John Bantin has been a full-time professional diving writer and underwater photographer since 1990. He makes around 300 dives each year testing diving equipment.

FINS
Mares Quattro Excel
THE ITALIAN MANUFACTURER MARES HAS A PROBLEM. Some years ago, it introduced its Plana Avanti Quattro fins. Being so much better than anything else available at the time, they were instantly adopted as the fin of choice by dive-guides worldwide.
Even in our most recent fin comparison, the Quattros could not be bettered. Of course, that doesn't help a company that wants to stimulate demand by introducing newer, more desirable replacement models, as is the way of our modern consumer society.
So Mares has since offered other, more expensive, fins, but to no avail.
Now we have its Quattro Excel range. I tried a pair that were finished to match the Mares Black Passion designer range of equipment.
Black Passion is a bit of a misnomer when you study these fins in isolation, as they are predominantly pale grey.
That aside, I could see that the Mares designers had cleverly stayed with the Quattro winning design, but re-jigged it a little to look different, and employed new materials for better rigidity.
These fins still have a water-scooping blade, but the black parts are of the more rigid material while the four soft flutes are disguised in the same colour of material as the surrounding blade. These flutes are longer than before, but the blade does not seem to dip away from the foot-pocket as much as on the previous model.
Overall, the Excel is the same size as the Avanti Quattro.
It has the same sort of foot-pocket, with runners inside to stop the boot being sucked into position and becoming difficult to retract. The cantilevered buckle arrangement has been redesigned with a new release method that promises fewer broken nails than the former buckle-lock.
I used the fins on our deepwater regulator comparison test, which meant long swims out to the dive site and back under water at ever reducing depths as we decompressed.
By the time I was back at the shore at the finish of each dive, my calf muscles were beginning to burn. I also had great difficulty identifying easily the release catch for the strap buckles. These proved almost impossible to undo with fingers softened by 70 or 80 minutes of immersion, and I would guess that I would have got nowhere wearing gloves.
While swimming with three tanks, the Quattro Excel shifted a lot of water and I made quick progress. Full marks there.
However, that muscle burn was leading me to believe that I was no longer fit enough for these long swims. So I put an Excel on one foot and a standard Avanti Quattro on the other, and set off for another long deep dive for comparison.
The result was telling. Against expectations, I didn't swim around in circles, but the leg equipped with the newer fin felt painful by the end of the dive, whereas the other felt fine.
Being of similar length and design, I expected both fins to perform in the same way. But why did one calf muscle ache?
The mystery was solved when I examined each foot-pocket. The older fin encompasses my foot right up to the heel. In effect, it makes the fin an extension of my leg. While the same length overall, the Excel foot-pocket is about 3cm shorter.
My heel projected, so extra leverage was put onto my calf at every finstroke. The extra 3cm has been added to the blade length instead - enough to make the difference.
So the Excels will suit those with smaller feet and bigger muscles than me. If you have long feet and lanky legs, you may be better off with the older fin.
Mares claims that these new fins are the result of extensive laboratory testing and perform better than ever, giving greater thrust for exactly the same effort.
I have seen the impressive Mares test facility and note that the effort is supplied by an electric motor. Electric motors do not get tired, nor do they build up lactic acid in their muscles, and this may make an important difference.
Available in sizes S, Regular and XL, and in a range of colours, the Mares Quattro Excel fins in conventional strap format cost £110, or £120 in the Black Passion style. Slipper-fin-style Avanti Excels cost £50.

Mares, www.Mares.com

+ High-performing + New style

- May not be better for you than older Quattros

FINS
Cressi Reaction
HOW CAN A GROWN MAN GET EXCITED ABOUT A LUMP OF PLASTIC? How can an experienced diver covet another's flippers? Why do my own fins always look so shabby, when the ones sent to me come out of their bag all sensuous and slippery, in rich mixes of colours?
These were the thoughts that ran through my head when I first saw the new Reaction fins from Cressi.
The Italians are past masters of injection-moulding, and the Genovese manufacturer has come up with some sexy-looking fins in the past, although some of them were less than successful when subjected to the rigours of life getting on and off a dive-boat.
There are some aspects that one cannot assess without long-term experience, but these new fins certainly have shop-counter appeal.
They are not unlike the Cressi Rondine A fins I tried about a year ago. They have the same long foot-pocket that encompasses the whole of my foot, and this is beautifully integrated with a broad, flat blade that flexes along its length but offers no flexibility across its breadth.

