Old diver but force fins newbie

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

JMBL

Contributor
Messages
1,275
Reaction score
810
Location
France
# of dives
1000 - 2499
Hi everybody,

Been interested in force fins since 2000, after I've discovered them on an ad in 'Historical Diver Magazine', found their features both innovative and intriguing, thought I'd give them a try...

Alas, living on this side of the pond, it means force fins are as rare as Nessie, so I never had a chance, until last week : discovered a pair of 2nd hand ones at a reasonable price.

Tried them yesternight in the pool. Rather disconcerting, it seems I need to learn again how to swim with fins. Obviously, I'm doing something wrong, cause after 800 m (roughly half a mile) I got tired, and usually, I swim between 1.2 and 2 km (0.75 mile and 1.25 mile).

Has anyone any tips ?

Cheers,

JMBL.

PS : Concerning my experience : first certified in 1990, an average of 52 dives / year (Altantic, Med, Cave, normoxic trimix and deep air). Through the years, used : jet fins, Scubapro Seawings (not the Nova, the 90s ones), Mares Avanti Tre (my fins for pool swimming), Mares Avanti Quattro (when diving wet), Mares Power Plana (when diving dry).
 
Which ones do you have? Original, Pro? Both are the classic shape, but the pro is stiffer so more suited to the extra drag of scuba.

I find them not generally very good on the surface, unless you do side stroke. You bend the knee a bit more with them, so they wind up coming out of the water.

Underwater I really like them. I have the pro's.
 
Agree, If you are surface swimming the shape makes them not work well. The back kick needs to be shortened to keep them in the water.
 
Thanks you guys !

It's a pair of pro.

<<not generally very good on the surface, unless you do side stroke>>
That was precisely my problem ! It was a horrible feeling... Made me think I had forgotten everything I've ever learnt.

I tried them underwater but only short distance, free diving, as it have any tank available. Seemed better indeed, but too short to be sure.

What of frog kick and flutter kick with those by the way ?

Cheers.

JMBL.
 
JMBL. looks like your in good hands. I use the slim fin for swimming. The Force Fin is over kill for surface swimming. Thanks for trying.
 
I just received a pair of Pros from a friend of mine. Only cost me a bottle of whiskey. In any event, he let them go because he does a lot of shore diving in Monterey, California where they have to swim a distance before descending and they didn't work well at the surface, for him anyway.

I've only tried them in a pool so far. One thing I noticed immediately was less strain on my ankles and the tops of my feet. I'm going to Grenada in May and should get about 10 dives in with them. May is a long way off. As a rookie diver, I feel pretty fortunate to have been exposed to these fins early on. I can thank Jonathan Bird for that. I had watched a number of his shows and said, WTF does that guy have on his feet? Just a happy coincidence that my friend had a pair that he wanted to pass onto someone who could get some better use out of them. They will certainly last a lifetime unless thrown through a woodchipper. That much is abundantly clear.
 
Last edited:
What of frog kick and flutter kick with those by the way ?
I do frog, flutter, reverse, and helicopter with the pros. Exploring Monterey most of my underwater stroke is frog. My frog uses the recovery part of the stroke as the power. So it is likely not very strong. But to me frog is not a power stroke, it is a control and calm movement stroke. If I want to go fast, I switch to flutter, which is very easy and I would say efficient. Helicopter is easy. Reverse I am still mastering but is effective for backing away from students and positioning, I'm not backing out of any tunnels with them.

The hockey or accelerating fins are apparently much better for all the frog derivative strokes, while retaining the flutter efficiency.

Monterey definitely has some surface swims, I turtle back them, where my knees or thighs break or wash the surface more than they might otherwise, or I do it a bit sideways, looking mostly down but hips turned to the side so I get a side stroke. Not ideal, but not enough to give up my fins over.
 
JMBL. looks like your in good hands. I use the slim fin for swimming. The Force Fin is over kill for surface swimming. Thanks for trying.

Thanks for the message Bob. In almost 30 years of scuba diving, I seldom had the pleasure of a word from the founder of firm I use the equipment. :thumb:
 
I do frog, flutter, reverse, and helicopter with the pros. Exploring Monterey most of my underwater stroke is frog. My frog uses the recovery part of the stroke as the power. So it is likely not very strong. But to me frog is not a power stroke, it is a control and calm movement stroke. If I want to go fast, I switch to flutter, which is very easy and I would say efficient. Helicopter is easy. Reverse I am still mastering but is effective for backing away .

Ok, good to know, but I guess I'll need to get use to the fins first.
 
you might be best off to swim without fins for a bit and then put the FF back on. The kick very closely matches the kick you use swimming. I always tell people to exclusively use FF for at least 10 dives before making any kind of decision.
 

Back
Top Bottom