Scuba with freediving fins

[woodcarver]

So, I bought a pair of sz 14-15 freedive fins to see how I could use them with regular hard sole boots in Bonaire. I wear a sz 10-11 barefoot or with booties. These 14-15’s fit my hard sole boots without any mods, putting them on was easy but the rubber on rubber made it difficult to take off. Because of the grip of the rubber on rubber, I could only get them off by removing both the fin and boot together, pull the boot out of the fin, and put it back on. Only made 2 dives with these fins because of this issue.

In the water the fins were great. The snug fit on the boots enabled the fins to perform just as if worn fitted on bare feet. What I was able to determine though, is the difficulty in removal is due to having to pull the heel cup down to clear the boot. If the removal is straight forward, as with an open heel fin, the boot would stay on without holding it.

So I’ve got an idea on how to attach a bungee style heel loop and open the heel without cutting the rubber that I will work on this winter after hunting seasons are over. Let you know how it turns out….

 

[deeno]

Nice report... How'd you get them on the plane? Carry-on? Mine are long enough to not quite fit in any bags I have except a backpacker backpack even when dissassembled

 

[Schwob]

I wore a set of Mako’s Kevlar booties, and depending on the dive site entry, a pair of Swiftwater Crocs.

Curious: For you, did your regular size croqs work with the Mako Kevlar booties on or did you need to upsize the croqs?

 

[woodcarver]

How'd you get them on the plane?

My bag is just long enough to fit the blades, so they were checked baggage. That's a good thing as the reg sets and camera gear as carryon weigh dang near as much as a full checked bag.

Curious: For you, did your regular size croqs work with the Mako Kevlar booties on or did you need to upsize the croqs?

My regular size worked just fine with the booties. They have a Velcro strap over the instep for adjusting that allowed the bigger foot to fit with no problem.
I wear a 10W or 10.5W depending on the brand of footwear. These Swiftwater Crocs run a little big normally and mine are size 10 and fit great barefoot. The booties didn't cause any problem.

 

[Hank49]

I was talking about using a sledge hammer instead of a 25 ounce hammer. It takes a lot more force to lift and then swing the sledge hammer. Its not proportionate to the weight difference either because of the increased leverage due to the longer handle.

What your saying is simply not true, free diving fins, because of their length and usual stiffness, take a lot more force to kick than a shorter more flexible fin, even just shorter and less flexible. This is a fact.

I understand why free divers use those type of fins, I free dive a lot myself. But the piece of the puzzle your not calculating is that free div fins are designed to propel the diver long distances efficiently. If you don't need the travel, then you will use more energy kicking the free diving fin. This isn't really debatable, its simple physics.

This will be my last post in this thread, because people just keep repeating the same false information and swearing its true.

I disagree. Just because you have the long fin, which yes, has the ability to displace more water, requiring more force, it doesn’t mean that wearing them will automatically use more energy.
Especially with carbon fiber blades. A mild ankle flick is enough to bend the blade and the snap back is what will propel you. You don’t need to do full leg kicks that you use with small fins. However, if you DO want to get somewhere fast, you have the ability.

A clear indicator of your theory would be increased air consumption on a dive. Mine didn’t go up at all.

 

[Hank49]

@Alexander, Mr Putin gets it. Check out his fins. Although it does look like he may be free diving spearing. Too cool. I hear he has a house near Yalta?

 

[АлександрД]

for diving he`s preffered kind of fins:

No, your photo from his spearfishing.

for diving he had used short fins

 

[Hank49]

for diving he`s preffered kind of fins:
View attachment 490231


No, your photo from his spearfishing.

for diving he had used short fins

Northern Pike? I used to catch that fish in Canada. Fresh water barracuda.