Dude, 30 posts on one thread in 4 days, 40 posts total in those 4 days. With all that spare time, if you got another job you might earn enough money to go diving. I dive every day so it took me a couple days to come up with this.
Temple of Doom:
Recently quoted in a thread about split fins:
basically if you have to push through the water (against a current, with lots of mass on you, or bulky with a drysuit) then you need stiff fins that will get you through
i think of stiff fins as low gear and split fins as high gear ... high gear is useless to climb a hill
my style of diving is definetely low gear
This oft-quoted myth/fallacy about split fins. It sounds plausible, but it's actually a terrible analogy. I'm not focusing on the specific poster, this argument comes up time and again.
If I read the origional post right, the origional offending perverse phalacy is
low gear vs high gear, but you may have even confused yourself with
stiff fins (navels vs oranges?). As I read the reviews and tests, stiff splits perform better than soft splits, yet we all seem to have assumed you meant non-splits. Due to the high resistance of water, drift diving is the only diving not like climbing a hill and
all dive fins are low gear!
If I dive with splits at 1knt I have a faster kick cycle than when I dive with non-splits at 1knt. In this comparison splits seem like a lower gear, engine running faster at same speed. In truth you have to change your technique to achieve this result. This change in technnique is the crux of the biscuit, everything is not equal! They are both low gear; splits appear to be a
taller low gear than non-splits but probably do not have as much
torque at lower speeds. Non-splits would seem to me to be a
lower low gear.
Temple of Doom:
See the only thing I'd want people to understand is that if you believe the test results that show people consistently swimming faster with split fins than with padles, with *everything* else being equal, then you have to accept that they are the more efficient fin.
If is a big word! A Lambo' is faster than a Yugo, does that mean a Lambo' is more efficient than a Yugo? In the test results you want us to believe, where is the caloric and gas consumption data to conclude one fin is more efficient than another? I was unable to find exactly how efficiency was measured, please enlighten me. I believe the tests showed people going faster in splits but
I most definately don't have to accept that they are the most efficient fin!
Temple of Doom:
I don't have a lot of experience with either type of fin, which is why I wouldn't ever say which ones are better or worse (even after man-months with each in the water, I'd still be only qualified to make a statement like that for me). One thing I am good at is seperating fact from opinion, reading and assessing comprehensive tests, and addressing logical fallacies so prevelant in every one of these X vs Y debates.
Your skill level at addressing logical phallacies in debates is a minority opinion many of us are trying to seperate from fact, and why can't you open your mind to the logical phallacies in the supposed comprehensive tests you are slapping us in the face with?
Temple of Doom:
Swiming with fins provides the same thrust at all swiming speeds (very, very nearly). Further, even if it were applicable, splitfins are low gear, paddle fins are high gear!
Are you sure a gentle kick results in
very, very nearly the same thrust as a strong kick? That's what I would call an illogical phallacy! Also, if paddle fins are high gear, shouldn't you be able to go faster than the low gear fins?
Temple of Doom:
Scientific tests by universities, magazines, and independant divers have repeatedly shown that split fins are more efficient (deliver more thrust for the same effort) while swimming forward.
Please show us the data from one of each (universities, magazines, and independant) showing caloric and/or gas consumption. How exactly could you measure
efficiency for a diver without this data? Also, with different finning technique, how exactly do you come up with
the same exact effort?
Temple of Doom:
Splits are shown to be more efficient. Moving forward at the same speed, the same diver will exert less energy with splits than with paddles. Conversely, exerting the same energy, the same diver will travel forward faster with splits than with paddles.
As far as I have seen, most of the tests are about going as fast as possible. How exactly do you conclude the results will be the same at all speeds? Those of us with any inkling of the scientific method cringe at statements like this (most of your statements?)!
Temple of Doom:
The topic is designed to explain that there are objective truths about different fins. Often in discussions about the two types of fins, people make statements that are objectively false. That's something that should be pointed out and corrected.
Now that's the pot calling the kettle black. You assume a lot, and a lot of us refuse to be the 'me in the old saying. IMHO most of your 30 posts in this thread have objective falsehoods in them and some have now been
pointed out and corrected.
