Painting your Fins - Anyone Ever Try This?

[BIGG_BUDD]

If not, you could take those yellow fins up to 3rd Monday Trade Days in McKinney and swap for a goat, chicken, duck or other farm animal...

Dude, I just spit coffee all over my monitor.

The good (or bad) news is that I've hung my fins up for the winter. I don't have anything better than a full 3mm wetsuit, so quarry and lake diving is out. We'll be doing our annual blue water trip in May, followed by a Flower Gardens trip in July/Aug, so I have plenty of time to make a decission.

I agree on the spring straps. No doubt they are the way to go.

 

[jeckyll]

I painted the tips of my Turtles with Yellow rust paint. We did a very low viz dive the other day and I got comments that the paint helped.

 

[Peter_C]

Are you behind him?

Sometimes with less than 3 foot vis it doesn't matter where you are. I often stop to take a picture and am perfectly happy following along snapping away. Even if we are next to each other you have to be within a few feet to see each other. Other times we dive in groups of three which of course gets more complicated. So far we have done an excellent job of staying together and locating a lost soul very quickly. We have not had to head for the surface to locate each other yet. After all we dive where the white sharks hunt, so the surface is the last place you want to be. :no

A flash light is one of the best signaling devices when the vis becomes next to nothing. I always carry one, and am quit happy to have just purchased a drysuit that is an orange/red, so I can be seen. After all my black fins are impossible to see.

 

[Walter]

With less than 3 feet of viz, you should consider a buddy line.

 

[realdiver7]

I have some silver full foot fins that I painted with black spray enamel that was supposed to bond with plastic (I think), but it chipped off. Had paint chips in all of my gear, including regs, so it wasn't worth the hassle. The silver flashing around in the water was attracting too much attention from a couple of barracuda and one big shark, who all wanted a closer look that was too close for me. Everytime I turned around I had something with big teeth following me!

I ended up wiping the paint off with paint remover and then used a couple of giant black permanent majic markers to dull down the silver to a blackish color. This has held up very well and if I wanted them to be dark black, all I'd have to do is just go over them one more time to get a darker color. You'd never know they used to be silver.

On the other hand, my wife loves her yellow fins because they match the rest of her gear, and she has not been hassled by big teeth while wearing yellow.

Just my 2 psi.

 

[Peter_C]

With less than 3 feet of viz, you should consider a buddy line.

Impossible swimming through kelp.

 

[Walter]

Impossible swimming through kelp.

Impossible to consider? Sounds to me like you considered it and rejected it for a valid reason. I'm not sure it wouldn't work, but techniques would have to be changed.

 

[gcbryan]

Impossible to consider? Sounds to me like you considered it and rejected it for a valid reason. I'm not sure it wouldn't work, but techniques would have to be changed.

Why would one use a buddy line rather than better technique?

 

[Walter]

Why would one use a buddy line rather than better technique?

Why would one use an octopus rather than a better regulator?

A buddy line is a backup system, not a substitute for good technique. If folks are relying on fin color to not lose their buddies, they already need help with technique.

 

[3ddiver]

I like my yellow and black fins. I also have green fins and green tanks. My buddies like them also because nearly all of our diving is low vis. Ideally you stay close enough to see your buddy but we also do not like being glued together.