The Ultimate Guide to Fins: Finding the Best Scuba Fins for You
Scuba diving is an out of this world experience, where, for many of of us, will be our only chance to experience zero gravity. There are so many things to love about scuba diving, but the weightlessness is one of my favorites. Finding the best scuba fins for you is a game changer when it comes to your overall comfort and experience while diving.
No matter where or what type of scuba diving you’re doing, having the right fins is essential for a successful dive, this guide can help you make an informed decision on the right pair of fins for you, so you can enjoy a safe and enjoyable dive.
Why Are Fins a Great Scuba Investment?
Scuba fins are an essential part of any diver’s equipment. They help divers to maintain better buoyancy and maneuverability while diving. Whether you are a newly certified diver or an experienced diver, diving with familiar gear will make you infinitely more comfortable under the water.
Fins provide better power than swimming alone, allowing divers to navigate strong currents with more control and stability. This can help reduce fatigue while diving, making it easier to enjoy the experience and increase your bottom time. As well as scuba diving, fins can also be used for a variety of activities, including snorkeling and swimming, making them a versatile and useful piece of dive equipment.
When it comes to finding the best scuba fins for your needs, there are a few things to consider;
- What kind of conditions you will be typically diving in;
- If you will be traveling with your fins;
- How you kick (frog kick or flutter kick).
- Finally, consider your budget and find a pair of fins that fit within it.
Finding the Right Fins For You: What to Look For
Now that we’ve discussed why fins are a great investment for novice and experienced scuba divers, let’s get down to how to pick the right fins for you. Finding the perfect pair of scuba fins can be a challenge, there definitely isn’t a one-size-fits-all. Just because your dive buddy loves a certain type of fin, doesn’t mean that that will work for you.
From Mares and Scuba Pro to Tusa or Cressi, there are so many brands and styles of fins to choose from. In this guide, we’ve done the research for you. We’ve taken a deep dive (pun intended) into the world of fins to help you find the right fit for you.
Throughout this article, the main features we will be digging into are full foot vs open heel fins, and the various blade styles of fins. We will be scoring fin types based on the following features:
- Propulsion
- Maneuverability
- Travel ease
- Cost
- Comfort and
- Durability
When it comes to finding the best scuba fins for your next dive, there are two main types to choose from:
Full Foot Vs. Open Heel Diving Fins
Full Foot fins
- Designed to be used with bare feet
- Lighter and more travel-friendly than open-heel fins
- Great for warm water diving
- Best for other activities (e.g. snorkeling or free diving)
Open Heel Fins
- Usually require the use of dive boots
- A hard foot pocket gives you more thrust and power.
- Good for cold and warm water diving
- Great for added protection on boats, long or rocky five entries (due to the use of dive boots)
When choosing the right scuba fin style for you, it’s important to consider your overall needs and the type of diving you will be doing. Ask yourself some of these questions:
- Will I only be diving in warm water on sandy beaches?
- Will I be using my fins mostly for snorkeling and only a little diving?
If you answered yes to both these questions, great, full foot fins may be the right fins for you. If you answered I don’t know, or No to the questions then we will need to take a closer look at open heel fins. Yes, they are heavier and more awkward to travel with, but the positives outweigh the negatives by far.
The booties you need for open heel fins will protect the soles of your feet from cuts & scrapes as you get ready for your dive. The versatility of these fins means you can wear them in all dive conditions; from warm to cold water, from drift diving to staying still in the water while you watch National Geographic play out in front of you.
Now hopefully we have figured out the type of fin you need, let’s move onto the styles of blades for dive fins.
Blade Style of Your Scuba Fins
Standard Paddle Fins
The standard paddle fin was the original fin style. Way back in the 1700s it was just a thin piece of wood tied to your foot. Since the very first patented scuba fin in 1933, there are now hundreds of different kinds of paddle fins to choose from. With this style, you’re looking at either a full foot or open heel design, with a single panel blade on each foot. Like an oar, they will thrust you forward with each kick.
What We Like
- Simple design
- Good for pivoting
- Acceleration
What We Dont Like
- Can increase cramping
The Winner
ScubaPro Travel Lite
The Runner Up
Cressi Pro Lite
Hinged Fins
This fin style is the newest on the market and is designed to perfectly combine the paddle fin with the split fin. While these stylish fins will definitely make you look sleek in the water, they were created to efficiently power through the water with great ease to the user.
What We Like
- Easier to walk in
- Moves easily through the water
- Very unique, stylish design
- Very lightweight – great for travelling
What We don’t Like
- Doesn’t give you as much power as we like
- Lightweight – some styles are buoyant and when in shallow water can be difficult to control as they want to reach the surface.
- Can be fragile at the hinge
The Winner
ScubaPro Supernova
The Runner Up
Mares x-stream
Channel Fins
Channel fins can be defined by the design of their blade. A longer blade made with sturdy panels joined by more flexible ‘channels’ running vertically down the fin blade. When propelling yourself through the water, the channels allow the blade to form a ‘U’ shape to help thrust you through the water.
