There are indeed a lot of gimmicks out there. Power bands, fancy hinges, etc. One thing that is not a gimmick is spring straps. I consider those a must. I had to look up the Dacors as I have never seen a pair around here. But what you have is a basic rubber paddle fin. Still perhaps the best fin. You now have your choice of SP Jets, OMS Slip Streams, Hollis F-1's, the new HOG Tech fin, and a few others. Then you start getting into the different plastics or combinations fins like the old Aqualung Blades (not the newer blades II those are garbage), Dive Rite EXP's, and some others. These two are good fins as well and popular in the tech community to some extent. I have the old Blades and they are my usual fin for the pool for snorkeling and skin diving classes as they are lighter than the others and since I need to carry lots of fins, masks, and snorkels for the kids in the program. Very powerful and responsive and were my only fin until the Hollis F-1's came out and I got to be one of the first consumer testers.
Still have that pair of prototype F-1 as well as a pair of the prototype F-1 yellow tips. I also just tried and have in stock some of the new HOG tech fins. Red and Black versions.
My feelings on the F-1 are well known here and I have posted a few reviews and foot pocket dimensions on the regular and XL sizes. Only ones I have. They are a great fin. Powerful, responsive, a bit on the heavy side and a full size fin. They are a bit on the long side for strapping to my roller back pack for travel. But they come with spring straps and those are adjustable. My initial review is here
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/hollis/242445-hollis-fin-review.html
Recently I've been diving the new HOG Tech fins and had a chance to compare them with the F-1's one dive after the other in my drysuit with a single tank. Here is my post re the foot pocket dimensions on them:
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/fi...n-foot-pocket-dimensions-l-xl-xxl-anyway.html
Having had a chance to compare them side by side a couple of observations. First the new fin is very responsive. Back kicks, helicopter turns, fine adjustments in position, and they are hard to beat for me. They are my new wreck diving fin hands down and being almost 4 inches shorter in general than the F-1's definitely my new travel fin. They are slightly negative in fresh water which works well diving dry or using thicker wetsuit boots. As are the F-1's.
For me the F-1's still have their place though. For open water high current I'm likely to choose them as they just simply move a lot of water. But the trade off is that in doing so they can get tiring for those not used to them. The HOG fins are lighter and stiffness wise comparable. The foot pocket is comfortable and the springs on them are adjustable as well. In the quarry I saw no difference in performance. They were comfortable and moved me through the water quite well.
The other deciding factor when someone chooses a fin is price. Luckily as a tester my F-1's cost me zip. But they retail for 169.99 and 209.99 at Leisure Pro for example. The new HOG tech fins have a MAP of 129.99. For some the 40-80 price difference may be a factor. It would have been in my case at the time.
Whatever you decide there are lots of choices out there that will work. In fact there are few of the DACOR's on ebay of you do a Google search so you may be able to go back to what you know works.
May sound funny coming from a person who'd like to sell a new pair of the HOG's to you but my goal is that you get what works best for you. Whatever that may be.
I saw a few people beat me to posting as I tend to get long winded at times. Only exception I will take to their advice is on the issue of spilts. I generally don't care for them but out of all of them the ones I would try in open water would be the Apollo Bio's. And yes I do offer them but only because I have tried them and they work. That's why I agreed to carry them when I was asked to by Apollo.
