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Cool looking bifin

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
It can take a long time to get an up-to-date response or contact with relevant users.
OK, I have now the Apnea Magazine Jan-Feb/2008 in my hands and just starting to read the review - it is 2 full pages long. I started by the conclusion and it is very positive (and it does not look to be biased, or paid by the Italians). Practically the only negative point they mention, is that the blades get easily scratched, but aside from rubber fins, that's the same at most other plastic, fiberglass, or carbon fins as well. The versatility of the fins belong to the most praised advantages among all testers.

I am going to read the entire review in a moment and will post a more detailed résumé later.
 
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OK, I have now the Apnea Magazine Jan-Feb/2008 in my hands and just starting to read the review - it is 2 full pages long. I started by the conclusion and it is very positive (and it does not look to be biased, or paid by the Italians). Practically the only negative point they mention, is that the blades get easily scratched, but aside from rubber fins, that's the same at most other plastic, fiberglass, or carbon fins as well. The versatility of the fins belong to the most praised advantages among all testers.

I am going to read the entire review in a moment and will post a more detailed résumé later.

Trux,

if you are a subscriber to Apnea like myself you may have noted that Apnea has never ever printed a critical or slightly negative review. When anybody mentions an Apnea article/review for reference in French forums like chasse sous-marine dans le var - spearboy.com or A la chasse sous-marine en apnée they get nothing but rofl because everybody knows that the magazine(s) derives a substantial part of their income from advertising.

Mind you we are talking about a 100% plastic blades - fragile and prone to wear to begin with - with triangular holes ...

Actually, some time if not years ago the Italian magazine Pesca in Apnea showed pictures of members from the team Effesub with carbon blade prototypes with the same feature and no rails. This may have been interesting, but IMHO the plastic whalebone fins ... may be appealing to design fanatics on paper, in your hand feel like a future product liability case. Anyway, the new footpocket appears to be the most interesting part of this fin.

Cheers
 
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Yes, it is clear that Apnea will not publish any deeply critical review, and nobody certainly expects it. When reading such reviews, you need to read between the lines and take from it what sounds reasonable.

Personally, I was and still am (even after reading the review) quite skeptical about the durability of the fin. The glider looks very fragile, and on my mind it will blow out after a few weeks (if not days or even hours) of use. As for the holes - they do not disturb me, they may even have a positive effect. What is more disturbing me is the built of the blade - rigid in the middle (the whale bone) and softer on the sides. On my mind this will necessarily lead to convex V bending of the blade, which is then negatively influencing the efficiency of the blade propulsion (unlike concave bending).

As for the footpockets - they do indeed look good on the photos, but surprisingly in the review they do not speak about them in more details. They just tell the fins are generally very comfortable and ergonomic. If they were exceptionally well made, I would expect they would use the fact and write about it in much more details.

So basically they highlight these advantages:
- the look (that's of course bulls...t for everyone except of gear or rarity collectioners like myself)
- manufacturing quality (hmm, well, OK)
- the performance (they claim it to be among the top plastic fins)
- the versatility
they also mention comfort, ergonomy, good grip, and other positive impressions

You can tell that, though, about most other freediving fins too. Anyway, they are relatively cheap (the first price I found when putting it in Google is 79€), so for gear geeks it may be an interesting experiment. And even if they break after a few weeks of use (what I suspect), you can always put a nice carbon blade into the footpockets :) - that's in contrary to some other fins that do not have exchangeable blades (i.e. Cressi, Mares, new Sporasubs, etc.)
 
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i'll buy some if Jon comes out and says he bought a pair too...
 
I'm tempted just for the footpocket. I need something that's soft for some fibreglass underwater hockey fins, but I'm yet to find anything appropriate. The fins themselves look like they're built to look good, not perform well.
 
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