Cave Diver once bubbled...
You're a better man than I am SJ. I don't even want to think about swimming against a 4 knot current. I have been in an estimated 2-3 knot current a couple of times, and I know for a fact I couldnt make much progress swimming against it with any fins, tho the jets did seem to do the best and tire me the least.
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Well, to be honest, it's not something that I can sustain for long... On this particular day I jumped in, knowing that there was a good chance that I was going to get swept downstream. But like I said, there's docks downstream, so it wasn't a big deal.
But as I got in, I noticed that there was a line on the dock, ready to tie a boat off to... It was about 6' long, and the other end of it was permenantly moored to the dock. I threw it in, just to have something to hold onto. A couple of times, I grabbed it, too, to have something to hold onto while I adjusted something on my fins or whatever... And when I did this, my body planed the water in such a way as to cause a wake... That's how fast that current was going! If I had turned my head sideways, no doubt my mask would have been ripped from my face...
And no offense meant to DIR... I love the stuff. But in these conditions, BFK's stuck in the bottom and completely prone bodies, as well as a long-legged, from-the-hip flutter kick is in order. A diver does not think about bent knees or frog kicks in this situation.
My point is that I want BOTH skills... I want to be able to hover perfectly and do frogs and helicopters and never stir the bottom, and I want to be able to dive in fast, zero vis waters for megladon teeth.
Of course I eventually got swept downstream... And of course, I got out at a neighbor's dock. But the longer I was able to sustain, the longer I was able to prolong my dive.
Maybe I should teach "DIR-FC" classes... "Doing it right in fast currents."
The truth, I think, is that there's also a big difference between what y'all are diving... Doubles in a dry suit... Than what I'm diving... A single in a wetsuit. No doubt there's a big difference, too, in the amount of current you can handle in the prone position when you're diving a skin-tight wetsuit, a single AL80, and a pair of long fins...
I'm going to echo what the others said about the fin not fitting you well. I wear a size 10 1/2 to 11 shoe, and I have three different pairs of booties. One set fits my jets well, one only marginally, and the third pair will not fit my jets at all.
Now that's interesting. So there's some truth to the idea that it takes the right booties... That's the problem, I'm sure.
You may look into getting just a neoprene wetsock and trying the fins just with them to see if that allows your foot to get in any further, before tossing your jets.
That's exactly what I am using... A wetsock with a very thin sole. I think that's part of the problem. See, the fins DO fit me right now with that thin sock, which isn't doing anything in terms of holding the fin in place properly. I believe that if I were to get the next size up in fin, and add a pair of hard-soled booties, that my experience would be very different.
Whatever the case, these are not the right fins for me. I think I need to retry them in a larger size, with a different bootie.
So yes, these particular ones are still on their way "out." Looks like someone here is interested in them... Which would be great... I feel guilty not using these fins! They've got lots of potential, they're just no good for what I'm looking for...
