Getting momentum off the bottom for the ascent

    Quote from greekdiver

    Carbon fins will always be the best. They are lighter and more responsive. Think about how much weight difference there is between carbon and fiberglass. Then multiply it by how many fin strokes you have on a daily basis. That is a lot of extra weight!


    The ideal carbon fin would be light, great on surface, and good for deep drops. Since most people don't dive past 30m, you really don't need a stiff fin. Your technique will be more important than the stiffness of your carbon fin.



    When i begin mi ascend, i feel a bit awkward when i start to kick back to the surface, cause my knees and fins are laying flat on the rocks and i waste some precious moments to get the fins stroke on, some times i have to push the rock/bottom with my hands, any advice?

    I'm a Speardiver, not a freediver

    Quote from monster slayer

    When i begin mi ascend, i feel a bit awkward when i start to kick back to the surface, cause my knees and fins are laying flat on the rocks and i waste some precious moments to get the fins stroke on, some times i have to push the rock/bottom with my hands, any advice?


    Use your gun to push off bottom. Dont kick off the bottom. Your fins could break if you have carbons. I think fiberglass will not break.

    I too use the gun to push off if it's hard bottom. If it's patchy, rock and sand, I look for a hard spot. Fiberglass blades will not break. I believe these new carbon blades will also not break. Of course this depends on the direction and force of your push. When pushing off with the fins I use a moderate force with my body still more parallel to the bottom than perpendicular.

    Pushing with the point (spear tip) makes no sense to me for the following reasons:


    Most of the rocks of pinnacles around here has a progressive depth, so you have to stop in the water column and lay flat on a rock, in order to push with the tip you have to tuck down your speargun and then push, that is a waste of time and energy that defeats the very principle of economy of motion (and precious air) if you use the loading pad, you are not extending the speargun until it points to your face, you just use the loading pad and then recover your speargun shot gun style, in order to have the speargun pointing down but ready for action if need be ... or you can just kick your way up in an awkward way ..

    I'm a Speardiver, not a freediver

    i wear plasitc fins (gara 2000s) and I launch off the bottom all the time with no regard for much of anything other than what is above me and trying not to stir up the bottom in some situations.


    I find that I can begin my ascent and reorient my body vertical with a LOT less effort when pushing off the bottom as there is a fixed point to use rather than torquing ones body against the fins to change your orientation.


    Idont know how to calculate actual O2 uses for each move, but I feel like I use a lot less energy if I involve the bottom than if I just kick up.


    my .02

    i like to spear fish

    You can do the gun maneuver to push off rocks by kicking forward and using your gun like a pole-vaulter would. It's pretty effortless and smooth.


    Sometimes if there's rocks and stuff to hide behind, I'll land fins down. I'm not really sure how I do it, but I end up like the picture, but much more gay looking :snorkle2:.


    I mean, I'll end up on the bottom like the picture, not prone. It's easy to come up when the feet are on the ground.

    Quote from JimCuda

    You can do the gun maneuver to push off rocks by kicking forward and using your gun like a pole-vaulter would. It's pretty effortless and smooth.


    Sometimes if there's rocks and stuff to hide behind, I'll land fins down. I'm not really sure how I do it, but I end up like the picture, but much more gay looking :snorkle2:.



    That makes sense, not tuck the speargun, but start kicking forward, push then recover .

    I'm a Speardiver, not a freediver

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