kicking w/ carbon

[andrsn]

i'm curious to know what kicking strokes work best for those who've switched to carbon fiber fins. i've only had mine on in the pool so far, but i've noticed that the flutter pattern is different than normal plastic blades.

anyone have any ideas? or am i the only one who's gone to itty bitty strokes w/ these guys?


anderson

 

[freediver48]

Carbo Bladz

Hi,

What interests me most is how well they move in the water, vereeee smoooth, and hard to stall. I have only had the fins for a little over a month and have dove them past 30' thirty times. I love the fins and am selling my plastics. I look forward to trying stiffer fins, but the OMER Carbon Pros are any easy 10% more efficient. I love how they go, any stroke. I find that they do great glides, and rolls on the way down, and surfacing, the fins kick ass! I find that because of the added efficiency that less weight is required for good solid dives. I will use them the next time I scuba dive, I suspect that they will push tanks just fine. I do seem to have a somewhat shorter dolphin stroke, but a really big frog kick, I love the glide. My dive buddy, Rod's reaction was that they look more fish like. Suprisingly they do quite well on the surface. The ride is not cheap though, and I worry about their life span. They do make you a believer in progress, way better than tarred palm frawns.

FD48

 

[icarus pacific]

The times I've been able to strap on carbon blades, Picasso's, was in warmer and more open water than I'm used to, meaning I was sans suit and socks... Once I got over that, I found that if I really, I mean really concentrated on generating the juice from my hips, and kept the legs fairly stiff, I flat, freakin, flew!!

Once my limbs and I got tired I found that I went into a bicycle routine that did little but make oil can noises and slapped at the surface- very uncool and inefficient.

I just wish I could find a goddamn pair that would fit my size 13's with 5mm socks!!!!!!!!!!!! Come on, Roger!! Hook me up! I'll be the test dummy for a pair of size 50's!! Hell, I'll even buy a damn Tshirt from Stephan and not mentally correct Cliff's grammer!!


PS- still looking for that Farallon snorkel, everyone. I'm paying CASH!


sven

 

[cetacean]

Big Foot

Hey, Icarus:
My size 14 feet fit into the Sporasub Pure Carbon, 44-46 with 3mil socks... warm enough for me in the norcal waters. Maybe that translates to size 13 with 5mil. The foot pockets are slightly larger than other 44-46 fins I have had. Bottom line: big feet rule!
c

 

[Erik]

Originally posted by icarus pacific
Hell, I'll even buy a damn Tshirt from Stephan and not mentally correct Cliff's grammer!!
sven

What did old Mrs. Etzel ever do to you?

Cheers,
Erik Y.

 

[Erik]

Re: Big Foot

Originally posted by cetacean
. Bottom line: big feet rule!
c

Well you know what they say about guys with big feet......they can't buy fins:naughty
Cheers,
Erik Y.

 

[icarus pacific]

Hey, it takes a man with big feet to admit he's equipped like a stud gerbil, and so we wear long fins to make up for it. :hmm

Cetacean- Hey great news!! Where are you here in No Cal? Have you (or anybody for that matter) used them around the bottom and rocks, or are they primarily open water/pool fins? And where'd you get yours? Thanks!

sven

 

[freediver48]

Big Feet?

Hi,

I do use my big feet in rocks and the like, but I often fall over,
so now I use my carbon fins instead. They do complain a bit from the scratches and the like but I think of it as character building.
If they blow up they blow up, but as of yet no c4 tricks. Mine are OMER Carbon Pros, and I love them, especially now that they finally fit, after driving shoe shapers into them until the gave up and stretched. They are 46-48 and I can now wear a 5mm bootie with a 9mm sole on them, but I do have to lube up.

Fd48

 

[andrsn]

studded gerbils?

that's pretty sick, sven!

 

[icarus pacific]

did he say, LUBE?!

LUBE UP?! Hey I'm just trying to put them on, not have a, uh, er, understanding with them! I'm thinking that's the way I'll end up going, with the stretchers and then maybe piercing some eyelets for laces if need be.

I can just see Anderson now, out there, dreaming up some snappy piercing comments...:head I'm thinking Aquiles is going to need the lube'in...:mute

sven

 

[Erik]

Originally posted by icarus pacific
Hey, it takes a man with big feet to admit he's equipped like a stud gerbil, and so we wear long fins to make up for it. :hmm
sven

Oh....you were icediving with Jon?
Cheers,
Erik Y.

