Split fins or no?!? I can't decide! Help!

[Puffer Fish]

Peter, if all tests are to be rejected because they don't match your belief, and your belief is based on your "feeling"... then why bother posting? After all, if only your personal belief is real, it would be reasonable to expect that should be true for everyone else.

It is easy to look at a new diver, with an inefficient kick, using split fins, and assume the issue is always the fins. In fact, here, in three reviews is a excellent view of the issues:

Atomic Split Reviews - Product Reviews - DIVE

If you actually do testing, with the correct fin motion, spits win every time, by a huge amount... if you go on feeling, beliefs, social compliance, they don't.

The fact still is that the fastest frog kick every measured by scuba diving Mag, was done with split fins..fins that "experts" have said will not even do that kick (the tests were all recorded, for anyone that cares).

Thrust measurements are the same way... spits don't "feel" like they can generate thrust.. so it must not be true.

They feel too soft, so they must not work in current.

They are bought by new divers, so they must be rip-offs. Ok, they are overpriced..well at least I believe that.

Full foot fins almost always also test better than open heel, but when I use them, I cannot feel the difference, unless I use a stop watch on a specific distance. Does that make that test wrong also?

 

[John_B]

I need paddle fins to be able to all the fin kicks I need to be able to do (frog kick, back kick, helicopter turns). YMMV.

 

[Mike Waymire]

It depends on what type of diving you're doing and what kind of shape you're in. Split fins kick much more easily than full fins, but they limit the types of kicks you can do. I dive cold water in the Pacific Northwest where dive sites often have loose, silty bottoms. When I dive these sites, I use a full fin, so I can do a frog kick which keeps me from roto-tilling the bottom and mucking up the vis. Most cave and wreck divers use full fins for the same reason- frog kicks. Split fins won't allow you to accomplish a very effective frog kick. When I dive tropical, I use my split fin becuse they're lighter on my old legs.

 

[apertyx]

I'm just gonna say it -- I love my v-12 splits, especially with the spring heels on them! Easy on and off, and I never have any trouble keeping up, except with Randy from Emerald (how does a big man move SO fast???)! Say what you will, but I like em. I think that's the selling point. Try em and if you like em, buy em. Change your mind? Someone else will likely buy em.

 

[peterbj7]

Puffer Fish - whatever works for you is right. But I'm more concerned with efficiency than speed - I don't want to tire myself out on a long dive, however fast I may be able to go. I can travel as fast as I wish with a pair of "paddle fins" without much effort or movement of my legs (which is much the same thing). I've never found that with any split fins. And having run a dive center for many years I've seen my experiences in others, both novices and experienced. This is of course a generalisation, but it works for me. I don't know any really experienced divers who use split fins, though clearly you're an exception to that.


I've just read the Dive Magazine reviews. I don't see much enthusiasm there - those reviews just confirm my own observations. I wasn't sure which fins these were, but looking at the picture I see that I used a pair last summer. Didn't like them - too much effort for too little movement.

 

[The Kraken]

Fins are a very subjective part or diving.

One can make a decision on purchasing such an item only if one has done a subjective and quantitative test comparing two different fins.

How can one say, "This is the greatest fin ever!!" if one has not had the opportunity to compare that particular fin against others?

Just my thought . . . .

the K

 

[The Kraken]

Your question not withstanding, I would dearly love to see some aquatics inclinated study group come up with a device that could empirically measure the efficiency/force capability of a given group of fins.

Put your mouth where your money is.

I'd be willing to bet, and I'm not a gambling man, that there isn't a hill of beans of difference when it comes to propulsion between one fin and another when it comes to recreational diving.

So many fin manufacturers promote their fins as to being the fastest! Where in the heck are you wanting to go in such a hurry when your're down there??

I would take a bet that you can't out swim a shark, so why does it matter so much how fast you can swim?

the K

 

[The Kraken]

And after all things are said and done, it comes back to this . . . .

your fin choice depends upon what kind of diving your are doing and the dive conditions of those dives.

And in that, you and you alone, are responsible for your choice.

the K

 

[1_T_Submariner]

I'm with the try to test some and buy what you like crowd.

I have Sherwood splits and other than the lenght I don't have any complaints. They just take up too much space when flying.

 

[John_B]

I'd like to see someone scientifically measure how much faster a diver burns through a tank with the faster kick rate needed for split fins (compared to traditional fins).