• Welcome to the DeeperBlue.com Forums, the largest online community dedicated to Freediving, Scuba Diving and Spearfishing. To gain full access to the DeeperBlue.com Forums you must register for a free account. As a registered member you will be able to:

    • Join over 44,280+ fellow diving enthusiasts from around the world on this forum
    • Participate in and browse from over 516,210+ posts.
    • Communicate privately with other divers from around the world.
    • Post your own photos or view from 7,441+ user submitted images.
    • All this and much more...

    You can gain access to all this absolutely free when you register for an account, so sign up today!

Glide (or similar) foot pocket adjustment...

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.

ILDiver

I just wanna dive
Jul 11, 2005
1,639
183
153
52
I have a Waterway Glide. My foot pockets fit great except the heel strap. After wearing my fin for 5 minutes my feet cramp. As soon as I get the heel strap off, the cramp is instantly gone. It's putting severe pressure on my Achilles Tendon. I was told this is the biggest and widest foot pocket they have. There is plenty of overlap in the rubber to give more room (or so it seems), but I don't know the best way to go about it. How would I get the pieces apart to reposition them? I want to get this fit right and really start using it!

Thanks for any tips or tricks you might have.
 
Cool! Come on over here so I can try it You can try my Hyperfin.

I don't know how much time you've spent with the fin on - or if you used a mono before, but when I first got my Hyperfin the pain was extreme and almost immediate. Now I usually go through an initial period of intense discomfort but after 15 minutes I can generally go 2-3 hours. If you are using 5 mil socks try going with 3. It also helped me a great deal to turn my 5 mil socks inside out - so the neoprene is on the outside, then coat them with K-Y jelly so they slip into the footpockets without binding.

My waterway nemo hurt like hell at first too - now I can go 6 hours with it - but the hyperfin design is definitely a whole 'nother.

That said there are options for extending the strap - I've not done it so I'll leave it to those who have to advise you. Personally I think an adjustable heel-strap with a lever-style closure would be revolutionary on these types of fins.
 
Reactions: ILDiver
No socks at all. The foot pocket fits great, it's just the strap on the tendon. I tried extra soap, hoping I could curl my toes some, but it did not work. There was not enough room to curl my toes. If it's cold enough for socks I'll have to cut the foot of a bootie and cover the outside of part of the foot pocket, cus there is no way a booty will go in there with my foot!

I wore it for 20 to 30 minutes diving with Jon and whopperhead in 50 degree water, but my feet were numbed by the cold. In the pool and in a spring with cdavis, they cramp up in 5 minutes. Jon actually tried my mono with 5mm botties and it worked well for him.
 
Last edited:
I requested room for 5 mil socks in mine - Max actually had to design special footpockets for me - sort of 'out of spec'. The thing absolutely rocks though - as I am sure the Glide does. I think these fins are held together by superglue - I know Laminar has some extensive design changes he wants to make to the straps on his Chen Bin but I do not know if he has implemented them.

You are right to be cautious - the snug fit on these hyperfins is integral to the way they work. Have you tried just slipping the strap down to the heel? I know it does absolutely no good for me but might be worth a try Just for a scale-of-pain sort of thing - I thought my fin was insanely painful at first - I mean basically I was a pair of absolutely excruciating feet traveling around under duress for the first few dives I wore it. Most times after a couple of hours (the first 20 minutes of which are rough) I have to allow ten minutes before I can walk. I also noticed my feet felt much better while swimming so, in my initial pool sessions, I did really short breatheups to try and maximize swim time. I literally could not believe the pain after the first 10 minutes or so - but after 20-30 of near constant swimming it faded.
 
I have wore the fin at home for 15 minutes at a time trying to break it and it does stress my feet a little. But using it, 5 minutes is painful. When I was ordering it, Martin Stepanek told me if I could wear it for 15 minutes before hurting the first few times, that it would break in and be fine. Bogdan then basically said the same thing. I can't wear this thing 5 minutes. I was afraid I would not make it back to the ramp at Warm Mineral Spring.

I've slid the strap down, but the thickness of the strap makes it rigid and it does not stay there, it does help a little with the comfort though, taking the pressure off the tendon.

I've heard that they use super glue, I am hoping somone that has done some mods with help me with methods of repositioning and freeing the strap to reglue.
 
I hear ya. I'd say 15 minutes without pain, in the begining, is a bit optimistic. For me it was maybe five - then screaming pain. I worked really hard on relaxing my feet with the nemo - which was key - so I was a little more prepared for this one - but its still pretty rough.
 
