Split fin hate?

[chillyinCanada]

My fins - Atomic open heel splits, and Deep 6 Eddys. I watched a video of me going over a soft bottom. The split fins shot out a jet of water that raised a small silt cloud about 6 feet behind me every kick even though I was using the modified frog kick. I've also seen too many (probably new, probably still learning) divers in split fins dragging tips, and raising clouds. I'll use the splits in current, because I can maintain forward motion without cramping. For most other uses, the Eddys do me just fine. For me, the splits are simply harder to use well.

I have never been diving near a split fin diver that wasn't creating the vortex. I really really don't like them creating a vortex big or small. Perhaps let me lead.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

I have never been diving near a split fin diver that wasn't creating the vortex. I really really don't like them creating a vortex big or small. Perhaps let me lead.

The vortex is how they work to propel you forward.
That’s how they’re designed.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Haha, so to summarize this thread:

OP: When did split fin hate start?
Responses: We all know the answer but we won't tell you

It’s not that we won’t tell you, we can’t tell you.
Read the TOS.
Just like politics, diving has become very polarized

 

[Gone for diving]

Can we all get a DM. Please?

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Who scissor kicks all the time? I actually hate it when diving,
Frog kick is so much more relaxing,
If it really strong then scissor kick is more powerful.
But to relax, modified fludder/frog kick works well,

I do now again.
I got into modified frog kicks and all the cave/wreck style stuff when I did some tech diving, but now I’m back to flutter kicking from the hip.
I come from a freediving background so it’s more natural for me.

 

[chillyinCanada]

The vortex is how they work to propel you forward.
That’s how they’re designed.

Understood. However, I don't care for the effect, especially when that wearer is near the sandy bottom. Or any other life.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Understood. However, I don't care for the effect, especially when that wearer is near the sandy bottom. Or any other life.

Well that’s probably why a lot of people don’t like them. I’ve tried them several times at different times in the past and I don’t particularly care for them, but I wouldn’t call it outright hatred.

 

[Jafo19D]

Last year I dove with a group that had a guy with split fins. Innocently I asked how he liked them and he got defensive about them and especially so how they performed in currents.

 

[Altamira]

This whole thread is pretty amusing to me, a Mares x-stream, an Atomic SMOTW, and an Apollo Bio fin owner and user. Can split fin users stir up the sand with their fin vortices? Yes of course they can. But, as a rec diver that rarely dives with the same diver, and who has had a long string of rec insta-buddies, most of which were using whatever paddle fins the dive op was renting/supplying, I have seen more silting and reef damage done by said divers than any competent diver using split fins.

This split fin bashing bit is getting pretty tiresome, and it is time we accept fins to divers are like golf clubs to golfers: They are tools. Period. It isn't the fin that creates the problem, it is the diver. The finest diver I have ever met or dived with is a CD with over 50 years of dive experience, and who was still doing deep tech dives in his 80's, and when I spent a week diving with his dive shop group at Bonaire in 2010, he was using a jacket and SP Twin Jet Max fins.

 

[chillyinCanada]

Well that’s probably why a lot of people don’t like them. I’ve tried them several times at different times in the past and I don’t particularly care for them, but I wouldn’t call it outright hatred.

I don't think that I said "outright hatred". But lemme think about that and maybe I could work up to it.