 

[Sas]

Not really.
A freediving fin is still a paddle fin, just longer.

Yes and by that logic a monofin is also a paddle fin and comparable to diving fins under your example... Freediving fins are not comparable to scuba fins, whether they are shaped like paddles or not. The purposes of the fins are difference hence why I do not see the lack of freediving splitfins as saying that split fins will be useless for scuba. As someone else said, people don't use Jet Fins for freediving (well I have, when I didn't have anything else but not very efficient!)

Man, can't believe I'm sticking up for splits here

 

[Blackwood]

A fin is a fin. It's just a tool, and personal preference rules out.

People say you can't back kick in splits. Well, they haven't learned how.
People say you kick up too much silt with splits. Well, I've seen people kick up absurd amounts of splits in rocket, and they're about the stiffest fins I've ever used.

People say a lot of stuff.

Figure out what you like, and then learn to use them to accomplish your goals.

 

[mdb]

A fin is a fin. It's just a tool, and personal preference rules out.

People say you can't back kick in splits. Well, they haven't learned how.
People say you kick up too much silt with splits. Well, I've seen people kick up absurd amounts of splits in rocket, and they're about the stiffest fins I've ever used.

People say a lot of stuff.

Figure out what you like, and then learn to use them to accomplish your goals.

Blackwood: You sum it up pretty well. People do say a lot of stuff-often their own personal opinion. I do agree with your comment: "Figure out what you like, and then learn to use them to accomplish your goals"

This back and forth, split and paddle, will go on and on. Ford vs. Chevy-and all that.
Hope that new folks will try for themselves and find the fin(s) that work for them.

 

[fresh_fish]

I agree that instructors don't spend time on proper finning (is it even a word?). My first OW dive, I ended up standing at the bottom of the lake with a massive leg cramp, crying and everything. A lot of it was muscle strength, and more of it was technique. After 2 years, I finally have a kick that works most of the time. If I start cramping from fatigue, I can change styles and keep going, for a pretty long swim. I've kept with my paddles, knowing that I need my fins to be able to always push water, not just when I get the right vortex going. They might not be the most efficient, but I know that every tiny movement is doing something back there.

 

[binobanana]

The new scubapro's they look wierd but there are good, dam good!!!

 

[keyshunter]

If split fins are supposed to have all the power they claim with minimal effort and replace the paddle fins (supposedly leave them in the dust) then why aren't any world champion freedivers using them?

Freedivers, in general, (even those who are not champions) have very strong leg and hip muscles. That is why they can drive, with ease, the long and stiff freediving fins. Many sport divers do not have that leg strength, and cannot comfortably do the firm knee, hip driven kick. For these weak legged individuals, whose kick is mostly a lower leg kick, split fins are often a comfortable answer. Since I grew up with very stiff paddles, both long and short, I prefer paddles, but I have seen people do a very creditable job with splits.

 

[fnfalman]

If displacing water is the way to go for propulsion then how come we done away with paddle ships and went with propeller ships?

 

[Blackwood]

If displacing water is the way to go for propulsion then how come we done away with paddle ships and went with propeller ships?

I'm not sure I buy the "airfoil shape creates lift which pushes the diver through the water" hype often associated with splitfins.

Not saying it isn't true, but I don't understand it.

Sure, maybe they generate localized hydrodynamic lift by turning the flow, but exactly how does that lift move the diver? From the looks of it, it's in the complete wrong direction from a diver-thrust perspective. As such, I notionally reject the 'propeller' analogy (since a proper propeller creates lift in line with to the direction of motion).

My admittedly uneducated understanding of split fins is this: they make a flutter kick easier by decreasing the rigidity, and possibly the deformation directs more water backwards than off the sides (which would increase forward-thrust efficiency).