Just move the straps back then. Super glue will not work very well. You need some tougher and waterproof glue to stick them back.

It was 10 mins for me before my feet started hurting. Like Fondue said, if I rested after that first initial cramp, I can go on for quite a bit after that.
 
Reactions: ILDiver
ILDiver, i have a imilar problem with my Hyperfin, not to mention suction on my feet so strong that without the foot strap it is still VERY difficult to get off! PM ADR he has built alot of fin from scratch and modified some as well he knows these pretty well. he should no exactly what it is you need to do.

DD
 
Reactions: ILDiver
I've had a little bit of the suction issue. There is a small hole in the top of each foot pocket to help with that, and as I'm told, to let soap out as I put my foot in. I figure once I have it fit, if I have suction issues I can add another hole. I'll try contacting adr, thanks.

Cairns...I looked at a job there, they never got in touch with me though. That is one place I'd love to move to. Dare to dream
 
ILDiver,

so have you solved the suction issue, because i'm looking at either enlarging the hole or adding one closer towards the toe area?

Yep Cairns is kinda nice only been here 6 months (When i'm home) but its beautiful and the diving (provided you have a boat is VERY good) i travel alot with work so still havent gotten sick of it yet here (Freediving rep)

What was the job you applied for surprised they didnt get back to you there is ALOT of work going up here in most fields
DD
 
I've noted the suction issue but normally overcome it just by twisting my foot a little to break the seal. Once I have one out the rest is easy.
 
I used my Glide at the lake today between scuba dives. I made sure to put plent of soap in there and I tried to curl my toes as best I could. I was able to kick around on the surface or just under it for about 15 minutes and the cramps started. So maybe it fits after all. While swimming I really don't notice the cramps, I'm paying attention to everything else (kicks, position, etc). But treading at the surface, my mind has time to think about my feet I guess. So I think I need to make sure my feet are well lubed and just put some time in with the fin.

The suction... I paid some attention to that while putting the fin on and taking it off. I don't have suction holding it really. It's that the rubber is very tacky and sticks to my foot. I have to get water under the rubber and keep my foot moving to get it to slide out.I'm almost positive it's not suction because water drains out of the foot pockets and I can feel the spots that are sticking.

A note on sliding the heal strap down to take pressure off. I did that once and it relieves most of the pain or cramp. But I tried finning that way and it felt like the bones in the top of my foot were about to snap. I'm talking a sharp quick shooting pain. I don't know it is that I have kind of high arches, or just the way it causes the foot pocket to torque. But I moved my feet maybe an inch and the pain lit up quick. I repositioned the strap and it was back to "normal"
 
The pain is DEFINITELY worse while stationary. I've experimented extensively with this during the acclimatization process with both my hyperfin and my nemo - same thing. In the controlled environment of a pool when the hyperfin was new I had absolutely excruciating foot pain after 10-15 minutes when stationary. I found I could mitigate this by doing very short breatheups between laps. Same in open water. On the surface I just focus on deeply relaxing now - There is still a peak of discomfort at about fifteen minutes but then I'm good for a couple of hours.

I'd say this is a good omen and suggest you just work the fin every chance you get and focus on relaxing our feet when not swimming. Good luck!

PS - where did you get the toe curling advice?
 
Fondueset said:
PS - where did you get the toe curling advice?
Click to expand...

Not really advice so much. Martin was talking about fin swimmers and them cramming their feet into the smallest footpockets they could, to get the best transfer of energy to the fin without excess movement in the foot pocket. This reminded me of hockey, I do (did) similar with my skates. The smaller skates, shorter blades are generally quicker with less blade (resistance) on the ice. While skating I would curl my toe naturally anyway and by looking at the insoles saw the imprint of my feet and I could go to a smaller skate comfortably. The curling I guess happens in skating cus it's like "digging in" or using every muscle to to push with. So with that in mind I figured I'd try curling my toes to try and get my foot in the pocket just a touch deeper. The problem is the footpocket is already snug so I could not curl much, but maybe it's just enough??
 
Sounds to me like your fin just sucks and you should give it to me and I'll suffer with it.rofl

If it would have been a softer blade I could have used it for a lot longer than I did- it had an amazing amount of power! It does suck your foot right into the pocket- even with the 5mm socks on that I was wearing.

If you take a look at some of the old threads on here you can find the right type of glue to reglue the straps with. I forgot the excat tpye, but it's something like Loctite 406.

Jon
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn more…