biggest free dive fins available?

[donny]

does anybody know which fins have the larges closed pocket? I have a size 15/16 foot and have been free diving with xxl jetfins and booties but would like to enjoy the benefits of stiffer fins. I have tried on piccaso black team fins in the largest size w/ 3mm socks but they are just too tight. I dive in socal so barefoot might be an option with a soft pocket. Am I limited to open heel blades if I want the luxury of warm feet? Any recommendations for open fins if that is what I am destined for? Economy would be great as I am no expert nor am I rich. Thanks in advance, Donny

PS I have already learned a lot from reading through the posts here.

 

[icarus pacific]

15/16??! Jesus, I thought I was screwed with 13's! You poor bastard!

Here's the deal, direct from buddy and genuine knowitall, Bill Ernst- take the footpocket, the rubber thing that your foot slides into and make a slit up the length of it, just like your Vans or Chuck Taylor Hi Tops. Then with a hot nail, poke holes along the slit to use in lacing the footpocket up with nylon parachute cord. Finish with a hole at the top of the slice, lace with flair and off you go.

The OMER pockets have been about the biggest on me and they'll let me slide them on with a 3 mil sock if I lube them up with the wetsuit lube first. But it's still loads of laughs for the onlookers.:hmm

 

[miles]

Hiya

I have a UK size 13 foot. The picasso (simotal) footpockets fit me very well. My omer millenuims tend to hurt my foot on the sides. I have big as well as broad feet. try the picasso black teams with a 2mm sock. Picasso Black Teams are very good fins and very well priced. Excellent value for money!!!

Regards
miles

 

[donny]

thanks for the advice icarus pacific. It made me think up a way to do it without cutting up my fins, though Bill's method was going to be a last resort.

Miles, I wanted to get a pair of black teams but the price here in the US is $150 so I bought the picasso starts for $60 from scubastore since I wasn't 100% that my experiment was going to work. Anyone know a intenet source for BT fins under $100? Everytime I go shoe shopping I wish I had sz 13 feet.

Here's what I did with them for anyone who has fins that are too tight.

I took a volleyball and totally deflated it and then stuffed it in the foot pocked and blew it up pretty good, stretching the fin. Next I took a heat gun (a hairdryer on steriods used for stripping paint or shrink tubing) and applied heat to the areas that I thought I wanted stretched. The rubber softens and the ball heats up and inflates even further giving me the desired effect. I let it cool and repeated 60 minutes later and then let it sit for 20 hours. The first one came out perfect for my size 16 foot. I under estimated the effectiveness and luckily didn't over strech it (just barely). I repeated for my right foot with a little less intensity and my feet are very comfortable now and I am very happy (5mm socks are even a possibility).

I would recommend doing this slower and more incremental than me, I got it the first time but I easily could have ruined the fins.

 

[dallasdiver]

With feet that big, why did you need fins?

 

[BlueWaveC]

Amen dallas...those are Ian Thorpe sized feet (almost...I think he is a 17...yikes) !
:mute

 

[[email protected]]

Unfortunately my fins are not rubber - probably vinyl. Heated with an iron pushed in upside down - then stretched with a small bowl inside and heated over a gas flame. Didn't really work - just scorched. Think I may have to cut and lace up as suggested unless other suggestions posted. Thanks

 

[dachness]

Look into Mako Big Kahuna fins.

https://www.makospearguns.com/Big-Kahuna-Fiberglass-Fins-size-14-15-p/mbkfgf.htm

 

[DRW]

The issue of outsized feet and the resultant odyssey in search of fins to fit them has proved to be a perennial problem in all forms of swimming and diving. Although manufacturers sometimes argue that their customers can squeeze their feet into the largest-sized fins they make, they don't or won't publish the internal lengths and widths of their foot pockets in centimetres and millimetres so purchasers can really be sure they match the dimensions of their feet.

The lacing solution was certainly practised by Russian spearfishermen, who often fashioned this workaround in their workshops at home because they had little or no access to the diving equipment market outside the country. Russian and Ukrainian fin manufacturers even supplied a couple of models with factory-installed laces and eyeholes:

The Australian Eyeline range of full-foot swim fins claims to offer fittings up to UK 17-19, which the company equates to US size 19-20; see https://www.eyeline.com.au/Shop/Product.aspx?pid=EF4K&cid=351. However, the key measurement isn't the shoe size. It's the foot pocket's internal length and width in centimetres, which are 31.5 × 11.7. Would they match your foot dimensions, without your toes spilling out of the toe opening too much and causing an unwanted fulcrum possibly leading to a tear in the side walls of the toe opening? So determine the dimensions of your size 15/16 feet in terms of centimetres of length and width. If those Eyeline fins offering 31.5 cm internal length work, there's an option. And if so, don't reject them too quickly because of their association with swim training; in an online article entitled "My favourite kit", Australian professional underwater photographer Pete Atkinson was very satisfied with that style of fin.

Read more at http://www.divernet.com/gear-features/p300505-my-favourite-kit-pete-atkinson.html. There are plenty of online videos showing how Eyeline-style foot pockets can be bonded to a blade to create a home-made monofin. Maybe something similar can be done to create freediving bifins?