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HEAD to HEAD:
FIVE FINS BID TO BEAT THE PACEMAKER
Apollo Biofins set the target to beat in our last fin-performance test. Can new products from Cressi-sub, Scubapro, Mares and Dacor get anywhere near the Biofins' surprising turn of speed? John Bantin calls in some muscle to find out
The fin performance comparison test was carried out in a pool, using a speedometer to record the highest sprint speeds achieved with each pair
Apollo Biofin XT
Cressi Rondine
Dacor Panther
Dacor Tiger
Mares Volo
Scubapro Razor
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Manufacturers make all sorts of claims for the performance of their products, but a while back (September 2002) we attempted to carry out a definitive comparison test of fins and how they performed. You can see the results recorded by going to Split Decision at www.divernet.com/equipment/fins 0902/ fins.htm.
At that time we took a range of divers of different ages and, in the controlled depth of a swimming pool, measured the maximum speed each could achieve with each set of fins, using a digital underwater speedometer. We then aggregated the results to give us an average for each set.
Several well-known types of fin were omitted, simply because we could not get hold of any from their distributors. Now we have them, so we took the opportunity to compare them, using the Apollo Biofin XT fins as a benchmark. The XTs had proved to be the outright winner during the original test.
As before, we conducted the latest test using the simplest scuba set - tank, harness and solitary regulator and no additional hoses. This time the test was conducted with only two divers; myself, long in experience but well past my sell-by date, and Alex Khachadourian, someone still joyfully unaware that although youth and fitness are wonderful things, you cannot make a lengthy career out of them.
He was the man who proved the most consistently fast underwater sprinter during the last test. As a tribute to his individual performance, his aggregated results are shown in brackets alongside our combined aggregated average top speeds. All the fins tested were in XL size.
Apollo, based in Japan, was the first company to adopt Pete McCarthy's Nature's Wing split-fin design. The XT fin is made of a heavy rubber compound and has a higher torsion rating than its standard Biofin stablemate. We said at the time of the 2002 test that it was "the only fin to break the 5kmph barrier". And its averaged-out performance then, with all five team-members, was better than 4.2 kmph.
We wanted to know how it compared in performance with the all-new Cressi Rondine A; the latest Scubapro Razor; and HTM's pivoting fins - the Mares Volo, Dacor Panther and Dacor Tiger.
Well, even though we had fewer of our original test-divers giving of their best this time, the results achieved by each of us with our benchmark Apollos were uncannily consistent with the results from the previous pool-test.
So we are confident that the results we obtained have real value. Of course they can be used only as a comparison and will not indicate the maximum speed that you might achieve when equipped with any of the fins tested. You can reliably compare our aggregated average in each case with the athlete's results column of our previous Split Decision test results.
As expected, the Apollo Biofin XT fins were still clearly the most efficient at propelling a person through the water, and proved impossible to beat. The smallest but heaviest (nearly 3kg a pair) of the fins tested here, they are made of a rubbery compound, and have a floppy split centre part to their blade supported by deep rigid rails at either side.
They come with standard quick-release buckles, though Apollo now offers stainless-steel spring straps, so beloved of technical divers, as an optional extra. Top speed, averaged out, was a very quick 4.85kmph (5.32kmph). They cost £95.
Mares makes the Plana Avanti Quattros which have consistently proved to be a top performer and have been so close to the Apollos in the results produced before that they might suit some divers better.
This time we tried the more expensive Mares Volo pivoting-style fins, which have a shorter foot-pocket than their top-performing siblings, and a three-channel blade that seemed to pivot less readily than the Volos we tried when they were originally launched. The blade dips at a strong angle from the line of the foot. They felt a bit slippery when standing in them.
Volos use the HTM Advanced Buckle System (ABS), which might appear a little flimsy but has been proved over time. It allows a diver to cantilever a strap tightly onto the foot by applying pressure from the other foot.
They did less well than the Apollos, but we assume that the designer intended to sacrifice performance for greater comfort. Surprisingly, I noticed a tendency to get slight calf-cramp when attempting a gut-busting sprint with them. Average top speed was a creditable 4.25kmph (4.70kmph). £105.
You have to hand it to Cressi-sub. After some unexpected disappointments with its Space Frog fins, the company went back to the drawing-board.
Few companies do injection-moulding as well as it does, and the new Cressi Rondine A fins are a well-crafted case in point. They have a rigid yet lightweight blade of a translucent plastic material beautifully integrated with softer technopolymers.
Heavier than they look at 2.2kg a pair, they have a long foot-pocket that supports the foot right up to the heel. Equipped with Cressi quick-release strap-buckles, they have a good non-slip pad on the underside, too. The fin blade dips away from the foot-pocket at only a slight angle. These fins look very rigid yet unbreakable. Average top speed attained was again creditable at 4.23kmph (4.73kmph). £77.
It cannot be denied that the Dacor Tiger fins look very much like the Mares Volos, and it comes as no surprise to find that they are made alongside them in the HTM factory. Instead of the Volos' three channels in a wedge-shaped blade, they have only a single channel inset in a more oval-shaped blade.
They performed slightly less well. They have the same ABS and strap, are just as slippery to stand in, and weigh a similar 1.8kg per pair. Average top speed was good at 4.08kmph (4.47kmph). £92.
Dacor Panther fins are a cheaper version of the Tiger design. With exactly the same foot-pocket and ABS and strap, and the same pivoting design, the Tiger has an otherwise unadorned blade that is simply an area of flat plastic. Slightly more light-weight at 1.7kg a pair, they were just as slippery to stand in and performed that bit less well. That said, Tigers represent very good value for money. Average top speed attained was 3.92kmph (4.22kmph). £50.
Big disappointment of this test was the performance we managed to get out of Scubapro's new Razor fins. Weighing in at 1.9kg per pair, they looked the business with their massive 40cm blades (the Apollos are only 32cm long) and a full-length foot-pocket which makes the fin part of your leg. They have Scubapro quick-release strap buckles.
When I tested them in isolation recently, I put down my poor results to my own limited degree of fitness. Muscular young Alex made me feel a little better about myself, because he found he could hardly manage to go quicker than me with them.
Scubapro uses the zig-zag spring effect of laying two different polymers side by side to get a hugely tensile blade, but the fins proved too difficult to use for us to derive a higher average top speed than 3.75kmph (3.93kmph). £69.
Apollo (CJ Evans International, 01202 680522), Cressi-sub (01484 310130); Dacor (Hydrotech, 01455 274106); Mares (Blandford Sub-Aqua, 01923 801572); Scubapro (01256 812636).
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