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Production of lateral edge add ons

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.

focarequin

New Member
Sep 24, 2005
17
0
0
I am just wondering why given the high use of rubber lateral edges on fin to prevent slippage and protect the blades, there have been no manufacturers making some type of affordable kit so one can put them on fins which don't have them. I have some Cressi HF 2000, and although I like their feel and relative stiffness, I feel they slip to the side often. I thought "why can I just glue on a lateral edge to these?" Why hasnt Cressi or OMER or whoever made a kit for this? Is it not a good idea, or not a good idea for plastic blades? Some of you must have some insight. Have any of you tried to insert these? Any recommendations on what materials and techniques are needed for this?
With many thanks,
Jorge
 
I bought 6 meters of this in spain.

Stick on rails. you can find them in a few places.
 
Where in Spain? I am actually in California. Any websites, manufacturers or pictures? I would love to know and see these?
With many thanks,
Jorge
PS: Do you see a difference in performance? On what type of fins did you apply them?
 
These rails were bought in Barcelona.

They were used on the Beuchat Carbon Mundial Blades and it really helped remove the slippage

Only about 8cm is needed on the tips to work their magic.
 
I hate to be a pain in the ass, but can you tell me how I can actually purchase them? Store name? Website? Product name keyword search? I've tried to find a similar product online but have had no success.
With many thanks,
Jorge
 
HAHAHA

How many meters do you need, maybe i can organise something for you guys.
 
focarequin, I have a friend who knows where it is supplied from, you can experiment with it. He sent me this picture recently.
 

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Shane,

Meters, I don't think so, better just enough for 3 or 4 pairs of fins (60 to 75 cm)? What is the price of these things? How expensive can a tad of rubber and glue be?

If it's a new product, then let us test it out. I would be happy to give my feedback. If you don't want your contact buddy's number difused then simply send me a private m--gotta respect his privacy--no problem. For the record, I have a pair of black esclapez and a pair of Cressi gara 2000HF. I don't know if you can do anything for us, but following Jim's idea would help out tremendously. (Como dicen en México, no le eches tanta crema a tus tacos.)

Shooting straight,

Jorge

Jim, thanks for keeping it real. I would love to know if your friend could tell us where to get some. Does he reckon they work?
 
Jimdoe2you,

For sure Mark can tell you where to find the rubber rail that you are looking for. But it is easy to find in Europe with any fin manufacturer.

Jorge no es problema de ponerle mucha crema a los tacos, normally they sell it by meters. So calculate how much you need and them it is very easy to cut and install with the right adhesive.

Cheers

Ivan

www.freediveforlife.com
 
HAHAHA

I am not trying to be difficult

Just my friend bought them for me at a shop in barcelona. No online presence just a shop.

If you want my help fine. If not find it yourself

ADIOS AMIGOS
 
Jorge,

OK, here we go! You may not want to bother adding these aftermarket rails to the fins because it causes you to sacrifice more performance than you will gain. It degrades the sculling action of the fin greatly while only improving the thrust very little.

I suggest you think it over before you bother with this.

Jim
 
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Jim,

Well, I guess you made things even easier for us. lol Thans for contacting your friend and getting the lowdown. Should the net decrease in performance be a surprise to us?

If someone begs to differ, then I'll contact Mark. Thanks for the tip, Ivan.

And Shaca, I guess I just don't understand your style or humor. We'll do better next time.

Thanks to all,

Jorge
 
Hola Jorge,

Es que me cae mal cuando intento ayudar a la gente y se piensa que estoy intentando llevarme algo para mi.

Como dije, las guias me las consigio mi amigo en una tienda. Pensaba llamarlo y decir que os mandara unos metros pero como se pusieron vosotros de esa manera no lo hice.
Los perfiles los puedes tambien comprar de www.maorisub.it si quieres.

Ponselo en las puntas de las aletas solo y veras un buen cambio.
 
Shane,

I understand your intent was to help and not to be selfish, but it seemed odd that you wouldn't answer the original question regarding where to find the rail para de aletas. Now after all of that you finally talk to your friend and offer up the website???


Jorge,

It's your call to make, but I have the utmost faith in Mark's knowledge of fins and fin dynamics. Just remember that manuverability takes a big hit all for the sake of adding 2-4% forward thrust.

Yo solo estoy intentando ayudarte,

Jim
 
Hey Jim,

The URL i posted was not the shop i bought the fin rails from.

It only just happened that i remembered, maorisub recently put this into their product list.

I was gonna have my mate buy it from the shop and post a few meters to you guys if you wanted for free. Its only a few euros a meter.
 
Have you used it before? I got a serious recommendation not to try it, but now I am second guessing that! I guess if it is cheap enough, I could experiment with it.
 
I have tried fins before and after and there is a noticeable difference,

I have tried them on the Beuchat Carbons and the Gara 2000

It really helps stop slippage
 
Jim,

Shane is right they work really good.
Ask Mark why C4 use those rails in their C4 fins? he sell them here in the States.

Cheers

Ivan
 
We discussed the C4's, and what I understood was that the manufacturers engineer the fins for their best possible performance.

Yes, some fins include the rails just as some Jeep 4x4 vehicles include big, rugged tires, but that doesn't mean you should add giant all-terrain tires to your little Nissan economy car and expect better performance. Other aspects of the little cars performance will diminish greatly, like how well it handles going around corners.

The same applies to the fins. If we add rails we degrade the performance of our manuverability, but thrust improves. From what Mark explained, the trade off is not worth it, since all aspects of the fins are considered during design and testing before they go into production.

Now here is the catch, ........if you plan on freediving competitively, and all you could use were a pair of 2000HF, then it would be wise to add the rails, but fundementally you would never use 2000HF competitively. Instead you would use something like the C4 fins that were designed for that type of use and already have rails (like why a race car has a rear spoiler but a pick up truck doesn't).

If we add the rails to our 2000HF fins, we best be prepared to sacrifice sculling performance. I don't think I want to do that since I use my 2000HF for the purpose of general <20M playing around.

So the big questions are these, "Could we add rails to improve performance?" and "Should we add rails to improve performance?"

Could we: Sure, if we want to sacrifice overall performance of the fins, limit them to a use that they were not designed for, and thus never truly excel at.

Should we: No. We should choose to own more than one pair of fins of which each is designed for a specific type of use, and thus not try to engineer our own.

Use your jeep 4x4 with big tires for gripping the loose muddy terrian, use your Porshe for the highway at 200km per hour, and your Maybach for taking 4 of your friends in total relaxing comfort to the fancy restraunt.
 
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