Freediving class fins

I took the PFI course in 2008. I brought some really crappy Imersion/JBL green plastic blades that I was using temporarily. They didn't comment on them, except to say that very generally once people tried carbon they never went back to plastic. They let people try out their C4's and Omer Rekords.

I just finished up a PFI class this past weekend. I brought my leaderfins and no one really commented on them. They wern't really as big of gearheads as some of the guys on this forum, but they did give some pointers as to what type of footpocket to buy.

The people taking the class had all sorts of fins from the Persistent double pointed one to C4 falcons. Honestly, its a lot more in the technique than your equiptment.

Quote from Dan

Those of us who are accustomed to using good fins would be very reluctant to downgrade. I detect the presence of the "I did a freediving course" guru factor

lol well its not that I dont think good fins are important, but theres a certain point where your equipment will limit you, until you hit that point, which I havn't hit yet with my fins, I dont think that I need to spend $300 on CF fins.

As far as the technique vs. gear goes all I can say is that William Trubridge ( has great technique) just dove no fins farther than 99.9% of people can with the best CF fins on the market. See you dont need good fins to go deep

I'm heading to the F.I.I Course this weekend.

Bringing my Gara 3000's

I will let you all know what I see others bring...

Quote from Dan

Apples and oranges. It's not about limit or depth. It's about feeling comfortable diving and hunting for 6-7 hours.

I'm with you. If I can choose, I will never dive again with plastoc fins. Period.

I used my Picasso Black Teams. I've used them since for line diving, up to 90-100 ft, and never had a problem.

Recently picked up some Captain Nemos- good workout fin, have only been using them for pool training, but they are stiffer than you'd expect.

Breaking them in for line diving next weekend at Catalina.

Quote from Dan

Thanks. Who were the instructors?

Mandy and Kirk.

Quote from Dan

Byron, what does this classification workout fin mean? How did you end up getting these fins, did someone in the class recommend them?

The fins were recommended by Mark Lozano, the west coast FII instructor. For pool workouts, I've been training with 02deprived here, a well renown free diver. We do apnea practices together, mostly interval vs. distance. I believe these are exercises developed with top freedivers, including Nitsch and Trubridge.

pretty cool...to me, it is always the indian and not the arrow. BUT....if one piece of equipment will make you a better diver it is your fins.
clearly a lot can be done with any fin but the comparative ease of finning with CF vs plastic is unreal. I know I am a better diver with my cf pursuit fins than I was with my cressi gara 2000's....not to say anyone on here in garas couldnt whoop me, but the same diver will dive to the same depth easier and with less effort using CF over most other materials

judah how long have you had the carbons now? at least a year right

Quote from Dan

Bingo!

Not putting you on the spot Byron, according to the information you received from the instructors, what specifically is required from a "workout fin" that the waterway blades provide?

I have to admit, the Nemo's/Waterways have a better snap than plastic fins. I feel more efficient, and should do tests with both in the pool. Part of my warm up is to work on efficiency, and get across the 25m with as few strokes as possible. I'll test both fins tomorrow, and reply here.

From what I'm hearing, most of the competitive "depth" freedivers are moving to a much softer, responsive blade (i.e., 25's vs 40's). The result is that nice inversion with minimal effort, conserving energy and 02.

A little more than a year i think...all I know for sure is that i will not be satisifed with anything less ever again.

I still feel the same as when I first used them

http://spearfishing.world/fins…on-fin-review-thread.html

Quote from lunkerbuster

I dove to check the anchor, make sure it wasn't on any coral or anything, and i was quite impressed with how easily i got to the bottom. I found that i use slightly different muscles when finning which I assume has more to do with the angle than the carbon. throughout the day I was pleased to find myself able to get places easier. that is the simplest way to describe it, I wasn't any better at diving, diving was just easier...i feel like the more i get used to diving with them, the more i will be able to turn it into better diving, as in, by knowing that I can move about easier, particularly on ascent, i will be more relaxed and calm which will turn into longer dives.

the best example i can give was a particular shot. I was diving near the end of the day and had been schooled by small bait fish throughout the day and had considered taking a shot at one as a skill shot. So it was nearing the end of the day and I saw a small rainbow runner, maybe 11 inches hauling ass about 25 ft below the surface. so I dove and found him again and saw his path and tried to predict his movement and the fish saw me so he took off, I started sprinting the way I would with my old fins and damned if I wasn't able to stay with him enough to pull off a very nice stone shot on him as he pushed out to like 15 ft...

he would have been gone daddy gone before.....at the end of the day, they are just fins and are only as good as the diver, BUT, these are without a doubt the best fins available without consideration of the price, and when one does consider that, it is a no-brainer. I look forward to many many dives with them and I highly recommend them to anyone.

from the above link

Quote from byronq

I have to admit, the Nemo's/Waterways have a better snap than plastic fins. I feel more efficient, and should do tests with both in the pool. Part of my warm up is to work on efficiency, and get across the 25m with as few strokes as possible. I'll test both fins tomorrow, and reply here.

From what I'm hearing, most of the competitive "depth" freedivers are moving to a much softer, responsive blade (i.e., 25's vs 40's). The result is that nice inversion with minimal effort, conserving energy and 02.

i agree with this as a scrub, non competitive diver.

the only thing I would change about my fins is to get the medium or even medium soft blades next time...Dan told me this and I was hardheaded and used to plastic...my ankles and lower limb tendons can handle the MH, but to what gain? i think the snappier and softer ones would actually give me better propulsion for the effort, and would certainly require less effort.