What We Like
- Easier to travel with
- Great with all kick styles
- Good power
What We don’t Like
- Longer fin blade – can be awkward out of the water
- Can give user leg cramps
The Winner
Mares Avanti Quattro
The Runner Up
Oceanic Viper 2
Jet Fin
The Jet fin is typically characterized as being a fin mostly used by technical divers and professionals, or those diving in predominantly harsh conditions (cold water with strong currents. If you are fairly new to diving, consider looking at other styles before this one. Made from durable rubber, jet fins typically have a shorter blade with a slightly wider ‘fan’ shape than other fin styles. Designed with vents, as a way to release some of the force of the water without forfeiting a good propulsion.
What We Like
- The Material (rubber) – Flexible and sturdy
- The Weight – These are heavy fins, great for keeping you more stable in the water
- Power – The design and material is optimal for creating strong propulsion
- Good for all kick styles, especially frog kicking
- Pivoting – Can turn in place very efficiently with small movements
What We don’t Like
- The Material – Rubber can be prone to drying out if stored for long periods of time. If you’re only using these to dive once or twice a year, you may want to consider a fin made from a different material.
- The Weight – the heaviness of these fins means they aren’t ideal for traveling
- Can Be Less Energy Efficient – These fins have great power particularly when frog kicking, but will require a lot more energy from you if you’re flutter kicking
- Typically Higher priced
The Winner
ScubaPro Jetfin
The Runner Up
Poseidon Trident Fin
Split Fins
As one of the newer blade designs for scuba fins, split fins have divided divers. Some people love them and some people just don’t. But why? Why are split fins so polarizing? To break this down, let’s start at the beginning.
Split fins were first patented and on the market in 1997. With great care and thoughtfulness, split fins mimic nature, and were designed to be like a seal flipper. Seals have numerous splits in them that make them more agile, with better propulsion and maneuverability.
When these fins came out on the market, they were by far the most popular fin on the market. Competitors reacted quickly by producing their own version of the split fin. The designs of many of these versions were not as well thought out and made with lower quality materials. As a result, if you are considering buying split fins, quality is the most important factor you need to consider when buying a pair of these fins.
What We Like
- Powerful kicks – the split creates more thrust surface, and thus a more powerful kick.
- Energy Efficient – the split also releases the water so that while you do still get the thrust of the fin, it allows the water to flow through the fin so you don’t need to use as much energy to propel yourself.
What We Don’t Like
- Limited good quality options – to really get the best out of split fins, you need to make sure you are buying the right kind, otherwise you risk having a bad experience with them and making a poor investment.
- You can’t frog kick – as a result of the split, frog kicking with these fins isn’t possible. No big deal if you typically don’t frog kick.
The Winner
Atomic Aquatic Split fins
The Runner Up
TUSA SF-15 X-Pert Zoom Z3 Open Heel Scuba Diving Fins
Force Fins
Yet another fin design that mimics nature; force fins have been around for over 35 years and helping divers and swimmers gain the momentum of a dolphin. The deep A design unique, deep open foot design allows divers to use the full strength of their leg, not just their foot. These fins have won many awards and beaten many records. The Force Fin was the chosen fin worn by Jens Hilbert when he beat the record for the longest underwater distance swimming, a whopping 34 miles in 24 hours!
What We Like
- Short blade design – making them easier to maneuver in and out of the water
- Power – allows you to use the full force of your leg to efficiently power through the water.
- Durability – non-wearing material meaning a pair of these could be your fins for life.
What We Don’t Like
- Cost – These are the most expensive fins on the market
- Can take some getting used to – these are diferent from any other fin, have patience as you get used to them if you choose these fins.
The Winner
Pro Force Fins
What We Use
Over the years we have tried and owned various fin styles but in the end, have ended up using the same ones, the ScubaPro Jetfin. These fins are definitely not for everyone, they’re bulky, heavy and take some getting used to when you first begin diving with them. But here is what makes them our favorite dive fin:
- Power – These fins have great propulsion. As a result kick less than others may need to, and as an instructor/dive guide, if I need to reach one of my divers quickly, I know I can do so with these fins.
- Conserve Energy – Let’s talk about scuba diving as a sport for a moment. While it is classed as an extreme sport, it’s kind of a lazy one. As divers, we are all about conserving our energy: nice slow movements, and breathing efficiently to make our bottom time longer. Yes, these fins are heavy and hard to move through the water, however, you get such great power that I may only need to kick once every 10 seconds or so to keep up with the group I’m diving with.
- Great for pivoting/micro movements – With enough practice with these fins, you will be able to turn on a dime with tiny, well-directed flicks of your fins. You may wonder why this is useful when you are in the wide open ocean. Well, a great example would be that you spot a little sea creature that you want to show your group, now everyone is crowded around you, there are tanks clanging and fins in people’s faces and you want to get out to give everyone more room. Jet fins make backing up with minimal movements so as not to kick anyone or disturb silt on the sea bed easy and efficient.
Yes, they’re heavy and a pain to travel with, and when you need to maximize their power, you will exert a lot of energy with these fins. But for us, the negatives are worth dealing with as these are the best scuba fins for us and what we do.
Final Thoughts
When it comes down to buying the best scuba fins for you, we can’t make one single recommendation, it is a choice that is truly unique to you and your needs. We sincerely hope you found this article useful and answered all your questions when it comes to finding the right fins for you.
If you have a question that we didnt answer, or you would like us to write about something else scuba or travel related, please let us know!
