The evaluations were interesting but they never discuss fit for narrow or wide feet. My wife is 11AAA and I an a 13D. Which fins would fit?
DP
You make a very good point. A thread on the DeeperBlue Freediving Forum has attempted to conduct a survey of fin pocket sizing:
official - fin sizing thread - please add your info - DeeperBlue Forums
Be aware, though, that the freedivers who responded restricted their range of fin models to the long-bladed full-foot fins associated with their pursuit.
Perhaps we need to create a similar fin-sizing thread for other types of fins right here on ScubaBoard. My own feet are not only long (size EU46, US12, UK11) but also relatively broad-fitting. I have high arches too: feet are three-dimensional! Over the years I've found the full-foot rubber fins I prefer for snorkelling by trial and error. My current favourites, a pair of Mexican-made Escualo Clasicas bought "blind" online, precisely accommodate my foot dimensions lengthwise, widthwise and height-wise. Of course it would be better to try fins on for size, bootie-clad or barefoot, in the local dive store, but that's not always possible, particularly if your store, like mine, doesn't stock the fins of choice.
Historically, fins have been sized in ranges of sizes, e.g. US9-11, rather than single sizes. One exception was a fin manufactured by Cressi in the early 1970s, which came in single sizes. The Italian company Cressi also made around the same time an "anatomic" pair of fins, one with a foot pocket designed for the left foot, the other for the right foot, in the same way as ordinary shoes are made. Neither model survives to the present day, no doubt because of the economics of making and stocking such fins.
The German National Standard DIN 7876 of October 1980, "Tauch-Zubehoer Schwimmflossen: Masse, Anforderungen und Pruefung" (Official translation: Diving accessories for skin divers; Flippers, dimensions, requirements and testing), focuses on sizing. It contains a table stating which foot width should go with which foot length. The problem is that a range of foot widths is permitted. For example, a fin accommodating a foot length of 250 mm would, in the case of full-foot fins, accommodate a foot width of 95 to 105 mm. In the case of open-heel fins, the same foot length would be matched with a foot width of 100-110 mm, a 40 mm range of strap adjustability, a minimum of 147 mm from toe to entry point at the top of the foot pocket and a minimum of 192 mm from toe to entry point at the bottom of the foot pocket. You may find fins stamped "DIN 7876" conforming to these dimensions, but not many do. Very few are even as helpfully labelled as Japanese-made Gull Mew and Apollo Bio fins, which state on the bottom what sizes they accommodate whether booted or barefoot.
The Malaysian National Standard MS 974 of 2002, "Specification for Rubber Swimming Fins", prescribes the same fitting dimensions as the German National Standard DIN 7876.
Would anybody else be interested in contributing to a thread similar to DeeperBlue's about fin sizing, where everybody posted their experience of the roominess or otherwise of the foot pocket of a given fin of a certain size?
