All I can say about Forcefins is this: I am not a technical minded person, but I am married to one, big time. If it runs on current, gas, oil, or water, my husband can take it apart and put it back together without a blueprint. He gets excited about all things mechanical. He buys everything mechanical only in very high quality and that he expects to last forever. This is someone who feels pressure changes on planes when no-one else notices, and whose eye goes right to a microscopic scratch, or inferior o-ring on his gear after he gets it serviced. He is also very experienced diver, who learned to dive in a frigid unfriendly climate, and can take everything he owns apart and repair it. He started with the Pros about 15 years ago, and has since never worn a fin Bob didn't make. He recommended them for me, and my days of diving with blisters and cramps ended at that moment. Once I had become accustomed to my excellerators, I recognized what I read from Dan Volker as the absolute truth. Your fins have the most influence on your diving experience, beyond your reg, beyond your BC, beyond all else ( unless you're also half blind and can no longer see your gauge ( see my review for the Perdix AI). When my hubby and I swapped fins for a day, his pros were disorienting for me because they are so light it feels like you do not have fins on, but he hauls arse in them, like a torpedo. They have a too good to be true feel to them, and you have to get used to the fact that they are the real deal. They feel like nothing on your feet, and it's part of their technology. He picked up a pair of excellerators like mine and likes them even more. When we were in Cozumel last month, it was blatently clear how aptly named they are. I don't have an expect kick-type vocabulary, but when we wanted to stop, against the strong current, to look at sharks and eels under ledges, I just kicked mine with little back flips to hover. When we kicked just to steer, we ended up so far away from our group that our new friend joked about us not wanting to dive with them. It reminded me of when I did my advanced training and my dive master asked me to slow down because I will kicking his arse. I had no idea what I was doing wrong or how to slow down. I have had dive masters ask me to stay near them because the new divers follow me, since I wear a cap you can see 100 miles away under water. Our last trip, it was hard for me to follow in a line without back kicking. I keep posting messages here because today one rarely gets the satisfaction of buying something that lives up to the hype. The thing with Bob is that he is zero hype, and I will not get into the slamming him for not offering his fins to the advertisers the big companies use ( he is fins only, thus a niche market shops can't sell), or letting then make it overseas and wreck it. My hubby and I have all met dive shop owners ( one who sold me my kick arse Perdix) who have tried force fins ( usually the Pros) and found them odd and not understood the cult following. People, they feel different because they are made different. You don't kick the same with them. If you get used to them, you will grow to love them above all of your gear. We were picking this year's dive spot, and we decided that we will no longer travel to a certain spot in the Dutch Antilles that we love for the singular reason that it has a gear theft problem and losing our force fins would change our diving experience, and we don't know how much longer Bob will keep shop. When was the last time you based your dive trip decision on the possibility of having to replace one specific item in your gear bag? That's how we feel about our Forcefins. I am a petite person in her late 40s, and I can't tell you how often the people on boats (often young fit guys wearing well advertised not cheap fins, sometimes even the dive masters) with me ask me what fins I am wearing after the first dive. It breaks my heart that they are not better known, and that is why I take the time to post here. If we had underwater olympics here in Florida, you would see how well this old gal could cut effortless corners like a gymnast and race like an Ironman. No one in my family has any relationship with anyone in the dive industry. Please forgive me for the length of the review, but I am posting it because far too much equipment is based on marketing. I want people like me to have the chance I had to buy something exceptional. Get them while you can.
