Fins for beginner?

[aaronrushton]

hi,
well, i've been on about 9 or 10 dives now with my old cressi scuba fins and i seriously need some proper freediving fins as im just getting too tired with my current fins. I am not diving any more than 12m (currently) as i don't need to dive any deeper than this in the area i spearfish to find what i want. i weigh about 60kg (irrelevant info?) and am size 8 and a half with pretty wide feet. my budget is about £60. dive shop oner said omer milleniums and imersion e-greens would be good for me, what do you think? i will be going down this weekend to try some on.
ATB
Aaron

 

[fcallagy]

Hi Aaron, use the imersion green in the school and sell them so am a bit biased but very comfy and a nice softness. Black might be a bit too hard espcially for spearing where you are on the surface a fair bit too. Imersion have a good wide and comfy footpocket. The green blades have an angle and if stood upon in the pool you see a stress crack but its never got any worse and as I said they get dogs abuse through the school

 

[woods]

as i was in your position a few weeks back i thought i would reply since i spent ages trying to deside what fin to go for!
i went looking through all types of fins, and the ones that i came up with that suited me and the conditions that i would be usin them for(similar to your own) were;
immertion E.greens
omer stinray winter grey
cressi gara 3000 Ld
cressi gara pro LD
in the end i went for the cressi gara pro LD and i am well pleased with them, such a difference for the fins i had befor, not hard on the legs, for me swimming out to the dive site and back was fine. first day i did about 2.5km in total no prob.
i have used the e-greens and think they are a really good fin and at a good price as well, my college club just bought 12 sets and 4 of the club members took them for a dive one day and loved them, and id say they will be buying a set each soon!
the others i havnt used but all have good reviews and there own perks, the one thing i would say to look out for is the foot pocket, you need a good fitted foot poket. from what iv read immersion are nice and wide, omer are medium and cressi are on the narrow side. im a size 8(EU42) and got size 42/43 and with my 3mm sock they fit perfect!
good hunting on the fins!

 

[Simos]

I am not as experienced as the others here but especially if you haven't got the strongest legs and you spend hours and hours of shallow diving and surface swimming, I wonder whether you'd be better off with shorter, less tiring fins than long, freediving fins. Just a thought... I am not too sure you'd be less tired with freediving fins but they will give you more power when you need them - sounds like if you do get freediving fins, you should go for a pretty soft blade..

 

[aaronrushton]

thanks for all the help guys, i ordered some e greens from apnea.co.uk on monday but they havent arrived yet so it looks like i'm diving with just my old scuba fins tomorrow

 

[Apneaddict]

The e:greens have a great angle to them. They are durable and fit a wide foot / accommodate a neoprene sock well for most ppl.

I think my next set of bi-fins will be leaderfins and sized closer to my actual foot size (maybe only a 2mm sock or so, but the egreens are great and are what I use for cold water with 5 or 6mm socks (I ordered them a size larger to accommodate socks)

Being durable plastic, they travel really well! I'm not sure they will ever wear out!?

 

[V.Kh.]

I am big and heavy and use medium leaderfins sandwich (carbon + glass). I think they work like soft for me. I understood the advantage of softer fins after a couple of time training in the pool. Swim slowly, do big legs strikes with straight legs to make your fins work effectively.

 

[Mr. X]

Beuchat Competitions are good - prices vary but they should be within budget. Beuchat pockets seem to fit both narrow & wide feet. I think Seacsub offered some of the cheapest/best value spearo fin options I have come across. On one hand I think "fins can last a long time (excluding some of the fancier blades) so don't scrimp" but on the other hand "even the cheap spearo fins work really well and often they are tougher than the more expensive options".

Omer fins/foot-pockets are well regarded too (beware the lovely transparent Ice model, alas the blades break ).

 

[Pinniped72]

Seacsub shout S900 are great fins and if you were using cressi master frog I can vouch that they are way less tiring. Totally different feel, the master frog can generate the power but the legs feel it whilst the Seacsub shout has a more fluid and progressive action. From my point of view the only advantage in the master frogs is that you are wearing boots, so shingle, rocks etc are no problem but that advantage disappears in the water, the frogs are amphibious whilst the Seacsubs are out and out marine!!