Human machines
There is no way this fin will scoop and shovel water. It relies on the user having the strength and fitness in both thigh and calf muscles to keep the flat blade presented at the most effective angle to the water.
People still think they can buy performance. Perhaps you can with machines, but fins are merely the propellers fitted to the machine - and that machine is you!
With online diving forums loaded with questions about how to get fins that are easier on the muscles; and with floppy, ineffective fins finding an easy market among those who want to swim without effort, Cressi stands by its creed that its fins are merely extensions of the user's legs, and the user is responsible for making sure that those legs are effective.
While unfit divers flap in a head-on current, wondering why their easy-to-use fins are getting them nowhere, the users of fins such as Cressi Reactions power ahead. This is not a criticism of the easy fins, more of the expectations of some customers.
The Reaction's rigid blade is combined with softer thermo-plastics that give the minimum concession to channelling of water flow, and side bars that do much the same. The soft plastic is used as a trim to form a kinder leading edge, for which your buddy may be grateful if his head is following close behind.
The foot-pocket has good grips that prove effective when climbing a spine-ladder, and the blade dips away in the style of the original Cressi Frog fins.
Straps and buckles are very conventional, if a little more substantial than those from the Far East to which we are getting accustomed on some fins. They were easily adjusted, even with a gloved hand.
The two-tone blue fins I was sent were finished in a metal-fleck effect, just like the metallic paintwork of an expensive German-made car. Lovely!
Cut to a scene during our deep-water reg tests. A diver lies pathetically face-down in about 30cm of water at the edge of the beach. He is paralysed with cramp in his leg-muscles.
The emergency services, in the shape of Police Inspector Bradley and Fire Service Watch Commander Wade, quickly arrive. The Inspector charges down the beach like an angry rhino and the experienced Fire Officer instantly understands the situation as he sees the stiff, twitching figure of the diver who has reached the shore ahead of him and got his fins off.
They free me of tanks and weights, drag me upright - and I am OK! I had just swum 300m from our test site with a twin-set and sling tank. If you want to be an effective fin-swimmer, tune the motor before you alter the pitch of the prop!
Reactions are also available in black/red and white/yellow combinations. Available in four sizes from XS to L/XL, Cressi Reaction fins cost £69.

Cressi-sub, www.cressi-sub.it

+ Beautifully crafted + Works well in challenging conditions

- You need to be fit to use them

BC
Scubapro T-Sport
MY FRIEND LAM IS THE CONSUMMATE DIVER. He is Chinese, small and neat. He gets his wetsuits made to measure in Hong Kong with a special dark green shiny outer surface. All his kit is black, including a very slim-fitting conventional waistcoat-style BC. He dangles nothing.
All his gauges are neatly tucked away.
I watched him cavorting with some sea-lions in the Galapagos, and had to admire his perfect buoyancy control and manoeuvrability. He looked as good as his bewhiskered soulmate as he spun and barrel-rolled and somersaulted with the slippery piniped.
The Scubapro T-Sport is a conventional waistcoat-style BC of which Lam would approve. It's basically very simple.
It has a large zipped pocket at either side, a top dump-valve that can be activated by pulling on the corrugated direct-feed hose, and another at the other shoulder that can be operated by a toggle fed through a conduit to a convenient position at the front of the shoulder straps.

Right nostril
"When it is time to ascend, one should put one's right forefinger against the side of your nose and then trace it directly down until one comes across the toggle to the BC's dump-valve, located on your chest directly below your right nostril. Try it!"
I once had to listen to this instruction every day, several times. It was a dive briefing by a certain Miss PADI, who was dive-guiding us in St Lucia. She insisted that I listen to every word, and I still bear the scars.
I was reminded of her when I saw that the latest T-Sport BC had a dump-valve toggle threaded through to the right spot.
I couldn't help reaching up to make sure that my nose was still in the right place!
The T-Sport's toggle operates a dump at the right shoulder, while pulling on the corrugated hose of the direct feed activates a dump-valve at the left. Presumably Miss PADI was unaware that if one passes the direct-feed hose with pull-dump under the sternum strap, as I am prone to do, she could have found it directly above her navel.
Scubapro has designed its combined direct-feed hose and dump valve with an optional way of operating it should the corrugated hose becoming detached for some reason.
A little lever protrudes from it, though I'm not sure why you should need to use this dump at all when you have the second top-dump at the other shoulder - Miss PADI's favourite.
The T-Sport also has a lower dump with a toggle, handy on fast head-down descents or for jettisoning any water from the BC.
While waiting at the surface for the pick-up boat, pull this bottom dump while continuing to inflate an already fully inflated BC, and excess water will be expelled. It saves having to carry its weight up the ladder.
Like Lam, I tucked away all my gauges and found that the T-Sport fitted as a slim waistcoat should. A couple of kilos of lead in each pocket, rather than having all my weights on my belt, gave me a perfect stance in the water without that feeling of swimming with saddle-bags.
At the same time, I could easily access the pockets when I needed to do so, without risking dropping the lead.

