Cressi Reaction

I started with Cressi gara 2000's, and they were great starter fins but, the fixed footpocket means that neither you, nor your diving ability, are allowed to grow or you'll need new fins soon

Not good for spearfishing. If you want to stick with Cressi, get some gara 3000 LD or Gara 2000 Hf.

I would get the 3000 LD

Or these:

What was your situation specifically, you never stated what you were using them for in the initial post. How shallow is the water?
I had some short fins when I just started out and I just ended up returning them and buying some Cressi fins. I was shore diving to water that was around 10 to 15 feet back then and that is pretty shallow.
So if your in a similar situation buy the cressi or some other long fin.

i have the cressi gara 2000 hf ..really good startin fins..I dive sometimes in shallow water and they r great..theres no problem at all...hope that helps

For diving shallow around obstacles like dock pilings or boulders I find long fins to be more of a pain than an advantage. The Mares plana avanti tre is a comfortable, durable and affordable plastic fin for this application http://www.leisurepro.com/Prod…escription%3don%26Hit%3d1

If you're ever going to freedive/spearfish, so go and get some freediving/spearfishing fins. The 3000 LD are a good choice. Don't loose your money/time getting something that you will end changing pretty soon.

im with marco...buy something you wont regret....plus freediving fins give you more speed,etc,etc..you know......the difference is really notable..

I don't have experience w the reactions, but idid get gara hf 2000's and they are fine in shallow water...they are stiffer than the 3000's so perhaps the 3000s are a better starter.

there is a tension in this sport that you will soon come to know which is the cost of gear vs the need for it. as an example, when i started diving I was using a US Divers set for 40 $ that I bought at sports authority and a fiberglass polespear, I could get fish, but I felt the limitations of my gear very quickly. I upgraded my fins and mask together to a Riffe sight mask and cressi gara 2000's. at that time I had a lot of friend telling me to wait and just get a really nice mask and carbon fins. I decided that was too pricey and I bought them.I love the fins and the mask but quickly found that the mask, while 100x better than my previous mask, stilll had too much volume for my comfort and was bulky on my face so I kept the fins and got another mask, the technisub micromask..I also went on to buy the awesome pursuit carbon 90cms.

the point is that there is acceptable gear, good gear, and garbage gear.

you can buy a lot of acceptable gear or just a few pieces of good gear (this take trial and error).

for you, i would say, get something inexpensive to see if you like this sport and want to make it part of your life, and if you do, then upgrade to the best gear you can cos it will save you money over the long haul.

does it have to be gara ot mares? dan sells some good fins just send him a pm and he might be able to help. I have two pairs of gara and still got his. he got some that are not too long or short for the matter.

With the LD's alone you'll have enough for a good time. Don't buy the Mares.

I agree, I think you should by a nice set of longblades and try them in the shallow areas you are talking about, if they are a PIA or you dont like them for that application, the mares are always available and you might save the cost on something you wont use too often

OR, if you like Mares, get some Razors, which are for freediving.

yeah itd prob be smart to jsut buy the longfins and try them, i dont think theyll be a hastle and you'll prob find urself not wanting to be in water less than 10 feet deep anyway,, but if you do want to stick in the shallows then decide to buy some short fins

I was in turks and caicos islands with my fins and had to get in the water in 1 to 3 ft for a few hours and even though my fins are the long ones they worked perfect. the problem here is that once you get used to them it doesn't matter where you are you'll be allright. on the other hand if you use a short pair of fins once you are used to the long ones you'll feel like you don't have any fins at all or you'll feel unconfortable. it has happened to me before.

i really dont know the dive community in your area, is there anyone who has any long fins for you to try in a pool? if so, someone call tell you the relative stiffness of them and give you a comparison.

I didn't like the 3000's cos they were too soft for me, but ta lot of people say the 2000's are too stiff, so do you tend to like stiffer of softer fins