Leaderfins

Leader fiberglass blades are slow, performance is only a little better than plastic. Slow means that when you flex them and release they go back to straight with less force/slowly/have little snap, and that equates to less propulsion. You can test this out of the water flexing the blade between your hands. The blades are narrower than ideal and the footpocket rails on them don't work well, they're just the water channeling rails cut down and do not fit into the footpocket tendons properly. This means the footpocket tendons don't have a secure grip on the blade edges.

Leader carbon blades are decent when considering the price, $160 at the Freedive Store. They are a tad faster than a good fiberglass blade. They have the same narrow configuration, and the same issue with the rails as the Leader fiberglass fins. To fix this I sometimes remove the Leader footpocket rails and install Speardiver rails. The soft Leader carbon blades are too soft and do not provide adequate propulsion. With a soft blade is where the difference between a high quality carbon blade and an economy carbon blade like Leader becomes apparent, a quality carbon blade maintains its snap with the soft stiffness. The hard Leader carbon blades are too stiff.

The new Leader Alga/camo carbon blades incorporate a layer in the blade that creates the camo effect. This layer takes away from performance of the blade, it makes it perceptibly slower. I would not sacrifice performance for the camo look.

I've used the camos- they are nice. I am not sure about the carbons but I am checking with a friend who is a dealer for Leader. He will give an honest opinion . I know that he,personally, uses the camos.

If you are used to using thermoplastic fins in colder water (low 60's), the hard LeaderFins or SpecialFins will be slightly softer. That's my only point of reference. Between 50-55 degrees, the Riffe silent hunters are MUCH stiffer than Estonian fiberglasses. But the fiberglasses are always more responsive.

I have the Leaderfins Carbon Waves. They're built with a sandwich of carbon-glass-carbon. They are considerably lighter and much snappier than the camo fiberglass version (I know from side-by-side experience). I have them in a pair of old Millenium pockets and they are awesome. I've had then for about 14-15 months and I've taken them to the tropics, competed in a bunch of comps, and done tons of shore dives. They are still awesome. The rails in my opinion are perfect; way easier to maneuver side to side than a lot of other fins with tall rails (like C4), and I love the fact that they have a slim width so that you can kick in a very tight pattern without them hitting each other. I have the soft version and wouldn't have them any other way - no bicycle kicking for me, which means faster, more streamlined and efficient swimming.

There are a LOT of good fin blades out there and my Waves are right there with them. Footpocket fit is just as important, if not more so, than blade specs. There is no substitute for being able to kick several fins and pick the best. But, for the money it is hard to beat the waves.

Quote from Kolt45

I have the Leaderfins Carbon Waves. They're built with a sandwich of carbon-glass-carbon. They are considerably lighter and much snappier than the camo fiberglass version (I know from side-by-side experience).

This difference you describe between the Leader carbon and Leader fiberglass, is the difference you'll see comparing Leader carbon to Speardiver carbon blades, the Speardiver being lighter and snappier.

I'll try to do a side by side comparison of the width and rails, people need to see why footpocket tendons don't grip the Leader blades properly.

Dan, I hate to break it to you, but I've been diving these blades for over a year and have had no problems whatsoever. The rails work perfectly - not one grip problem with the pockets.

Kolt, while they may work in your particular case, you're not aware of the difference and how they may fit in other footpockets than what you're using. I've been installing rails and blades for a while now, and can see differences where other people can't. After pointing this out to fishingdude he could see the difference too, his footpocket tendons were barely holding on to the Leader blade edges. I didn't go to the trouble of designing good rails for nothing. Leader is just further saving money on their blades by using a cheap rail solution. More information on rails can be found here http://spearfishing.world/fins…on-rails-explanation.html

Dan, I know exactly the difference between water channelling rails and tendon rails (I've fit them on prototype fiber blades which you can see in my Vimeo polespear video) and yes, the Leaderfins do not use two different rails. To me, it doesn't matter as long as my blades stay put, which they have. I don't think it's worth arguing over this because the proof is in the pudding. If guys are having problems with Leaderfins popping out of the pockets, then we will surely hear about it. I'm 100% confident that the Pursuits will stay put for the reasons you mention in your new thread, so perhaps fishingdude should just go ahead and buy a pair. I'll hush now.

I didn't mean that you don't know the difference between water channeling rails and tendon rails. I meant that you may not be aware of the difference in quality between some footpocket rails, which translates to gripping power of the footpocket tendons over the blade.

Fishingdude, which version did you buy, the fiberglass or carbon?

Well crap. That's a bummer. Sorry for all the mud.

i saw ben's blades in action on saturday and all i know for certain is that they are night and day better than his old blades

seriously, I always try to keep a watchful eye on people as they dive, both for safety and to learn and I have always considered Ben to be a "strong" diver. this has nothing to do with his skills and abilities, he is a much deeper diver than I am, I am referring to the fact that he looks powerful as he fins.

I realiazed that it was because he was fighting his other fins...seriously, i noticed how much more easy he seemed in the water and how much more easily he finned.

I hope you got them secured well enough not to lose them, or even worry about them, that is almost as bad as actually having a problem, always waiting for the problem.

enjoy the improvement and use them in good health.

Ben and I did hold them side by side w the c90's and they weigh about double.