We’re really keen to hear from our members about their favourite pieces of dive kit, and first up we’ve got a great review and useful recommendation from Mark Hammond.In the years I’ve been diving, I’ve often noticed a number of divers trundling off to their local dive site with the latest and sometimes very expensive fins, ankle weights in tow.
After every dive, I always hear the same story: ‘I struggled with my buoyancy, I kicked the sand up, my legs are tired’ and so on.
I must confess I had exactly the same problems until I spoke to a commercial diver who set me on the straight and narrow – he advised me to get rid of my long floppy expensive fins, get rid of my ankle weights, and to purchase a pair of jet fins.
Jet fins were developed some time ago for the US Navy Seals, but since the patent ran out a number of manufactures make them including Scubapro, IST and Poseidon. I thought the fins I had were already jet fins, but he then showed me a pair of IST rubber fins, which he’d been using for a long time.
Initially I thought they were quite heavy, but he explained that I could now dump my ankle weights, and because they have vents on the back stroke, I wouldn’t be moving as much water – the water passes through the vents and you don’t have to work so hard.
Better still, they’re short so you don’t kick up the sea bed, they grip well in a current, I can frog fin with ease, and they are very robust.
Having owned a pair for three years, I’d never contemplate changing them. It was probably the best £40 I’ve ever spent on dive kit!
By Mark Hammond
