Fins too hard

if you say there is little spring back, then I assume they are worthless.

I was a lifetime "hard" fin guy, to the point where I was arguing with Dan that the medium Pursuits would be too soft for me...I can honestly say that after swimming with good carbon blades I know that the finning style is really different, you just "activate" the blade and the carbon does the actual kicking...I would honestly say that if i could do it again I would have the medium and not the medium hard fins.

I am not advocating that you should abandon your preferences, just suggesting that the "spring back" is the bread and butter of carbon blades and it sounds like the Hana'pana fins are a FAIL in that regard

I think stiff fins are for giving you propulsion when you are really negative. Like for freedivers kicking up from 300'. I'm thinking you need the force to get some momentum and once you have it the fin is used minimally.

I'm not familiar with the Hannapa fins, but I'm well familiar with the Nemo. I used to sell them as Seahunter blades. The available stiffnesses are 1-2-3-4-5. The stiffness changed as of 3 years ago when the Nemo blades changed from yellow to black color. I found that the new black blades were comparatively stiffer ie. a new black #3 is stiffer than the old yellow #3, more like a yellow #4.

In the yellows I was using #4 for about three years. I started with a #3 and after a short while went to #4, thinking I was getting really strong When the black blades came out I went straight to a #4. It was too much for me, I found that I couldn't maintain proper form and my kick would deteriorate to a bicycle kick. I went down to a #3 and thought that I was OK. After about 2 years of using those I started to think that I should try the #2 stiffness. But before that ever came to be I started using the carbon blades and that made the fiberglass Nemo blades obsolete. I still think the Nemo are tough well made blades, they just don't compare to carbon.

Stefan, The new black #5 Nemo blade is extremely stiff, I can't imagine using it. But if what you have in #5 is the old yellow then it's more like the new black #4 which is more reasonable.

IMO the blade stiffness for an individual diver is not determined by muscle strength exclusively, a bigger factor is what your knee and ankle joints are capable of handling. I don't find that these areas get stronger when pushed to the limit on a regular basis, on the contrary they start to deteriorate ie. you get ankle and knee pain right from the beginning of the dive. Once I started using carbon fins of the correct stiffness for me I never get ankle or knee pain any more. I do however get out of breath and my leg muscles get tired due to the fact that I don't dive enough. But this can be remedied, a worn out knee or ankle can't.

The fins lidiver has are carbon with fiberglass inner layer(s).

Stiff stiff stiff. I played with it in the shop - my ankles hurt just thinking about using them...

Love Hanapa'a... but not sure what they were thinking with this product. Guess it's a real small niche product.