Looking for new carbons - need your help!

[Mike Morgan]

Hey Guys - New to the board, but not new to diving. Lurked here for a while and now its time to join the fray. I've been diving for about 2 years now and primarily spearfish in so-cal with the occasional trip to baja mixed in.


Now to my question...

I started off with Picasso black teams and the upgraded to DiveR's soft. I've been happy with my diveR's until I tried my friends omer rekord 3's. I've come to realize the diveR's are pretty heavy and mess up my balance in the water. The rekords are a lot lighter and make it easier to stay balanced and especially at depth it doesnt cause my fins to sink.

So I've been looking to upgrade to the Rekords, however they are discontinued. I tried looking for some used ones over on spearboard and had a response, but ultimately they were not the rekord 3's but an older model that I do not want. The guy was nice enough however to refer me to similar fins that were recommended here - the Mach VI.

I've gotten to the website, but my next hurdle is the fact its all in french and I dont speak/read it. So I'm kind of left standing there.

I've used the search function and read about lots of different fins you guys recommend. Looks like this is what I've come up with, so any help on places to buy these fins or other suggestions are much appreciated. :friday

Omer Rekord 3: discontinued but I like these (anyone wanna sell a used pair of blades?)
Mach VI: same as the rekords, cheaper, but where can I buy them?
Leaderfins: these look good and price is right. Again where to buy?

A couple other things for my profile. I'm not a deep diver like most of you. I hunt in so-cal so a typical dives are usually in the 10m range with deepest dives usually being about 20meters. A fair amount of surface swimming so having a soft comfortable blade is important, but we have to wear a lot of weight out here, so I need something that can get me off the bottom with ease especially in Baja where I am deeper. Sometimes, my DiveR's just feel sluggish like I am kicking through them. Especially in heavy current/surge.

Thanks,


Mike

 

[Don Paul]

I'm using a foot pocket that is the newer version 44/46 H.Dsssault 100% latex workhorse.
The pockets are matched to Pursuit Carbon med stiffness blades secured with quality black zip ties instead
of machine screws or tapping screws. This makes over torque of the metal fasteners and blade interface a non issue that I like.

I am 5' 11'' at 190lbs and have been swimming against strong currents in open seas for over thirty years.
When I dive offshore from a anchored boat hooked behind a sea mount with strong current, ( no current...
no fish) ... I need to be able to swim up hill all day and dive to depth up to xxxx feet.

Plus this skilled water dog was never able to beat me on laps.

Cheers, Don Paul

 

[Claudio]

Hi Mike,

Aside from Don's suggestion, one more carbon fin you could take a look at are the new C4/Skorpios Flame blades. They come in 3 hardness... 20, 30, and 40s. I don't know your height and weight but if you like the Rekords people say their hardness is between the C4 20 and 30 blades.

Anyway, the Flame fins are now beginning to show up in the States for $350 with footpocket, which is a great price compared to the competition in the US for a pair of carbon blades. They come with Salvimar footpockets, which I don't know much about.

You can also look into the Skorpio Speeder blades, which sells in the US for $280 for the blades only. Flfreedivers.com is stocking both of these blades for the prices I mention here. I just am not sure if they imported the 20 hardness... they may just have brought the 30, and 40s in their first shipment.

Anyway, I highly recommend the brand. If you've done a search on C4 blades you will be able to see they are the gold standard of sorts for carbon fins.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,
Claudio

 

[black1]

I am with Don on this one, I too use the Pursuit carbon 90's with HDessault foot pockets and they are fantastic, super comfortable and very reactive, I dive in the 60 to 85ft range all day and never had a problem or tired feet and I switched to these from my medium DiveR blades, yes the DiveR throw me off balance and affect my breathup because they are too heavy, they also don't allow you to kick properly...or at least the way I like to kick, these Pursuit will not tax you for O2 like heavy fins do. Go to freedivespearfishing.com and ask for Dan, he will set you up.