Posts by Dan

  • Pathos foot pockets review

    Hi Kleberson, you are correct, your Pathos footpockets are 2nd generation.


    LB, not the new look of Speardiver blades, but a carbon fabric I'm experimenting with.

  • Pathos foot pockets review

    EDIT - July 1, 2015
    A review consistent with my conclusions from another diver Speardiver blades repowered with Beuchat foot pockets.


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    EDIT - November 5, 2013
    After my extensive experience with Pathos foot pockets (I was the first to bring them to the US and make them available through FreediveStore.com starting in 2009) I've come to the conclusion that they're not good foot pockets. The Pathos foot pockets are light because they're made of synthetic rubber, and there's significantly less material in them than with other more robust foot pockets. Consequently the Pathos foot pocket tendons do not offer enough support for carbon blades. The fin ends up flexing too much in the area immediately past the foot pocket toe plate, resulting in less power/propulsion, and at worst (too often) carbon blades breaking at that spot.


    It appears that with Pathos' minimum material design, it's impossible to find a middle ground where the foot pocket tendons have the stiffness to offer the carbon blade adequate support, but remain flexible so as to not negatively affect the blade flex pattern (more mass/material is needed to achieve this).


    I'll attempt to describe what it feels like using carbon blades with Pathos foot pockets. If the carbon blades are medium stiffness, as long as the fin stroke can be light, like in flat water no current conditions, or going up and down with not much weight on, the fin will perform fine. But the moment you need to power up, such as when fighting a big fish, going against current, or simply trying to go faster, the fins are immediately overpowered and you feel like you're kicking but not advancing.


    If to compensate for this you switch to a blade that on its own is stiff enough to not be overpowered, you'll feel more pressure on the top of your foot about 2" up from the toes. It's as if the foot pocket is too small to dissipate the force of the fin stroke over your entire foot, and the blade has too much leverage on the foot resulting in fatigue.


    Some new carbon fin blades manufacturers continue to opt for the least amount of work assembling fins (with Pathos foot pockets the blades are easily glued right in and don't require rails to be installed on the blade) and the easy sell aspect of the Pathos foot pockets, divers seeing a such a light fin for the first time are quickly impressed into buying it. Some carbon fin blades manufacturers who don't have our experience, are not yet aware of the weakness with the Pathos foot pockets. Others who know of the problem try to address it by making their blades stiffer, this approach results in a cumbersome fin. Instead I choose to no longer recommend/offer the Pathos foot pockets, on their own or with carbon blades.


    For those who insist on choosing Pathos, fit wise they are suitable for a wide foot, but are quite flat on the top, resulting in most of the pressure of the fin stroke being felt about 2" above the toes. Pathos foot pockets are not suitable for divers with a high instep, you will not get your foot in the pocket. Because of the material (or lack of) the Pathos foot pockets tend to split on the sides. This happens much quicker, 1 season of repetitive diving, if used in cold water.


    The original post is below.
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    Pathos came out with the 3rd generation foot pockets.


    A brief history of the Pathos foot pockets:


    • Pathos are the lightest most compact foot pockets available.
    • One of the reasons for this is that blades get glued directly into them without rails. See this thread for an explanation of fin rails Fin blade rails, water channeling and tendon rails explanation
    • Gluing blades in foot pockets this way makes for a permanent installation and an overall lighter and more reactive/faster fin.
    • One of the Pathos foot pockets notable advantages is a stiff sole that allows a direct transfer of power to the blade.
    • 1st generation Pathos foot pockets had very soft tendons.
    • The combination of lack of blade support by the tendons with the stiff sole caused some carbon blades to break. This information I got from my European sources not as a result of my experimenting, because by the time I found the Pathos foot pockets the 2nd generation was already out.
    • In response to the problem 2nd generation Pathos foot pockets were made with very stiff tendons.
    • These tendons were so stiff that it was difficult to combine the footpockets with blades to make an overall moderate stiffness fin.


    The 3rd generation Pathos foot pockets now have moderate stiffness and can be combined with medium stiffness carbon blades. The rubber over the foot near the ankle and the toe area is now much softer and more comfortable. I think the some guys with a high instep that previously found the Pathos to be uncomfortable may now be able to use them. The 3rd generation foot pockets allowed me to go down a size from a Pathos number 44-46 to my normal 42-44. A customer that previously wanted to use Pathos foot pockets with Speardiver C90 blades, and couldn't because the current largest size 46-48 was too small for him, now found the 46-48 size to fit right. To be clear the 3rd generation foot pockets are exactly the same as the previous ones, except for the grades of rubber used in the different parts of the foot pocket. I think the difference in the rubber is visible in the picture for those familiar with the previous production. Pathos footpockets are available in the US from FreedivStore.com


  • New WSB Gun

    Quote from Xp100

    In each life there seems to be a common thread, the pursuit of perfection, which remains just out of reach.

    :toast: to the Pursuit of living the moment :)


    hmm.. may be a good slogan for the company <img src= " height="23" srcset="https://spearfishing.world/forum/images/smilies/emojione/1f606@2x.png 2x">


    I don't know much about big guns, but if Bill made it then it has to be damn close to perfect. Congratz on a great looking gun XP. Looking forward to seeing pics of the first prey taken with it.

  • Weight making

    Mike, the front of the belt needs to be reshaped. I'm not talking about you cutting it square and making it round again. I mean reshaping to make it easy to start the belt through the weight. I'm going to do a little video on it when I get a chance because many guys need this done. You'll need a utility knife, steel straight edge, a belt sander and a small block of wood to put even pressure on the belt end. The belt ends up being tapered width and thickness wise. Once done putting on even pinch weights is a cinch.

  • Weight making

    Don't cook lead indoors, lead fumes are bad for you. Use an outdoor propane burner. Warm the mold at the same time as the lead is cooking. You can use soldering wire to tell you when the mold is the right temp, if you touch it and the wire melts it's good. Soot is a good release agent. There's some stuff you can buy in a spray can that is soot like and is used for this application. Make sure you skim the top of the melted lead and get rid of all the impurities.

  • Portable depthfinder / bottom machine

    This is the one I had. Never used it enough to know what happens if it flips, but it's supposed to be waterproof. You can see the battery pack I rigged for it. I think that model was around $100 at Basspro. Through the hull transducer is the way to go BTW.





  • New Gun!!!

    You know outside the water the colors are aggressive. I don't know how they get toned down in the water, but maybe the gun could act like a big lure. Do seabass get attracted to any kind of lure? From the videos I've seen it seems you California divers are always chasing them.

  • New Gun!!!

    Congratz on the new gun. For some reason "killer bee" comes to mind. I find the last pic confusing. It looks like there's no mech in the trigger pocket and the ends of the pocket are rounded, so as to accept the Tuna mech. But in the pic above it the mech housing looks square.

  • Proper name

    I've heard hog snapper before. Of course it's erroneous as the name is not based on anything, the hogfish is a wrasse. I believe it was introduced to in an attempt to give the hogfish commercial value. Even people who don't know much about fish know that snapper is good to eat.

  • White shark off Deerfield

    Quote from sdeisen

    this is totally where i dive, and probably only a few hundred yards further out than yak territory

    In this pic you can see how close to shore it was. So now we can stop thinking that the California guys have more balls than us <img src= " height="23" srcset="https://spearfishing.world/forum/images/smilies/emojione/1f606@2x.png 2x">


  • Best spearfishing snorkel

    Chuck, I don't doubt you feel comfortable with it. I was referring to the base of the mouth piece which always stays the same size if it's going to fit a reg or the Riffe snorkel.