Best fins for spearfishing?

[flathead]

hello everybody.there are some fin blades being made in oz that are worth considering.ray powell diver r900 blades are real good.just got a pair to replace my gara 2000.everybody on the east coast seems to diving in them.i only wish cressi would make a interchangable foot pocket

[OregonSpearo]

Omer's Rekords are just rebadged Pierre Van Ecke fins with an Omer sticker and 120 more euros on the price tag.
They are stiff and are excellent fins for deep dives. You can get save yourself some money and order them directly from PVE at 199 euros a pair:
http://www.histoiresdeau.com/palmes.htm

[strangelove]

OregonSpearo

Have you order from this site before ?

[trux]

Originally Posted by strangelove

Have you order from this site before ?

There are some guys in our club having fins from Pierre Van Ecke. Myself I am thinking about getting a pair of their blades too. So far, together with Breier's fins (the club pricing though), they are the less expensive carbons I saw.

[spaghetti]

Originally Posted by OregonSpearo

Omer's Rekords are just rebadged Pierre Van Ecke fins with an Omer sticker and 120 more euros on the price tag.
They are stiff and are excellent fins for deep dives. You can get save yourself some money and order them directly from PVE at 199 euros a pair:
http://www.histoiresdeau.com/palmes.htm

Are you sure? Provided I've never seen the PVE with my eyes, from the link you gave us (small pics, difficult to tell) they do look similar, but definitely not the same.
The PVE carbon texture looks significantly different than Rekord 3's, and I also have the impression to see a metal pin or thread as a junction between blade and pocket, while the Rekord 3 have no pins nor threads

[Seacidal]

Spaghetti,
In your browser, try alt-clicking on an image of the fins, and select view image. You should be a larger than screen size view of the same picture. Much better viewing.

[gman]

It looks like a screw to me. (I think)....

[khel]

Hmm.. looks interesting. And "Voilures seules" - are blades only, right?

[strangelove]

Marwan

You mention that your special fins Hybrid is medium stiffness, but checking the special fins web page they Hybrids are only available on Hard or ExHard. Is the web page wrong or missing a model.

[strangelove]

Sorry to revisited this thread but since I’ve received my new pair of Medium Hybrids and Hard Hybrid fins as well as a pair of blue water specials, I think this will be good information for a fin buyer.

It is a cold December day, I finally get my medium hybrids and I head to the pool with several different pairs of fins (I will try to make a long story short). A pair of cressi’s 2000, a pair of Cressi 3000, a pair of blue water special with omer foot pockets, a pair of blue water special with Picasso foot pockets, a pair of Picasso black team, a pair of esclapez blue (soft model) a pair of bat25, a pair of bat30 a pair of special fin hard with omer foot pocket and at last a pair of special fin medium hybrid. Also I have two of my friends to try all of this gear, one is around 160lb, I am 170 and the last is around 190.

The first fin I try was the SF hard; the fin feels great, but tiring after a couple of laps in the pool, but certainly gives a lot of trust if you have the leg strength. This is fin would not be my choice for surface swimming, but very good for vertical dives, but it can be heavy and tiring on the foot.

The next fin I try is the SF medium, this is certainly a dream come true, the fin has a lot of snap much more than the hard model, it is very good for surface swimming as well as deep dives, I am at this point very happy with that purchase, the fin is very light on the foot and not tiring at all.

Now it is time to try the blue water special with omer pockets, these are very good for surface swimming perhaps even better than the medium hybrids for surface swimming but not as good for deep dives, this is also a very light fin on the foot. The Picasso foot pocket gave me the same impression; I did not notice any significant change on the fin performance even though the Picasso foot pocket is way more rigid than the omer pocket. I also have no regrets paying 200 usd more for the hybrid at this point, the question mark is if the hybrid are as durable as the blue water special.

Time to try the omer bat25, these are very good for surface swimming, probably my fin of choice if I would want to cruise for a long distance on the surface, one issue I have with those is the fact of the power curve since to get flat after a certain amount of power, I can push as hard as I want but I don’t go any faster.
I’ve got the same impression about the bat30, but this one it is just not as good on the surface as the bat25, both fins lack a good snap on vertical dives.

