Soft plastic blades?

[Penyu]

Hi,
currently planning a trip to beautiful Indonesia. After too many airlines have managed to damage my surfboards in the past despite humongous amounts of bubble wrap, I am worried about my fibreglass Leaderfins. Now looking for a pair of plastic blades. My Leaderfins are medium stiffness, but since I am at it, I do want to go softer. Are there any plastic blades out there that fit the Leaderfins footpocket and are softer then their medium fibreglass blades? Or better, what are the softest plastic blades out there? I heard Mares Razor (the grey ones) are soft-ish. What about Mako Competition Freediver? Would be great to hear about your experience. Cheers.

 

[cdavis]

I have a pair of sporasub plastic blades that are only 25 inches long, and wide. Not sure about official stiffness, but, in use, they act like soft fins. They perform quite well for everything I tried them on except dolphin kick. I used them one year when I had a bad knee, perfect for that. All open water, 10-30 meters, no wetsuit. At the time, I normally used Specialfins kelpies medium fiberglass. I was pretty surprised to find that I could do just about anything with the sporas that I could with the Specialfins.

If they are still made and will fit your pockets, a good solution.

 

[Penyu]

Thanks Connor for the quick input! I guess its hard to actually make a statement on the stiffness of fins unless one has a side by side comparison. I just wonder if plastic blades in principle can be softer than medium fibreglass ones, or if they tend to be stiffer per se.

 

[cdavis]

Plastic blades are not inherently stiffer than fiberglass. The material is not as strong, so very soft plastic blades are more likely to crack after heavy use. The original Cressi longfins were very soft and cracks at the point where the pocket rails ended were very common. Current fins like the Cressi 3000ld have plastic blades and are soft. I'm not aware of any cracking problems with them.

 

[hteas]

The Imersion grey plastic fins are another option for a soft fin. If you have wide feet, like me, they work well.

 

[jaritter]

Add Seac Motus fins to the list of soft plastic blades. Had a pair for a month and really like them. Durability good so far. Heard great things about Cressi Gara 3000LD but couldn't find a pair to try on here.

 

[The-Pupil]

I have the mares Razor but only used it in the pool. I do like the fin but the tendons could be a bit stiffer. I have medium feet and fit like a glove with a 3mm sock. Fin size 43/44 and shoe size 43ish.

I did try the black version in the pool which is a big difference and with my knee issues not the best option. Cressie 3000LD was a nice try during dynamic with my level 2 but i got cramps cause it was way to narrow. (have medium width feet)