anyone try freediving fins when scuba?

[Marwan]

im going on a trip that involves mainly freediving but there are a few sites n the way that are good scuba sites i want to try... i dont want to pack 2 sets of fins... so any problems scuba diving with a pair of longblades??
cheers

[Jorg]

no problem, I did many scuba dives with my trusted cressi gara 2000 fins. I even found it more relaxing and with that having extra dive time, because of less physical movement of the fins...

Of course I only use them in open water. If go in a cave or another confined space underwater I wouldn't put them on, because of the extra maneuverable room you will need.

All in all, normally I have all my freediving gear on when I go for a scuba dive: - Cressi gara 2000 fins
- Cressi superocchio mask
- Sporasub snorkel in my BCD
- 5mm Freediving Submarine wetsuit (okay not my more expensive eliossuits)
- elastic weightbelt with 2 kg's (normally with freediving I don't use extra weights)

If I put on normal scuba gear I just feel so clumsy in that not perfectly fitting stiff wetsuit .

[rslomkow]

There is nothing strictly speaking wrong with SCUBA diving in Freedivng fins, but they are inferior to SCUBA fins when doing SCUBA. With that said if I am only going bring 1 pair of fins with me, I bring my Freediving fins.




Basically SCUBA equipment adds a large amount of drag to you underwater. Using long fins is like towing something in a hight gear, you can do it but you have to play the clutch and you strain the engine. This also means that you cannot get the gentle glides from small motion of your long fins, because you have too much weight and resistance.

As you can see here, I over-bend my knee when diving with long stiff fins while SCUBA diving. I also have difficulty back paddling in Freediving fins compared to my Mares Planar Avanti's.

With all that said, my last several SCUBA trips have been with Cressi 2000 HFs, because I generally spend more time in the water Freediving than SCUBA while on vacation and it wasn't worth it to pack two sets of fins. The legs get a little bit more tired but the differences are not large.

[Old Man Dave]

Depends on your suit and style of diving. For scuba I use a dry suit with built in large dry boots and occasionally a wet suit but with sole boots not socks. The freediving fins wont fit over either. Also I climb my dive ladder back into the boat still wearing my scuba fins. Couldn't do that in freediving ones. I often kneel on the bottom while on scuba again probably not too easy with freediving fins. I also find you need tough scuba fins, I use beuchat jet fins which are indistructable. Don't think my Omer Ice 3's would last long for my type of scuba.

Dave

[greendiver]

I have tried all types of fins, and somehow I still prefer my Garas 3000, even on Scuba!
Obviously, only in the blue..and with a bit of current.
Other freediving fins, carbonfins and the ones with these rubbers on the side do not work as well....
However the Jetfins are a good runner up...