Put Your Best Fin Forward
ScubaLab test diver, Eric Michael, tries out a pair of scuba diving fins in the crystal clear water of Alexander Springs.

The ScubaLab team and our eager test divers headed up to Alexander Springs in Central Florida to conduct our 2017 scuba fin review. We spent a sunny day in January with 13 pairs of the latest fins. While you wait for the results to come out in our May issue, we invite you to take a look behind the scenes and see how we kick it — ScubaLab style.

How We Test Fins

We asked our test divers to evaluate the fins and rate them from 5 (excellent) to 1 (poor) in the following categories:

• Ease of Donning and Doffing: Both in and out of the water, how easy is the fin to put on and take off? Are straps or buckles easy to grasp? Is it unusually difficult to slide your boot out of the open-heel pockets?

• Adjusting For Fit: If straps and buckles are adjustable without tools, how easy and effective to use are they? Are they intuitive or complicated to operate?

• Fit and Comfort: How comfortable and secure is the fin on the foot? Does it slip/slide/pinch, ect., during hard kicking?

• Stability: Do the fins have a tendency to wobble, slide side-to-side, or strike each other while kicking? Do they track straight?

• Power Vs. Stress: What's your perception of the propulsion produced during the kick cycle relative to the amount of effort put into the kick?

• Kicking Styles: The ease, efficiency and stability of the fin in flutter and frog kick. Testers were also encouraged to evaluate the fins for other kicking styles such as dolphin and scissor kick.

• Acceleration: How efficiently do the fins allow you to quickly increase your speed?

• Maneuverability: How well do the fins allow you to get in and out of tight locations including spinning, backing up, or reversing directions?

• Surface Swimming: While on the surface on scuba or snorkel, how efficiently do the fins propel you relative to the effort?

Let's Make Waves
Our test divers quickly increased their speed to evaluate how much acceleration was offered by the different fins in our test.

Fun In The Sun
The ScubaLab 2017 fin test took place at Alexander Springs in Central Florida.

If The Shoe Fits
We had a variety of sizes of each scuba fin available for our test divers to ensure proper fit during evaluations.

What Scuba Fin Size Is Right For Me?

How screwy are open-heel fin sizes? In our test, one scuba diver wore different fins that were in sizes medium, ­medium-large, large and extra-large. Turns out fin sizes, like pirate rules, are really more like guidelines. In fin-makers’ defense, sizing for open-heel models isn’t really about your foot, but about the boot you’re wearing in that fin. That’s especially true of tec fins designed for use with bulky drysuit boots. Bottom line: If you want to make your open-heel fins fit, try them on with the boots you’ll be wearing in them.

Making Order Out of Chaos
It's easy to get stuck waiting for fins when multiple testers need the same size, but our hard working test team supervisors kept things running smoothly.

Fancy Footwork
Deputy Editor, Mary Frances Emmons, writes down her comments on an underwater slate during the ScubaLab fin test at Alexander Springs.

Just Keep Swimming
Test divers evaluated how long they could keep up a steady pace in different fins, important information for long surface swims or for when you encounter currents.

What Did Testers Like?

Personal preferences in fins vary greatly, even among our test ­divers. But the ­features that came up consistently in their notes were these: a blade capable of delivering power without undue fatigue, and a foot pocket/strap with the comfort and stability to put the fin to work.

Life In The Test Lane
Alexander Springs is a shallow site, but its large surface area allows for plenty of distance for long stretches of uninterrupted swimming — perfect for seeing what the fins could really do.

Putting A Spring(strap) In Your Step
Test divers were asked to evaluate how easy and effective their straps and buckles were to adjust on the fins and how comfortable and secure they felt on their feet.

Adjusting Spring Straps On Scuba Fins

Springs and ­bungees are all the rage, and we’re cool with that. Who doesn’t like ­convenience? But sometimes it would be nice if you could just make that spring a little ­longer, or that bungee a smidge ­snugger. Most stretch straps that allow adjustment require a screwdriver and wrench to move a bolt. But two of the fins in this test have clever ­adjusters that ­require no tools.

The Tusa HyFlex Switch has a cover that opens to reach a retaining pin in the bungee end that can be moved to make the strap on each side about a half-inch longer or shorter. There are no loose parts to drop when you’re making the switch.

The ­Oceanic ­Manta Ray also has an adjuster for its spring strap that’s elegant in its simplicity; push the strap forward through the mount on the fin, and you can move a pin that retains the spring end. It has three ­additional positions in ½-inch increments. If you drop the retaining pin, there’s an extra on each side.

Get Your Kicks
Test diver, Jenna Zunz, swims through Alexander Springs using a variety of kicking styles to see how well the fins perform.

Interested in more behind-the-scenes?
2016 Regulator Test | 2016 Computer Test | 2016 Dive Light Test