seeking fin recommendation

[legato1]

Hello, my first dive instructor sold me some aqualung slingshots when I got my basic open water. I like them, but the instructor was planning on closing his shop (without letting anyone know) and sold me the small because he only had neoprene socks and no boots in my size. Now that I have my own full set of gear the fins do not fit with dive boots on. The other issue ive had is one of the rubber bands came unhooked on two of my dives and I had to stop and fiddle with it at 80 feet with terrible viz. Im looking into getting the apeks rk3 fins, but am worried what size to get because my local shop that I'm training at doesn't have them in stock for me to try them on. I now wear scuba pro heavy duty boot size 11. Any feedback on the rk3? What size should I try? Im going to learn dry suit diving eventually and would like to also use them with dry suit boots. Thanks - Stanley

 

[runsongas]

the rk3 fins are slightly positive and not a great fit for most people diving a drysuit. negative fins such as jetfins/turtles/f1s are most popular with drysuit divers.

 

[legato1]

I wont be drysuit diving often, im just going to take the class and was hoping to get a fin that can handle it.

 

[buddhasummer]

Unfortunately many people require a different sized fin going between wet and dry.

---------- Post added August 16th, 2015 at 02:16 AM ----------

FWIW your shop didn't do you any favors, open fins almost always require boots not socks. The only one I can think of where socks are recommended are the hotshots.

 

[NAM001]

legato

I use quarto's and they work well diving wet or dry with rock boots on. As mentioned it is hard to find a fin that goes both way. My jet fins also do both.

 

[stuartv]

I wont be drysuit diving often, im just going to take the class and was hoping to get a fin that can handle it.

I had hoped my wetsuit fins would be okay for dry diving, too. I found that they are just too light (actually, they are neutral). I had to get fins that were more negatively buoyant to use with my dry suit. But, if it's just an occasional thing, you might be able to get by with ankle weights.

That said, if your boots for your wetsuit are substantially different sized on the outside (regardless of your foot size) than whatever dry suit boot you end up with, your wetsuit fins aren't going to fit with a dry suit anyway.

If you do buy new fins for diving dry, then I'll say that I like my Hollis F1 fins. I don't think they give me quite as much power as my Atomic Blades do (for scissor kicks or frog kicks), but they do work well, they are nicely negative on buoyancy, and they come with nice spring straps.

 

[legato1]

I might have to try the Hollis f1, they look similar to the rk3, i wonder which one provides more propulsion.

 

[Centrals]

legato

I use quarto's and they work well diving wet or dry with rock boots on.

Two different pairs?

 

[KenGordon]

It all depends....

For example the rk3 are much lighter than the f1 fins. I had to swap between them recently when I gave my f1s to a student who broke a strap. The dive was a bit unpleasant as I was battling my now too light feet. However I am considering buying a pair to dive in a different, but still drysuit, configuration.

My point is that you can't really figure this out without trying out the fins in the water, diving the set up you would normally dive. Also body size and strength are important, small people only need small fins etc.

As for fit, I did that the other way round. Given fins that fit my drysuit I needed wetsuit boots to fit the fins. I ended up with chunky Oceanic 6.5mm boots, these were the biggest I could find.

The weight aspect of fins seems to get less attention than it deserves. Getting nicely balanced in the water is important and fins have a lot of leverage.

 

[stuartv]

The weight aspect of fins seems to get less attention than it deserves. Getting nicely balanced in the water is important and fins have a lot of leverage.

I am still surprised that more manufacturers don't publish specs for fin buoyancy. Especially for fins targeted at the Tech market. I read that my Atomic fins are neutral, but I haven't found anywhere that says anything about the buoyancy of the F1s. It doesn't seem like it would be that hard for them to measure a pair of each size and post the results somewhere.