DivesWithTurtles
Contributor
Tom Winters:
Tom, It'll be really interesting to see if you think they're still the hot stuff after all these years. Be sure to post it. Made a new thread so it's easy to find.
Tom's new Voit UDTs
- Thread starter DivesWithTurtles
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
Tom, It'll be really interesting to see if you think they're still the hot stuff after all these years. Be sure to post it. Made a new thread so it's easy to find.
Well, it's been a while since I got the things. They're a cool black with blue streaks in them - and they have that old familiar heavy rubber smell that absolutely fries my wife. They're even very slightly positively buoyant.DivesWithTurtle:
Sizewise, I got XL, and they fit perfectly without booties.
And therein lies the problem. Without booties, they could easily wear your feet off. I have a pair of thin neoprene dive socks that I used with them, and the fit is just a little tight on the sides of my feet. Plus they still are royal *******s to get on with that thick heel strap.
I have only used them in the pool - I did a lot of traveling this summer and I sure was not lugging these things down to the eastern Caribbean. So they have not been in salt water yet.
If I go to the next larger size, XXL, they will be loose enough but maybe too loose. I'm thinking of slightly enlarging the foot pocket with one of my magical boat tools or possibly even going to a spring strap mounted on posts that I install. The sidewalls of the fin are thick enough, and then they would be easier to get on and off on a boat.
But I REVEL in the stiffness of them. Doing laps, these puppies are max resistance all the way - stiff, unforgiving, unyielding. I can go like a bat out of hell in the water, but my feet ache after a 1/4 mile.
So I'm still in the conditioning phase here. For casual use, they are worthless - you need some serious leg muscles to use these all day and not cramp yourself. The thrust is amazing - I can lift almost all of my body out of the pool when I come roaring up, so I can always get a job at an aquarium now.
Bob3
Contributor
Spring straps on Duck Feet?!?!!! Call me immediately, before you do something that'll get you soundly beaten for in some areas. 
I have somewhere in excess of 20 prs of the critters, in all age groups going back to the '50s.
Duck Feet (Giant UDT flavor) are the primary fins I use, I need the XXL to accommodate my foot width & that gives me a couple extra inches length in the pockets, which doesn't seem to affect a thing.
If ya REALLY want to find some Duck Feet that'll fit, look for the old US Divers version, they're much wider in the foot pocket.
I have somewhere in excess of 20 prs of the critters, in all age groups going back to the '50s.
Duck Feet (Giant UDT flavor) are the primary fins I use, I need the XXL to accommodate my foot width & that gives me a couple extra inches length in the pockets, which doesn't seem to affect a thing.
If ya REALLY want to find some Duck Feet that'll fit, look for the old US Divers version, they're much wider in the foot pocket.
Bob, I had no trouble finding old versoins of the fins - the problem was the failure of the heel strap, the reason the original pair went belly-up in the early 70's or whenever.
I tried getting ahold of 360 Incorporated who bought the molds, but they don't seem to be answering the phones. Hopefully, they're all on vacation and not with my old pair of fins.
What size shoe do you normally? I'm 11 with not particularly wide feet, and these babies are tight. I got the XL's on eBay for a song since no one else wanted them - and that SOCOM store for SpecWar-wannabees has Supers for $72.
I'm going to continue the pool torture until my feet adapt or they fall off. It's kinda fun going 25 yards in about 7 seconds. A mile would only take 10 minutes except I just about kill myself decelerating after every length.
Plus those straps were always agony to get on in a pitching boat. The getting-them-off wasn't so much fun either then, and it sure isn't now. I gotta think about this spring strap stuff a little more. If they had been invented then, I could have kept on using my original pair.
US Divers isn't an option after they told me that they were discontinuing parts support for my Calypso regulator in 1969. I never forgave them for that.
I tried getting ahold of 360 Incorporated who bought the molds, but they don't seem to be answering the phones. Hopefully, they're all on vacation and not with my old pair of fins.
What size shoe do you normally? I'm 11 with not particularly wide feet, and these babies are tight. I got the XL's on eBay for a song since no one else wanted them - and that SOCOM store for SpecWar-wannabees has Supers for $72.
I'm going to continue the pool torture until my feet adapt or they fall off. It's kinda fun going 25 yards in about 7 seconds. A mile would only take 10 minutes except I just about kill myself decelerating after every length.
