**Split Fins – Let the Bashing Begin!**

[Papa_Bear]

Hey, I am just reporting the story! You make up your own mind!

 

[bluesbro1982]

Scubaboard is over - RJP Wins with that post. Epic Win, even.

But seriously, check out This comparison for some side-by-side testing of how much silting splits give you up compared to blades. Blades really let me down...

 

[drbill]

This is the FINAL word on this issue... split fins, especially the Apollo Bio Fins are great compared to every solid fin I've tried dating back to the early 60's. Now everyone else fall in line. I'm surprised the DIR folks don't buy into this... they seem to like this kind of thinking (just teasing all of my DIR or unified team diving friends out there... you do it your way, I'll do it the right way, my way... or else).

Oh, and as far as kicking up silt... I view it as a benefit to all those infaunal organisms on soft sand, mud or silt bottoms. You have to stir up the sediments every once in a while or they get to be hardpan and the burrowers can't survive there. Of course for those filter feeders, the fine sediments may be a problem.

 

[TSherman]

what, no pink? LOL

No comment...

 

[TSherman]

I am part of a very special group of US Navy's Seals that uses these split fins. We find that we can out pace a Mako shark when we choose the split fin. This is critical when sneaking up on submerged Al Qaeda while on covert ops. We fire our "Ray Guns" at the enemy, and then kick so fast it just silts out, not that it would matter because once I kicked about 10 extra kicks and bumped my head on Cuba while on a mission in North Carolina. Al Qaeda has recently tried to kill Sand Tigers in NC, so we were sent to take care of them.

Mine are a camo pattern not sold to the public, but you can get nearly the same ones on many websites. BEWARE! There is a very high level PADI class needed to use these fins and an oxygen mask should be used due to increased pressure from the speed.

:shelli:

Special ops, huh? Perhaps they prefer splits because of the automatic "silt cloaking" feature?

 

[CompuDude]

I started on Mares Power Planas and used them for over a decade. I switched to splits (Apollo BioFin XT-Cs) and loved them. I spent the time to learn to use them properly and got a lot of performance out of them.

When I started learned specialized kicks, such as the back kick, however, it quickly became clear that the back kick just doesn't do what I need it to with splits. And when I graduated to doubles and drysuits, it quickly became clear that the frog kick that worked so well (in splits) with a wetsuit and single tank really ran out of steam when trying to push doubles and a drysuit through the water. Jet fins solved all of these problems, once I learned to use them properly.

So I still throw on my splits on occasion, and marvel at the quickness. But then I'm happy to switch back to my Jet fins, and back to the frog kick, which I now prefer, and the fine control I get with positioning (via the back kick) for my photography.

For those who are never going to become devoted to photography (as opposed to taking the occasional snapshot), will never use doubles, and will never need a drysuit (or all of the above), split fins can be a great choice. For anyone with a knee injury, they can really be the ONLY choice worth considering.

But for MY diving, I choose the best tool for the job, and overall, that tool is a paddle fin. For some specific dives in specific conditions, I still reach for my splits, but that's a pretty rare occasion these days.

 

[CompuDude]

Most of the smarter divers have already adopted the new technology. Stiffer is only good for certain non diving apps. Less resistance and more performance seems to make way more sense. I can do all styles of kicks with by bio XT model. No problems at all. I still have my 30 year old Jets and some Mares power plana fins and several other model paddle fins. The old style paddle fins now feel like bricks or boards on my feet.

All styles? So you're one of the 5 people in the world who can do a back kick with splits?

 

[24940]

I've been known to do pretty much nothing but frog kicks in splits

Really?

 

[mcjosh]

When my buddy and I were diving the U-869 on air with John Chatterton and Richie Kohler last year, my buddy's split fins silted the place up so bad that I couldn't find my Spare-Air. I got so nervous I mistakenly hit the "up elevator" lever on my SeaQuest i-3 BCD. Ordinarily, this would have sent me shooting to the surface, but fortunately some monofilament got tangled around my Air-2. When I cut the line with the 11" knife strapped to my calf, I mistakenly poked the purge valve in my HydrOptix mask. I tried to use my tank banger to get my buddy's attention, but by that time he had gotten one of his suicide clips tangled up in the retractor I use to attach my dry snorkle to the transmitter of my air-integrated wireless compass, which I bought on-line instead of at the LDS that I stopped supporting ever since I signed up for e-learning. I believe that was right about the time I had the regs I bought at Leisure Pro serviced at the local Jiffy-Lube but didn’t actually test them myself before going on a special “Storm Tracker” live-aboard trip that I signed up for because in addition to free nitrox they were offering a special "take Fish ID, get your IDC free" promotion. Unfortunately I missed that trip because of the systemic fungal infection I contracted when the Halcyon p-valve I installed myself in my cave-cut trilam dry suit failed while I was solo-diving for golf balls without a scooter. Which I only did for the money, ever since the captain of the boat I DM on started making me tip the passengers $10/tank on every charter that I work.

I'm writing a book about it...

Shallow Divers: The true story of two Americans who risked everything to solve the mystery of every "you're gonna die" cliche on ScubaBoard

Ironically, it seems that Gary Gentile is now claiming that I actually did not experience EVERY cliche myself, based on a series of interviews with the girlfriend of the brother of a guy I shared a room with on Spring Break in 1987 and is now threatening to expose the REAL story of how all the trouble started when Papa Bear kept radioing the Coast Guard to ask whether he could log pool dives as "real dives".

I will happily refute Gary's assertions in an on-line interview on ScubaBoard, wherein I will respond to any and all questions with "get a BP/W" while wearing my mask on my forehead.

PS - it's not the agency, it's the instructor!

Guess a GUE Fundamentals might do you good or rather save a life in future.

mcjosh
Ren Scubaworx
Singapore

 

[dive_lover88]

i'm ditching my spilt fins for a new one tmr...

I had enough with it after putting up with it for 3yrs...cant go fast in current. And the darn angle of the tusa xpert zoom is getting on my nerves.

Going to get the deepoutdoors six gill fins.