Hi Alan, Boy this could get a bit confusing here. The full foot Vector fins are not the split fin design. The full foot split fin design for Oceanic is the Vortex V-6.
Here in the United States, the vector full foot fins are discontinued and the Caribe was their replacement which was then replaced by the CaribeX. Since Oceanic no longer has a picture of the Vector full foot fin on their website I am including two links which will take you to our website which still has the vector full foot fin pictured.
Our website doesn't have the picture of the Caribe X. I called my boss who is putting it on as I am typing this. I will put it in my next post to you because she is doing it at homewhere her internet speed is worsethan dial-up.
I think you will notice the differences between them just by comparing them to eachother.
By the way, I can't blame you for nitpicking. The consumer is not the same person as they were 10to 20 years ago. They don't purchase things on blind faith anymore.
When I purchase something, I like to find out as much about an item, that I am thinking of purchasing, before I go into a store to buy it. Ten to twenty years ago I would have only had catalogues and word of mouth for research. Today I have scuba magazines that do product comparisons as well as the introduction of the largest researching tool available which is the internet.
As a consumer, myself, I research the product because, to be quite honest, I don't want to walk into a store and ask stupid questions. I have heard over and over again that there are no stupid questions. That is a statement that I do believe in whole heartedly, from a salesperson's point of view. When I am wearing my consumer hat I find it much more difficult to convince myself of the contrary. Researching the product gets me one step closer to being on the same page as the person trying to sell it to me.
I do want to restate that just because an item is discontinued in the U.S. it does not mean that the item is discontinued in other countries. If Singapore says that the vector full foot fin is the replacement for the caribe fin then I would be inclined to believe them. I do question the statement in your first post about whether the Vector and the Caribe or Caribe X have all the same properties.