I grew up swimming competitively and coached a swim team for a couple years. I've used both the small zoomer style fins and larger dive fins while lap swimming. Dive fins give great thrust when you're underwater but are much harder to use at the surface. The smaller fins allow for a normal kick cadence and don't run into nearly the same issues with breaking the surface. I think you'll be surprised at how well they work on the surface.
PADI DM 400M freestyle and 15M tread
- Thread starter donburde
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- 400m divemaster tread
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Tips for your equipment exchange:
1. I second the earlier suggestion for starting with the other person's equipment. You're moving into your own gear at that point which helps. Minor thing: You and buddy should have similar fins. If one has booties and the other a close-heel fin, there's an added problem to deal with. (You don't have to change booties as I understand. If you did, I'd use bootieless open heel fins that are more likely to fit multiple size feet.)
2. I'd swap mask first. That's the hardest IMHO, because at one point both of you are blind and one of you doesn't have air. Doffing and donning BC's was a relatively easy part; just be careful not to pull the reg out of your buddies mouth.
3. Talk before you do it about what exactly buddy breathing means. How many breaths? (Usually folks say 2, but end up taking 3. Inhale on receiving, exhale, inhale, exhale, and one last inhale before passing. Then exhale slowly while waiting.) I messed this up because I assumed I'd get the reg back after the 2nd inhale and exhaled too quickly. Once I realized my buddy intended to do the 3rd inhale, I was fine. Just knowing in advance helps....)
1. I second the earlier suggestion for starting with the other person's equipment. You're moving into your own gear at that point which helps. Minor thing: You and buddy should have similar fins. If one has booties and the other a close-heel fin, there's an added problem to deal with. (You don't have to change booties as I understand. If you did, I'd use bootieless open heel fins that are more likely to fit multiple size feet.)
2. I'd swap mask first. That's the hardest IMHO, because at one point both of you are blind and one of you doesn't have air. Doffing and donning BC's was a relatively easy part; just be careful not to pull the reg out of your buddies mouth.
3. Talk before you do it about what exactly buddy breathing means. How many breaths? (Usually folks say 2, but end up taking 3. Inhale on receiving, exhale, inhale, exhale, and one last inhale before passing. Then exhale slowly while waiting.) I messed this up because I assumed I'd get the reg back after the 2nd inhale and exhaled too quickly. Once I realized my buddy intended to do the 3rd inhale, I was fine. Just knowing in advance helps....)
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I vaguely recall taking big breaths on the exchange therefore one person can do more things without bothering to switch lots.
I'll give those a shot to... considering how cheap they are, its worth a try! Thanks for the tips!
I am not really responding to this post as much as to the general idea of trying to pick out the best fin to meet the requirement, especially using a kind of fin you would not use in scuba.
In general, it seems absurd that a requirement like this, which is intended to measure YOUR fitness as a swimmer, is so dependent upon the equipment you are using, so dependent, in fact, that you would use equipment that you would not have if you had to perform the skill in the real world. If you would pass the requirement using one kind of gear but not another, what does it say about you and your skill?
This is not the only place you run into this situation of a diver's skill measurement depending upon the equipment. As a tech instructor, I have to ensure that my students using back-mounted double tanks can complete the full valve shutdown drill in 45 seconds or less. The ability to do that depends to a great degree on the brand of valves being used--some take far, far longer to shut down than others. When I first had to do it myself, I was using borrowed tanks, and there is no way on God's green Earth I could do that drill in anywhere close to that time. The valves I had required many more turns, and they were so stiff I struggled to get them to turn at all, let alone turn quickly. I got another set of tanks and the valves spun easily, opening and closing in a fraction of the time of the other valves.
I have a reason for mentioning this. When I did the DM skills, I piled up enough points on the first tests that I didn't need any particular time on the final one, the diver tow. Knowing that, my instructor had me do it off a boat in the open ocean in Key Largo. I towed a diver into a pretty strong current (with waves) for a wild estimate of the required distance, turned around, and swam back. My score was not pretty, but it did not need to be. What is important is the realization I had along the way. Towing him into that current made me damned tired. I suddenly understood the importance of the test. As a professional, I might be called on to so something like that in order to save someone's life. If that happens, I need to be up to the task, and I need to be up to it with the equipment I will be wearing when it happens.
Great points! If I'm ever in the situation where I need to swim 800m, I'm certainly not going to fin kick the whole way, lol. Obviously in the dinner tow I'll be using by regular scuba gear. My fins are waaaaay to stiff to swim with no gear on, the work great in full gear even better towing another driver
As a future dive professional I would hope what is says about your skill is that you have enough experience and knowledge of different types of equipment that you are able to recommend the right equipment for the activity. While strength, stamina, and ability to perform a rescue are very important, I would say divemasters are called on much more often to give equipment advice.
Perhaps this part of the assessment measures more than just your snorkeling speed?
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Agree with all that. Kind of in line with my suggestions on the Going Pro forum years ago about altering these tests to reflect what a DM may actually have to do. The stamina tests should test what you could do (in an emergency..) as a DM. And they should be the same for everybody...ie. you're gunna take longer to do the diver tow if you are in a tiny pool making a million turns vs. someone doing it in a large pool or even in calm open water, making no turns. So, perhaps alter the times for scores depending on the logistics? I know there are already a different set of times for yards vs. metres on the swims.
Maybe for the 800 m/f/s and tow tests everyone should use the same type of fins?
A friend of mine was present for the following event.
They had just finished diving a very popular wreck called the Spiegel Grove in Key Largo, Florida. There were several dive boats hooked on to the different mooring balls. As they took their gear off, they heard the DM on their boat shouting to another boat's crew. He was telling them that one of their divers was in trouble. The other boat crew was oblivious. They looked over the edge and saw a diver struggling to get to that boat in the waves and current. The DM yelled at him to inflate his BCD, but he paid no attention--his head just kept slipping below the surface and then coming back up as he struggled.Finally the head went beneath the surface and did not come back up.
The DM jumped in and swam furiously to the place he had gone down. (I don't know if grabbed mask and fins first.) He dived down, found the unconscious diver sinking at about 20 feet, grabbed his arm, pulled him to the surface, and then dragged him to the boat. Once on the boat, he began CPR. After a minute or so, the diver coughed, puked, and revived.
So, as you do your DM tests, ask yourself if you are really ready to do what that DM did, and how you would feel if you couldn't.
Rooster59
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As to the fin swimming, swimming on my side with my lower arm extended straight in front is the easiest way to swim with just fins. You don’t have to rotate to breathe, and your fins get a full bite in the water. Rotating to breathe messes up the bite of your fins every time you breathe. I like Jet Fins the best, they’re stiff and stay down in the water. Any good scuba fin should work swimming on your side. I pool swim about every day, and to do a 800m fin swim I’d do it on my side and switch sides about every 200.
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