Now it is time for the cheap fins, the first one I try is the gara2000, these are terrible on the surface, but they might be good for vertical dives, the overall impression is these fins are too stiff for all of us.
The gara3000 are softer therefore better for surface swimming, however both fins suffer from the same foot pocket problem, the foot pocket is not rigid enough on the sole, so issue that I did not notice before but after trying all of these fins I can definitely feel both of these fins bending right in the middle of my foot. The interesting thing is, I have try the 3000 before and did not notice that.

The esclapez blue, has a good foot pocket with a hard sole, it is a good fin for surface swimming but lack power on deep dives.
At last the black team, this one is stiffer than the esclapez and better for deep dives, it does not have the foot pocket issue of the cressis.
After all the test we all agree that within all these fins the SF Medium hybrid were the best, I am not sure is they are the best fins out there but they are definitely better than the hards and the best among the fins we tried. So the three of us in AK agree with Marwan about the Medium hybrids, but these thread and other threads gives the omer rekord very good remarks.

In summary some folks would pick the Rekord as the best fins, Marwan and Me would pick the Medium hybrid (but I have never tried the Rekord), Ted really likes the Dessault F1 also the C4 are always something to consider, this last one has so many different types and stiffness that picking the correct model will be a challenge of his own.
I’ve choose the medium hybrid because I like shorter fins also I hope the Kevlar blade is more durable than the carbon fiber. I wish Bill McIntyre was in the pool with us, he is a better writer than me, and he also really likes the Matrix 20.
If I lived in a warmer place, I would probably get a pair of Rekords and a pair of Dessault, but with a three month dive season it is hard to convince my self. This is just my onion I hope it helps someone else to on their quest for fins.

[Marwan]

all respect to the rekord fins, i wouldnt switch back to omer, because i dont like the footpocket.. i use sporasub on the medium hards MMMMMMMMMMM loveley
cheers guys, that pool test is definitely my kind of thing, wish i was there, not so sure about alaskas weather nowadays though, BRRRRRRRRRRRR
cheers

[strangelove]

Marwan

I am in Brazil now, it is 10 am it is alrealdy 25C, so the ice is all gone. The medium hybrids felt even better in the ocean with a wet suit and a weight belt. Beating the ocean current was never so easy !

[sheepeck]

Hi guys.

Seems you know a lot about footpockets-blades combinations so I dare to put some questions here.

I have bought C4 Flap 30' and now looking for footpockets. And - they should be similar to Gara's becouse until now I used 2000HD and was very satisfied. Seams I prefer tighter heel area. Omer's are too wide for me.
I tried Beuchat pockets and they fit well on my feet.

1. Are Sporasub pockets similar to Gara's?
2. Is it possible to easily place C4 blades into Beuchat's? If so, then I'm probably decided.

Thanks and aloha

Petr

[trux]

I have C4 Flaps in Beuchat pockets, but assembling them was not quite easy - I had to grind the side T-rails (the hard ones, not the rubber rails) on the Flaps that go into the side arms of the foot pocket, because Beuchat pockets have the T slits smaller than Spora's. Also the screw holes are different on the pockets than the pre-drilled ones, so you either have to drill new ones, or glue the blades into the pockets instead.

Originally I've bought H. Dessault foot-pockets for the blades. Putting the blades into them was very easy - a question of 2 minutes, but unfortunately the sizing did not fit my feet - the smaller size was to tight, and the bigger size too big. I thought I could compensate with a thicker sock, but after trying a few days I gave up - it was simply too loose. In contrary the Beuchat pocket fits perfectly and I like it, so after some hesitating I adjusted the blades for them.

If you decide to adjust the blades, be sure to take a dust mask and long gloves and have a running vacuum-cleaner near the worked spot - the fine carbon dust is quite itchy, and I bet not too good to inhale. Before working on the T-edge with sand paper, I've put painting paper tape on the blades to avoid scratching them.