Plus those straps were always agony to get on in a pitching boat. The getting-them-off wasn't so much fun either then, and it sure isn't now. I gotta think about this spring strap stuff a little more. If they had been invented then, I could have kept on using my original pair.
US Divers isn't an option after they told me that they were discontinuing parts support for my Calypso regulator in 1969. I never forgave them for that.
Bob3
Contributor
Bummer~ the heel straps are the weakest part, when that happens its time to ebay the critters to folks that'll give them a good home as "display items".Tom Winters:
I'm between 11 - 12, depending on width. My feet are so flat (Koehler's Disease) that they make sucking noises when walking on a smooth deck.
My favorite donning technique is to stand on the fin tip with one foot & kick hard to get my foot all the way into the pocket, and the straps just pop into place. The first few kicks gets the foot slid back up against the strap & the things seem to work just fine with the extra room in the toes. That may just be a function of my foot shape though.
Heck, ya should've gone with a Royal Aqua Master in '69, that way it'd still be "in vogue"
, not to mention increasing amounts of parts support.If its any consolation, the Conshelf series continue to have a fair amount of parts support, particularly the XIV series, where they were the basis of the regs used on the Kirby Morgan hats. They still sell the XIV first stage for the standard bailout rig.
I particularly like the way a guy can chase bugs down with the things.
Ok...the mentiion of the Royal Aqua Master opens up a whole new mystery. When we got our gear in the mid '60s, I got the single hose and my dad opted for the Royal Aqua Master. He didn't like diving all much and so stopped sometime around 1968.
His castoffs after he lost interest in a hobby were pretty amazing - when he took up an interest, he went whole hog. Photography was a slew of Nikons, Rolleis and even a Hasselblad. My first trap gun was a gorgeous Ithaca over-and-under after he lost interest. He took up fly fishing so I wound up with 8 Hardy reels and a stack of Orvis rods.
But try as I might, I have NEVER been able to find that regulator of his. He says that he just stuck it up in the attic, but that's the one trophy of his that I never unearthed. I don't even think Sculley and Mulder could have solved this one...
His castoffs after he lost interest in a hobby were pretty amazing - when he took up an interest, he went whole hog. Photography was a slew of Nikons, Rolleis and even a Hasselblad. My first trap gun was a gorgeous Ithaca over-and-under after he lost interest. He took up fly fishing so I wound up with 8 Hardy reels and a stack of Orvis rods.
But try as I might, I have NEVER been able to find that regulator of his. He says that he just stuck it up in the attic, but that's the one trophy of his that I never unearthed. I don't even think Sculley and Mulder could have solved this one...
Bob3
Contributor
Geeze... I suppose that over/under was a 28 gauge too, eh? 
I have been diving Voit fins most of my life. Voit Viking A6 and A66, Voit Skindivers and of course Voit Duckefeet. King of the Duckfeet is the UDT. Tests long ago proved them to be an effetive fin for strong swimmers. I have some of the new ones--in black, negative bouyant, size XL. I dive mostly from boats and with thin neoprene socks so they are perfect for my feet--love them. They are a powerfull fins and I have no diffuculty passing swimmers with the Jets. Of course, if you dive thick boots you will have to stay with your Jets. I do not know why the UDT fins are so powerful, the shape, the stiffness and oneness with your feet (bare or thin sock) I don't know but they are a fin that is capable of providing sufficient thrust for any situation. I don't know if going to the XXL will get you into a boot or not. They were not really designed for boots--to narrow. Uh, there are several sources for these fins. If you want black ones like mine try www.vintagescubasupply. I think they are about 60 dollars, real nice people too. Barefoot I use a size large but I prefer thin socks so the XL is wonderful for me. If I could get new issue full foot or strap foot Viking A66 I would be in heaven. Make mine blue please. Hey, they also have new repro oval masks but if you shop on ebay you can often find nice Dacor ovals, these are primo and match look of the UDTs. Good luck.
Oh, one other thing, the Royal in the attic story!!!! I suggest you find it! That is worth a boat load of fins. All the parts are out there to make it like new, either NOS or new produced repro parts. The Royal Aqua-Master, pretty much King of the Hill. Royals routinely bring 300 to over 500 on ebay, the gold ones go for thousands. N
Every time I went back to Connecticut, I'd search for that Royal Aqua Master. The one that I would really like to have is the one I learned to dive with in 1961. It was an twin orange-hose Aqualung with Emile Gagnon's name on the manufacturer's plate - the reg was old then.
Similar threads
