Many have been asking me about these fins and pockets so I thought I would post up my personal toughts
Full Version:I recently purchased the GFT Carbonio Agguato fins in Medium Stiffness when they had their intro prices. I wanted to buy the hard because I like stiff fins but Brian and Mike called me on a 3 way call prior to ordering because they wanted to discuss their fins with me and make sure I got the perfect fins. This was really cool and I must say the service is top notch. They told me the GFT fins run much stiffer than than most other Carbon fins on the market. I decided to take their advice and got the Medium stiffness rather than Hard. I already had a pair of Omer Stingray footpockets that was planning on using with these fins but they discussed the differences of the Delta One pockets with me. My interest was peaked in the delta one's so I bought a pair as well. Since I had two sets of pockets I decided to do some testing of the fins with both. I have done some hard diving which included both deeper dives and also a lot of surface swiming too, both here in SoCal and in Baja. I also dove one day with one of each pocket on my foot to really see a difference.
GFT Carbonio Agguato Fins: The fins have a nice 22 degree angle to them which I have really come to like in fins. My good buddy has some C4's in the 40 stiffness which is C4's hardest stiffness and my Mediums were much harder than those. If you like a Medium stiffness in other brands you should get the Softs if you buy GFT. These Carbons have a nice rebound which is like having another kick after you kick which is a different feeling than fiberglass. The fins have a nice water rail similar to the C4 type fin, I like this and did not notice any trouble turning underwater at all. The carbon thichness tapers from thick at the base to thin at the tip. These fins were like two different fins in the different pockets so I will highlight the differences.
Omer Stingray Pockets: These are by far the nicest pockets that Omer has released. They fit my foot perfectly which I really liked. Their rails are much much stiffer than the Delta Ones. One problem of using the GFT blades with the Omer pocket was that the part of the blade that enters the pocket is about an inch too short or the the omer pocket was too deep depending how you look at it. This caused the angle of the blade be further back than it should and caused an over hang on the pocket that you can see in the picture. It also caused the fin to be a little shorter due to the fin going so far back into the pocket which you can also see in the pictures. This could be a problem if you want to put screws in since you would have to put the screw right in the middle of the bend which I don't think would be good. An alternative is to not completely seat the blade all the way back and then put screws in which might work. I just opted to glue the fins in. When kicking I initally "felt" like I had much more power due to immediate resistance I would feel but it was also hard work to dive with these fins in these pockets. One thing I found was when I kicked really hard the the bottom of the pocket that holds the fin would bend and cause me to lose power. Maybe screwing the pockets in would fix this but once again I didn't feel these pockets matched these pockets 100% but these could be great pockets for another fin if you like really stiff rails.
Delta One Pockets: It is obvious that the GFT's are built with the delta ones in mind due to the perfect fit of the two. Very comfortable, soft on top and very stiff on the bottom. The rails are really soft which was different. I didn't like the soft rails right off the bat because it felt like I did't have any power, I thought for sure I was going to stick with omers when I was pool testing. After more real life testing in the ocean I found that it wasn't the case. The Delta ones would really alow the fin freedom of movement and would cause that "second kick" effect after you already kicked. They made for a much more relaxing dive not having to work my feet as hard which I came to realize after a long day of diving. When coming up with the fins from a deep dive I didn't feel any faster than the with the Omer pocket and always came up at the same rate. These fins have a notch in the back which is needed to fit the delta ones since the delta ones has a chanel of plastic in the area where the fins go in. I think the idea is that having this will not allow the pocket to flex where it holds to fin. It seemed to work and I didn't find this area flexed at all like the Omer's when kicking really hard. The pockets didn't fit my foot as perfectly as the omers did but they still fit very well and were very comfortable.
Summary: The fins perform great and I will continue to use the Delta One's with these fins since they are made for each other but if you really like the Omer Stingrays they are a good alternative.