Degree in origami
At the surface I could fully inflate the BC and get a distinctly uncomfortable hug before the over-pressure valve blew off, but I quickly learned not to do that. This BC gives typical armchair support and I never felt insecure.
With one reservation, I would say that this is a very acceptable BC for any single-tank diver, wetsuit- or drysuit-wearer. The feature I don't like is what Scubapro calls the Super Cinch tank-band, its patented alternative to the conventional tank camband buckle.
This is intended to make it quick and easy to slip from one tank to another of the same diameter, allowing divers to dispense with the degree in origami required to thread up a conventional camband.
Alas, instead you risk not getting the band tight enough.
On a dive, once the webbing is saturated and has stretched, you can suddenly find yourself holding your tank in place only by sheer determination, the strength of your molars and that of the cable-tie that secures your mouthpiece.
There follows the undignified experience of someone jumping on your back and inexpertly attempting to put it all back together before the tank falls out again.
The designers have tried to improve things by adding a non-slip rubber pad between tank and backpack, and now the webbing folds back on itself to the outside. However, it is still not easily tightened, even by somebody else, under water.
I was always nervous about it, checking it before each dive and never trusting anyone else to swap my tank.
If you feel the same, it's easy enough to swap it for a conventional camband. If the BC is for school and rentals, where the tanks are all the same and someone makes that permanent adjustment to the Super Cinch tankband to ensure that it works perfectly every time, it's OK.
The Scubapro T-Sport is designed with travelling divers in mind. It is a single-bag design made from 500 denier Cordura, and, at less than 2.5kg, about as lightweight as a conventional BC can be.
Not weighed down by too much shiny metal, it has a single plastic D-ring mounted to the right shoulder facing.
Two more of these large D-rings are mounted along the lower edge of the jacket, and two little stainless steel D-rings are securely mounted on patches just above the pockets. I used them to attach my current hook and they survived the task.
The harness buckles rotate to make their routeing as comfortable as possible, though because you can't move the attachment point, it's more a question of your body shape forcing the issue than you making any decision about it.
The T-Sport gives sufficient surface support - around 17kg in size M and 11kg in XXS. Its neat design creates little drag in the water. It could be ideal for the single-tank drysuit diver who maintains his suit at constant volume and uses the BC only for surface support and to hold his tank.
Scubapro says that the "T" in T-Sport stands for "technology", referring to its hi-tech method of manufacture.
I am going to upset it by saying that I think the T-Sport BC has all the advantages of a lo-tech product, in that it is neat and simple and there is nothing to go wrong!
The Scubapro T-Sport comes in seven sizes from XXS to XXL and costs £239.
. Scubapro, www.scubapro-uwatec.com

Scubapro UK, 01256 812636, www.scubapro.co.uk

+ Simple + Lightweight + Properly functioning

- That tank strap!

MASKS
Beuchat X-Contact
"IF I'D KNOWN I WAS GOING TO LIVE THIS LONG, I WOULD HAVE TAKEN MORE CARE OF MYSELF."
I don't know who said it, but I readily agree with the sentiment. I know that a lot of Diver readers are sympathetic. The fact is that most divers are either both young and penniless, or their children have flown the nest, leaving them with enough money to spend on diving the way they want to.
It means that a great many of those I meet on dive trips have grey hair, and SAGA is missing a trick by not selling diving holidays.
Time is not kind. A touch of deafness may be convenient but long-sightedness is not. They say there are two types of men over 40: those who wear glasses and those who don't read books.
That said, I find it strange that diving equipment manufacturers so often offer masks with optical lenses in negative strengths to suit young nearsighted people.
They rarely offer an optical solution to those with plenty of disposable income - that is, an income no longer compromised by expensive mortgages and demanding offspring - but whose arms have grown too short to allow them to read a newspaper.
It was a refreshing change to be sent a mask by Beuchat, because the first question it asked before despatching it was about the lenses I wanted supplied with it. To my surprise my contact didn't bat an eyelid when I suggested plus-2.5 dioptres strength, and the X-Contact mask so fitted duly arrived.
Perhaps the difference is that the skirt of the mask bore the legend "Made in the EEC", and the French manufacturer has spotted that all those elderly millionaires entering the casino at Monaco are blind as bats without their specs.
I was able to try the mask immediately, without having to send it off to have some cola-bottle bottoms glued inside the front glasses.
The X-Contact mask is otherwise fairly conventional. It has a flat front frame and pivoting buckles, with a strap that is easy to thread through them.
The internal volume is small, resulting in complete clearing with little more than a considered sneeze, and the lenses are positioned close to the eyes, though their slight teardrop shape does not allow as much downward vision as some other bigger masks now available.
Because the glasses are actually lenses, and do not have lenses bonded to them, the weight of the mask was less than I have become used to.Well done, Beuchat. Other optically challenged divers, apply here!
The Beuchat X-Contact mask costs £40 with plus-1 to plus-4 optical lenses each £22 extra. Of course, Beuchat accommodates near-sighted people too. Minus-1 to minus-9 dioptre lenses each cost £24 extra.

Alpha Distribution 01709 515157

+ Instant solution for long- or near-sighted divers

- Lenses make a mask costly, and you will need a spare

DIVER this month  |  Latest News  |  Holiday Offers  |  Competitions  |  Travel  |  Equipment  |  Forums  |  Learn to dive  |  Wrecks  |  UK Boat Spaces  |  Centres Overseas  |  Centres UK  |  Personal ads  |  Weather  |  Careers  |  U/W Photography  |  Marine life  |  Dive Shows  |  Dive Wear  |  Sharks  |  Diving know how  |  Opinion & more  |  Subscribe  |  Books & DVDs  |  Links  |  Contact us  |  About DIVER group  |  Divermart