Here is my review of these fins as promised from doing to altitude diving.
Day1
We dove in the cascade mountain range and in the foothills of them at some lakes. We did 3 dives at the foothills on Saturday and 2 dives in the mountains. I dove with people that had the run of the mill split fins or the standard paddle fins.
the entry point was all rocky and could really twist an ankle and the waves since it was windy made it difficult to put on your fins and with 5mm gloves it was difficult to put my fins on. I had problems finding the strap to tighten up the fins with my gloves.
the first dive we did it was a good decent dive about 30 minutes bottom time. I am some what out of shape so my problem with consuming more air had been a problem for me. This time i increased my bottom time i used these fins because i did not have to do any heavy kicking just not slow steady kicks. I did not how much power these really provided because when i looked back and I have to say it did not take long for me to build up power with these fins. I had to stop or slowdown for my die buddies to catch.
on my 2nd dive of putting on my fins i had decided my gloves were the last thing i would put on and i put my fins on with my hands exposed and i had no problems at all it was the gloves.
On the 2nd dive we did a buoyancy course. and it was amazing how much control you have with these fins. I was able to make quick adjustments in these fins with no problem. I tried the frog kick so I could slow down and stay with my dive buddies and that did not help I was still ahead of them. I got asked when this dive was over if they could try them on the next dive i was very short and to the point, NO!
Our third dive was a DPV dive. we got started and headed down a contour on our dive, and i had to clear my mask and this put me behind my dive buddies, so I ended kicking semi hard and using the DPV and had I caught up to them in no time.
Day 2
we went up the mountain on to some differing lakes, and the first dive was a deep dive, we dove to about 95 feet, along the way down we followed the contour and the boulders of the dam. There was alot of aquatic life around them. I ended up frog kicking to not stir up so much silt and disturb the critters. It was interesting dive I took things nice and slow and watched some of my fellow divers pass me and I was watching how much silt the were kicking up as we dive near the boulders. All and all it was great dive had no problems staying with my group, or catching up.
2nd dive was a exploring a new dive site area. we had to get in with some nice shallow spots, and then quickly there was a drop off we had a DM dive it right before us and he said there was shallow shelf about 5-10 feet and then it would drop off to vertical wall over 100 feet. We dove to about 50 feet and it was very nice, we saw fish and a few crayfish. It was a great dive, the fins help me move all around the wall with out disturbing the aquatic life on the wall.
These fins have great power, plenty of get up and go. I was using nice and slow kicks to maneuver around and a wonderful time. I absolutely love these fins, I have to say that i have gotten alot of comments about how interesting they are and how cool they look. They comment about how much power they have and ask about how do they feel, and was it worth the purchase? I have told them they are well worth the purchase, and they feel great. people have mentioned that it was very smart of me to engrave my name on them, I told them it was not me that did it was the manufacturer and designer of the fin that did it as they are personalized it. I want to say once again thanks to Bob for making a great product and keep up the good work.
Thanks
Sam
