Fins

Fins

Fins are worn to propel the diver through the water by leg action alone, therby leaving his or her hands free.

The fin is made up of two main parts -

• the shoe
  The shoe needs to be made from a soft rubber compound to ensure maximum comfort and freedom from chafing during prolonged use. The blade should have graduated stiffness in order to transmit the power of the finning action of the legs and feet.
• the blade
  A harder material is used for the blade section and the stiffening ridges. Various rubber, plastic or fibreglass compounds are used in the blade. Many designs incorporate slots or apertures in the area in front of the toes to reduce the effort required to move the fin through the water on the recovery stroke.

Pool and Open water use

Since the fin which satisfies all the criteria for swimming pool use may not be the best fin for use in open water, and vice versa, many divers keep two pairs of fins - one for pools and one for open water. Remember that when you are in open water you will probably be wearing boots or bootees and the fins must fit comfortably over them.

Fins fit in one of two ways: either the foot fits into a close fitting shoe which retains the fin ; or the fin is open at the back to take the foot and is retained by a strong rubber strap. The advantage of the second system is that it gives a wider range of adjustment for different sizes of feet and for use with different thicknesses of boots and bootees. It is also possible to obtain fins which use a combination of the two systems. Additional security can be obtained by the use of the rubber fin retainers. These are Y-shaped rubber straps that fit around the ankle and over the fin-clad foot.

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