Hello...

Another new guy- and new to the water as well.

I finally had the opportunity to start diving (I currently live in Colorado) and am wrapping up the scuba diving certification bit (girl friend is avid scuba diver- just spent 3 weeks in Indonesia diving.) In the mean time, I've been playing underwater hockey- which is one of the sillier things I've done, but it turned me on to freediving- and to spearfishing- which has my woman rolling her eyes as I talk about long fins and not bothering with all the scuba gear.

I'm an engineer by training, and like to make and service what I own and use- I build bicycle frames, rebuilt the 700R4 transmission in my truck (and it works properly), stuff like that. I've been looking for information about what makes a good fin- and thinking about it a fair bit, so I'm sure I'll end up making some fin blades. Any input would be deeply appreciated. To be clear- not looking to commercially make blades, have no interest in competing with Dan to sell blades, nothing- just what I like to do as a hobby.

In the near future, we're looking at moving to some place like Bali, the north side of Aus, maybe the North Island of NZ... So I figure I ought to get going on spearfishing now!

So thanks for having me.

Dave.

Thanks for the welcome.

Dan, I just have a really hard time buying stuff that's getting made on the other side of the world. I'm sure it's not financially worth it to build my own, but at least they'll be made locally... And as with most things- it's a trade off of time and money- seems like I usually have the time or the money, but not both. And really, a little glass and resin and other odd bits don't really cost that much- I already have a vacuum pump for other stuff, and friends in the composites industry (they build carbon fiber bits for sporting goods companies and military applications, so I'll probably be picking their brains as well...)

Thanks again for the welcome.

Dave.