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

[mdb]

RJP: That is a great image of Mother Angelica

As a former Catholic school kid I well remember Sister Mary Sister lining up the boys for a good smack with the "iron edge" of her well used ruler. There was, usually, group punishment when some class member did something she did not like.

Having used Jets, Turtle fins, Swimmaster, multiple Mares: Power Plana, Power Plana Graphite,
Avanti, Apollo Prestige, and more, I find the bio-fin XT fits best for me. It works well with a wider
slower kick, as well as a faster flutter kick. There is feedback and feel and power and propulsion with both strokes.

Each to his own. I don't know what fin Sister would use. Would have to be black.

 

[RJP]

I don't know what fin Sister would use. Would have to be black.

The mere thought of her in a wetsuit is enough to make me shudder - split fins or not!

 

[Teamcasa]

If you can't frog kick in splits, you are not as good a diver as you think you are....

 

[wjefferis]

If you can't frog kick in splits, you are not as good a diver as you think you are....

I can frog kick with splits (I own a pair of ScubaPro twin jets), but they never seemed to be very powerful. About a year before taking my cavern class I bought a pair of ScubaPro jet fins and truely found my fin of choice. My frog kick is very strong against current in open water and against flow in the cavern environment. They also work great for helicopter turns and allow you back-up. I won't say that I hate my split fins, as they worked good for me as a beginner. I can say however, that I find that they just sit in my dive bag now only for the extremely unlikely event that something happens to or breaks on my jets.

 

[Papa_Bear]

Here is the beat test I have seen and they confirmed what I have known for a long time!
Scientists Debunk Fin Claims - Undercurrent, January 2004

 

[Montana Diver]

OMG I just found this post and just think it's the best.

I think everyone can do a back kick in splits....it's just when you do it with splits, you ram your forehead into the coral that was in front of you that you were trying to avoid.

The people who use split fins today were probably the ones snow skiing in the 70's with the short snow skiis, while the real men skiied with 215 cm fisher, kneissel or hexcel. Oh yeah, they probably wore scott ski boots and tight ski pants.

They are probably the same group that says that a Cessna is a much better plane because the high wing makes it more stable than a low-wing piper.

They were probably the group out riding on the tiny sew-up racing tires on their ten speeds. You rember those, the drop handle bars, toe clips and the shifter mounted on the frame by the front fork.

They were the group that said that the only true sports car was the AMC AMX, cause it won all the races in the early seventies.

But the one thing that paddle fin people can truly beleive is that if you wear split fins, "you're gonna DIE." At least we'll have all the Paddle fin people behind us to carry us up to the surface, since we're always way ahead of them in our faster fins.

 

[divecanuck]

I agree with mfalco. I have both the Scubapro Twinjets and the Apollo Biofins. I like 'em both. But what I'm finding is that my kick is evolving into more of a flutter or frog and maybe the blade fins would be better. But I love my splits and they've benefitted me on long swims...

 

[pygmyghostpipeturtle]

My humble opinion? If you have good strength and fitness, a paddle fin is more efficient. I've used all kind of fins and I move 5 times farther with one kick of my OMS Slipstream than with one kick of a split. There is more resistance and muscle burn, for sure, but my legs are strong. Bottom line: I move further with less kick cycles. Less movement = lower heart rate =less CO2.
I like standard fins, but who cares if other divers want to use split fins?
The important thing is that we are all having fun right?
I do wish those splities would stop silting up the bottom though..

 

[Splitlip]

Split fins are less likely to silt than a paddle fin using a flutter kick.

 

[ONESPEED]

In an effort to provide a thread where split fins can be bashed while still staying on-topic I have started this thread.

Split Fins:

• Loved by those who use them and despised by those who don’t.
• Claimed to be faster and easier to use by those who actually use them and won’t work in current by those who don’t.
• Voted the divers choice in several Scuba Magazine tests by those charged with testing them and those same tests are discredited by those who don’t use them.
• Can only perform well in one style of kicking as told by those who don’t use them.
• You are prevented from hovering or diving upside down when using splits.
• They are not DIR compliant and no self respecting cave diver would be caught dead wearing them.
• One of my favorite quotes: They allow people who don't have proper kicking technique to move by moving their feet, but without kicking.
• With cause a silt out and makes a diver to rototill the bottom, where paddles prevent siltouts and prevent divers from doing any bottom gardening.
• Will inevitably generate comparisons to propellers, marine life, birds and paddle wheeled boats.
• We generate posts where engineering pedigrees are trotted out.
• The US Navy does not use them so they must be un-American.
• Will sgnerate personal bashing and squabbles in any thread that mentions them.
• Split fins still out sell all other fins types.

Did I miss anything?

Translation: Nobody has an ugly baby. That said I have a set of XL twinjets I'd be happy to let go at a very fair price if any of you devout split fin defenders are interested.