- Messages
- 98,048
- Reaction score
- 99,610
- Location
- On the Fun Side of Trump's Wall
- # of dives
- 2500 - 4999
Nice report Uncle Pug ... and fairly representative of my experiences, although I'm coming at it from the "other" end. One observation is that the decreased efficiency is to some degree related to the fact that you're much more used to one fin than the other.
I put about 660 dives on my Biofins before getting my Turtles about a month ago. The first few dives with the Turtles were not pretty ... they required a totally different technique to scull than the Apollo's did and it took me a few dives to figure it out. After about 40 dives with the Turtles I felt totally comfortable with them ... then I switched back to the Biofins for a more effective comparison. What I found is that I like both fins for completely different reasons.
As you note, the Turtles are a finesse fin ... they're much more maneuverable than the Biofins. And they have much more "glide" when sculling than the Bio's do. Although I always felt that my frog kick and heli kick were better than average in the Bio's, they're much better and easier in the Turtles. There's a difference in how you produce the kick in each fin, however. The Bio's require more use of your legs and knees, whereas the Turtles really don't like that motion, and are far more effective if you keep your knees quiet and use your ankles more to move the fins.
But when swimming againsty current, the Turtles are appropriately named ... they're not a fast fin. Diving Titlow (in the Tacoma Narrows) last week was much easier in the Bio's, as we had quite a bit of current to contend with. Of course, in current I prefer using a flutter kick for a constant power stroke ... a scull is a gliding kick, and gliding just isn't efficient when you're swimming "upstream" ... and a flutter kick is what splits do best. Also, for long touring dives ... like at the local underwater park, where one can cover lots of territory in an hour ... the Bio's are preferable simply because their reduced resistance makes for less leg fatigue over the course of a long dive.
To those who make claims about what you can't do with splits, or say that they make you silt up the bottom I say "nonsense" ... it's the diver, not the fin, who determines what you can and can't do. I've a friend who dives a cheap, plastic pair of USeless Diver fins ... and he amazes me with what he can do in them.
Oh, and Uncle Pug ... would love to head out for a couple of dives and work on that reverse kick with ya. I'm still having trouble making it work right ... with either fin ...
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
I put about 660 dives on my Biofins before getting my Turtles about a month ago. The first few dives with the Turtles were not pretty ... they required a totally different technique to scull than the Apollo's did and it took me a few dives to figure it out. After about 40 dives with the Turtles I felt totally comfortable with them ... then I switched back to the Biofins for a more effective comparison. What I found is that I like both fins for completely different reasons.
As you note, the Turtles are a finesse fin ... they're much more maneuverable than the Biofins. And they have much more "glide" when sculling than the Bio's do. Although I always felt that my frog kick and heli kick were better than average in the Bio's, they're much better and easier in the Turtles. There's a difference in how you produce the kick in each fin, however. The Bio's require more use of your legs and knees, whereas the Turtles really don't like that motion, and are far more effective if you keep your knees quiet and use your ankles more to move the fins.
But when swimming againsty current, the Turtles are appropriately named ... they're not a fast fin. Diving Titlow (in the Tacoma Narrows) last week was much easier in the Bio's, as we had quite a bit of current to contend with. Of course, in current I prefer using a flutter kick for a constant power stroke ... a scull is a gliding kick, and gliding just isn't efficient when you're swimming "upstream" ... and a flutter kick is what splits do best. Also, for long touring dives ... like at the local underwater park, where one can cover lots of territory in an hour ... the Bio's are preferable simply because their reduced resistance makes for less leg fatigue over the course of a long dive.
To those who make claims about what you can't do with splits, or say that they make you silt up the bottom I say "nonsense" ... it's the diver, not the fin, who determines what you can and can't do. I've a friend who dives a cheap, plastic pair of USeless Diver fins ... and he amazes me with what he can do in them.
Oh, and Uncle Pug ... would love to head out for a couple of dives and work on that reverse kick with ya. I'm still having trouble making it work right ... with either fin ...
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
