What can cause fins to get damaged like this?

[purbeast]

I just got back from Grand Cayman last night and did a lot of snorkeling. On my last day (luckily it happened then) I was about 200 yards out at Cemetary Beach off the shore and noticed that my fin seemed a lot more "floppy" than it is supposed to. After it seemed to be getting worse and worse, I looked down at my fin and saw that it was completely ripped. It was split almost symmetrical on both sides of the fin right at the bend point. Pics are below.

Since I was 200 yards out I immediately started heading in, but was using pretty much one leg to kick in because I didn't want the fin to completely rip off. I switched the good fin to my other leg with like 50 yards to go because it was getting a bit tired. Thankfully the conditions were really calm and I could safely make it in. The day prior, I was at Rum Point and swam into some tough conditions from the shore and thankfully this didn't happen there.

Anyways, what could cause this to happen? I did not bend it on the ground or anything as the water wasn't even shallow enough to do so. Unless I did that a day or two before, and it gradually got worse, I have no clue what could have caused this. I don't recall a specific incident that could have caused this earlier too. These aren't cheap fins either, these were almost $100 and had great ratings.

Atomic Full Foot Split Fins

Anyways, here are the pics of my fin.

 

[divad]

Looks like the work of Bears.

 

[Bob DBF]

I'd get ahold of Atomic and have a chat, they might want to see the failure enough to trade you for new. It's worth a try.


Bob

 

[purbeast]

I'd get ahold of Atomic and have a chat, they might want to see the failure enough to trade you for new. It's worth a try.


Bob

Yeah I was going to look into if they have any kind of lifetime warranty. I hadn't checked about that yet.

 

[BenjaminF]

They were already split. Looks like something decided to finish the job

 

[Bob DBF]

Yeah I was going to look into if they have any kind of lifetime warranty. I hadn't checked about that yet.

It may not be about warranty, if they have not seen a catastrophic failure like that. Research isn't just done in the lab.


Bob

 

[Dogbowl]

It may not be about warranty, if they have not seen a catastrophic failure like that. Research isn't just done in the lab.


Bob

I agree with the word “catastrophic “ for sure!

 

[purbeast]

It may not be about warranty, if they have not seen a catastrophic failure like that. Research isn't just done in the lab.


Bob

Ah I see what you are saying. I misread it at first.

 

[chillyinCanada]

Too soon for my "friends don't let friends dive split fins"?

 

[JamesBon92007]

I had a pair of ScubaPro Sea Wings fall apart. Guess where?

To OP: were they left out in the sun a lot?