FINS & TRAVEL

FEATURE GORDON T. SMITH

Fins are one of the first three basic items a diver will purchase along with a mask and snorkel. Depending on the type of fin you choose you may have to add a fourth item, dive boots, because if you ever plan to do any shore diving especially on the Red Sea coast, or places like Indonesia, Philippines and other South East Asian destinations, it makes sense to have some protective footwear.

Therefore, I will not be discussing full foot fins and those used for free diving, or the best performing fin. There are plenty of reviews on design and what fin can propel the diver faster etc., in many magazines, as well as on YouTube and online forums such as ScubaBoard. But at the end of the day, if you do not know how to fin properly, they will not solve a skills problem if you have one!

There are lots of excellent fins available here in the UAE from all of the main dive shops. Some of them new designs from the past few years, such as the ScubaPro Seawing Nova, and some very much older Mares Avanti Quattro. They are all good when it comes down to performance.

If you have recently been bitten by the dive bug, then you are probably going to plan a dive trip outside of the UAE, which inevitably means getting on an aeroplane and heading somewhere with nice warm water, and crystal clear visibility.

Packing your fins may now present some issues depending on your choice of luggage. Let’s face it, they are not exactly small and light, and considering you may also be packing other dive equipment, weight and size does matter.

In the past 30 years, I’ve used a combination of many different types of luggage, and unfortunately not every country is as safe as the UAE. For that reason, I avoid dive branded luggage, which although well designed to accommodate the larger fins, it does tend to advertise that it contains dive gear! You really don’t want to be advertising to opportunistic thieves that your luggage contains expensive dive gear.

Another reason for not using dive branded luggage is that for most of the time it is made from soft material and provides less protection for certain items such as regulators if not packed correctly, and because of this my personal preference is to use a normal lockable suitcase, no zippers, and provides a bit more protection for the contents. You’ve seen how baggage handlers at airports deal with luggage.

Now, here comes a possible dilemma, do your fins fit into your suitcase?

My Mares fins are 65cm (just under 26in) long, and my Hollis fins are 50cm (just under 20in) long. Guess which one I travel with?

It’s a no brainer to be honest and there is a weight difference too, especially if using “Jet” fins, which while shorter than the new style fins, they generally weigh significantly more too.

The table is a list of fins available in the UAE with their various lengths and weights as well as where to buy them in Dubai. My thanks to the staff at Al Boom, Bermuda, Dive Garage, and ScubaPro for allowing me to weigh and measure some of the fins listed.

One company, Exotech, have however come up with a design for a folding fin specifically for travel purposes, which seems like a good idea.

Bermuda Diving Center, (Al Wasl Road, Dubai), allowed me to test their sample set of “Folding Fins” as I was a bit skeptical of the design when I first saw them in the dive shop. The idea of this fin is obviously to reduce the volume in your luggage, but they are also adjustable to fit different foot sizes too, which is another first.

I couldn’t wait to try them out, but my dive plans to use them changed due to weather conditions and it was two weeks after I picked them up before I actually used them over on the east coast diving at Gunther’s Wreck with Divers Down.

The fins come in a box 69cm (22in) long in a folded position, held by a thick rubber band along with the foot pockets, various clips and two sets of bungees. Each fin is then unfolded after removing the rubber band and locked in place with a plastic clip close to the heel. The separate foot pocket has four tabs which are then slotted into four holes in the base of the fin and locked into place with four plastic tabs. The best way to set this up is to put on your dive boot first and partially slot the fin pocket in place ensuring a good fit before locking it into place with the retainer clips.

Once that is done use whatever bungee strap fits best, you have a choice of two sets, one is shorter for smaller feet. Now you are good to go.

The fin design lacks any channeling for water flow when finning in flutter mode, especially on the surface, and I found that it did not give me any decent propulsion when I was on my back swimming from the boat to the mooring line.

Underwater, it performed reasonably well with a frog kick, and I was also able to back kick without any major issues. However, the bungee heel straps were a bit of a fiddle to get off to remove my foot when I returned back to the boat after the dive.

The outside of the fin “blade” is comprised of a hard plastic, which has a softer material inbetween to allow the folding capability, and where the soft material joins the hard material may be a weak point, only time will tell I guess, but my first pair of Mares Quattros lasted a couple of decades before I decided to replace them with Mares Excel+ fins.

Anyway, the whole point of this fin is to use it while travelling and you may have already noticed from the chart that this fin is neither the lightest, nor the shortest fin in the market. But where it scores is probably the easiest to pack, assuming you don’t forget the bungees, the clips or the separate foot pockets. I wouldn’t be bringing the original packaging with me.

My personal feeling is that there are too many bits and pieces compared to a normal set of fins, and forgetting or losing a part would put an end to using them. As for the performance compared to other fins I am used to using, they didn’t quite meet the grade overall and I’m not sure of how well the thin bungee will last with regular use.

My thanks again to Bermuda Diving Center for allowing me test their demo pair.