Travel Fins: What are you using to drop weight, but give good performance?

[steelwindmachine]

I have Mares Volo fins. I love them, they perform awesome, but they are big, heavy and are open heal for boots - needing boots too.

I'm headed to Aruba and am taking these fins, but I was wondering what else people are using successfully for tropical diving that weigh less, but provide good propulsion control?

I read up on the AL Hotshots, and they seem nice, but fall down on more advanced techniques. They might be adequate for me, but I'm looking for a slightly more capable solution, if it exists.

 

[Warmwater Wank]

Dan--Your basic Force Fin makes for a great all around fin, especially when travel is factored in. I got tired of lugging around my heavy Bio-Fins and not only are the Force Fins much lighter and smaller they are great for diving. Yeah, open heel but a pair of $25 dollar TUSA Imprex hard soled booties work fine with them. I photograph a lot and the fins give excellent control. Being shorter, stiffer fins you are much more "reef conscious" too, less likely to accidently knock things around. Just my opinion of course--but I'm right! (Which of course is what anyone thinks if they like whatever fins they use...) // ww

 

[Shftrdog]

I really like the TUSA SF-15 splits or the Oceanic V-16 splits, and just slip a cressi soft sole boot in there it takes up no room and are very light.

 

[xeon_intel]

+1000 for ForceFin, i use them for both my local and travel diving, light, maneuverable, and pack a great power...wouldnt dive w/out my ForceFin

 

[buddhasummer]

Mares Xstream, very light, there was review in Scuba Diving Magazine where test divers rated them very highly. You can read the review online.

 

[Tortuga68]

Cut-down free dive fins

 

[drbill]

When I travel, I take my old US Divers (Aqualung) Blades. They are light weight and give me good performance on most of the dives I do. My Apollo Bio Fins are great for local diving, but too heavy to travel with.

 

[gert7to3]

Zeagle EZ Travel Finz

EZ Travel Finz - Masks-Fins-Snorkels - Zeagle Dive Systems

You can wear them bare foot, with light weight beach shoes or low cut water shoes.

Will you be doing boat dives or shore diving off Aruba?

 

[farsidefan1]

My twin jet fins are too heavy when I travel to places with small plane end rides that are super restrictive on weight (charter plane to sharm allowed 8 kilos for second bag, similar problems in Australia) so I leave them home and go with my scuba pro blades. Saves me nearly 5 lbs. Normally I take my twin jets. I just pack carefully. If I'm headed for a liveaboard I only take a couple suits and t shirts in addition to my dive gear. I am nearly always going to a dive resort so I rarely need much more than the essentials.

 

[TSandM]

I use Jets at home, and they are heavy. For travel, I've been using the Dive Rite EXPs -- but I weighed them before this last trip, and they're barely 2 lbs lighter than the Jets. Since the material is plastic and much less negative, it's clearly the spring straps that are adding the weight, and I'm NOT going without them!