 

[andrsn]

lubin da cuban!

rofl

that's a little sick! maybe not just a little, but alot!!!! :yack

it's allright, sven. my mind's thinking about some bigger fish to jib in the ribs.

a note on this subject... 4 days till my carbon pros see salt water! i'm xtremely anxious to see how they perform. they were great in the pool for the horizontal, now let's see what they can do vertically. also, i'm antsy to see how they hold up w/ a fish in-tow.

doug, what's the 'blowing up' C4 thing? i haven't heard of this.

anyways, i'm sure i'll be reporting from sunny florida soon. now watch it rain everyday

adios amigos,
anderson

 

[freediver48]

deep penetrating strokes

Hi Anderson,

The c4, and blow-up is what plastic explosives do.

The following is what I got from Mark in regard to the carbon content of the OMER Carbon Pros.

Hi Doug,

To be honest, I've been around the freediving industry ten years and never heard someone ask me that before. Maybe some company is trying to market a fin now saying they are 100% pure carbon fiber fins to make it sound like it is an important factor to inquire about. Sounds like hype to me. As far as I know our carbon fiber fins are 100% pure carbon fiber blades. The difference with our fins is the finish and that our new footpocket is thebest combination with our carbon fiber blades of any other on the market.

Omer uses a thin clear resin coating on top of the carbon fiber to protect them from wear and tear. When we were having C4 make our fins back in the day, the failure rate was too high because they were too fragile for anyone else aside from competition freedivers. These were the days that the old owner of Omer in Italy was friends with Umberto Pelizzari who tried out the C4's along with a host of other products for OMER before they started to sell them. Even I used to use the C4's when they were making them for Omer but they were too delicate and I cracked two pairs at the joints of blade/rib halfway through the blade. Since then Omer learned a lot about carbon blades and stopped using C4's. With our system there's no groove in the actual blade like on all the other fins where the extremety of the rib pocket attaches to the blade. The groove in the blade causes a weakpoint, and even in the plastic fins it's the weakest spot of the blade where they usually give up and break. The Millenium system uses clamps avoiding this old system all together in all our new fins. Aside from that C4 still has to use an old type of footpocket from a company that only comes in three sizes and is harder than a horseshoe. They used to make our Tuna model pockets before the Millenium came out and they make them for a host of freediving fin manufactuers as well, if you look around you'll see them. They only come in 40-42,43-45,46-48. Some companies like C4 have no other choice and the blade/pocket connection is rather poor and uncomfortable since it's not designed specifically for those blades.

You probably got more information than you bargained for but I mentioned all this because C4 is the only other company I know of that actually has a clue about carbon fiber fins aside from OMER and I thought you'd like to know some of this stuff. The rest either break or are brittle or are poorly designed and make noises in the water. You can pass this information around if you want.

best regards,

Mark Laboccetta
Technosport Omer distributors
USA-CANADA-CENTRAL AMERICA-CARIBBEAN
800 853 1911 fax 757 853 1157
www.spearfishing.com

 

[icarus pacific]

Hey, you gotta respect a guy and a product that goes to that extent to explain a position on their product's manufacture.

sven

 

[andrsn]

dense

i gotchya, doug. little slow over here. kaboom! don't say that in an airport though!

yeah, mark's pretty cool. we go back and forth w/ fish pictures all day at work, when i'm bored. he's definitely a good sport. he sent me a bum speargun; the muzzle was drilled improperly. i told him about it and was ready to redrill the muzzle, but he insisted i send it back. he got me a new one lickety split. kudos to him and eddie. i've been real happy w/ all of their equipment.

later gentlemen,
anderson

 

[icarus pacific]

Did he say LICKITY-SPLIT ??!!

Speaking of lickity-split, do they get any pink snapper or opakapaka down there in FL...??:t

svenrofl

 

[andrsn]

confuscious say..

that woman who go on boat with 10 fishermen come back with red snappah!

 

[cetacean]

true (carbon) love

Sven
Living (temporarily) in the east bay, working in San Rafael and looking for love in all the wrong places. I keep these pure carbon puppies for open water only. I got them from Paul Maxwell at Mako Marine Outfitters in Napa. While he is a sordid character, I was in his wedding and I've been known to teach a class or two there, so its not like I can buy them online... . -c