Posted by Franko on April 08, 2002 at 15:36:43:
In Reply to: OK, who knows about freediving fins? posted by ChrisM on April 08, 2002 at 13:02:24:
Hi Chris,
When I was in the market for a pair of freediver fins I did as much research as possible. For example freediver.net has an FAQ file on this topic at http://www.freediver.net/freedivelist/faqstuff/faq_fins.html which is basically a collection of individual comments by various posters (therefore it reads somewhat schizophrenically).
It seemed to me at the time that the two brands that seemed to come up most often were the Cressi Garas and Esclapez fins. I believe that both come with medium-pliability blades for general freediving, or stiff blades for advanced deep divers who need to ascend as quickly as possible.
I went out looking for these to try, but by word of mouth I got steered to Pacific Sporting Goods in Long Beach, a shop that serves both scuba and freedivers. The owner, Tom, I think has been very active in the freediver spearfishing club Long Beach Neptunes. Anyway, he told me that he thought the best fins out on the market were some new ones made by Omer and marketed by Riffe. They too have a medium-pliability model called Silent Hunters and a stiff-bladed model called Pez Fuerte. There's some info on them at this Riffe web page: http://www.speargun.com/new.htm
I ended up buying a pair of Silent Hunters, and have been very happy with them. After coming from the scuba world and diving with fins like Jetfins, it's like switching from a lawnmower to a Porsche.
I've heard a lot of people talking about the new Ice fins -- apparently they are virtually clear in the water.
Also if you run across a dive shop or newsstand that sells Spearfishing magazine, they had a page of new fins in their winter 2002 issue which is the current one out.
Frank