Stainless steel or rubber straps?

[mistressmotorsports]

I bought my Bio Fins before they had spring straps as a factory option. I added Innovative spring straps later and love them. You can generally find spring straps for about $25 or so if you look around, so it is pretty cheap to upgrade later if you decide to go with rubber first. My brother had a rubber strap break on him after about 80 dives, but he doesn's have Bio Fins, so that might not be a real data point. I like the spring straps for shore dives, as there is no fidgeting, adjusting or whatever when you are floating in the swells trying to get your fins on. For boat diving, there is less of an advantage to springs. Springs also eliminate a potential entanglement point (maybe not a big one) if you are diving around kelp or whatever. Good point above about springs adding weight to already heavy Bio Fins, so they will make your feet a little more negative than they would be with rubber. That may or may not be an issue for you personally.

I do carry one of the original rubber straps in my dive bag as a backup.

Mike

 

[beanojones]

I cannot recall a rubber strap breaking on me in use but I am sure somewhere one did. I have seen other people with rotten junky equipment travel 1,000 miles to dive without checking their equipment over or having spares but I do know for a fact that a Halycon high dollars spring strap broke on me in use, on the third dive. N

That's a funny story.

For me the appeal of spring strap is the not having to tighten aspect more than the reliability aspect. But as Nemrod points out rubber straps are pretty damn reliable, and easy enough to carry spares for.

 

[RonFrank]

Rubber straps can and do break. Generally if this happens during a dive it is because the diver neglected to replace straps that have shown heavy wear for some time.

I use Spring Straps. I picked up several pair at $10 each from LP during a sale. Normal cost is around $25~30. IMO they are worth it. No adjustment necessary, and they don't break easily. I have a pair on my bioFins. The straps that come installed on the BioFins are permanent. They screw into the fins, and can not be replaced by rubber straps, not that I think this is a disadvantage.

The BioFins with spring straps installed are about $40 more vs. the ones without. If you are going to purchase new, paying the extra $40 is likely worth it as aftermarket straps will run close to $30. I purchased my biofins used, and installed springs which ran me around $100 total.