Turtle Fins

Joshua Smith · Post by **Joshua Smith** » Mon May 14, 2007 11:38 am

I picked up a pair of Turtles from Matt at NWSD last week. I dove them yesterday at the Edmonds oil dock with Calvin, Ken, and BJ. All I can say is:

"Wow! What an improvement!" Calvin always beats me out to the end of the dock (it's a loooong surface swim, for those who haven't dived there) and I beat him there without trying very hard....we weren't racing or anything, but there was a noticeable improvement over my Apollo XT Pros (a stiffer version of the standard biofin) I could feel every kick pushing me a little farther and faster than what I'm used to! They are a little harder to move through the water- ie, there's more resistance per kick, but that resistance seems to be directly translated into forward motion! The end result for me is that I feel like I'm moving faster and not working as hard. BJ and I thumbed our dive after 10 minutes or so, due to heavy current and poor vis (Calvin and Ken were separated from us at the beginning of the dive, but we'd agreed to stay in our buddy pairs, so it was OK) and I was really glad to have the "turtle power" for fighting the current! (We'd calculated for slack, but there was a huge exchange, and slack felt non-existent to us- Calvin and Ken apparently got into the lee, and had a good dive anyway)

Anyway, I can't wait to dive them some more, but I'm very impressed with them so far!

edit- spelling

Sounder · Post by **Sounder** » Mon May 14, 2007 11:41 am

I love my turtle fins! $\:D/$ "Turtle Power" reminds me of my Ninja Turtle watching days...

Tangfish · Post by **Tangfish** » Mon May 14, 2007 2:06 pm

I gotta give em a try next time we go diving, Nailer.

I'm not sure if you beat me out b/c of the fins or b/c you ate your Wheaties that morning. :naka:

dsteding · Post by **dsteding** » Mon May 14, 2007 3:23 pm

I love my Turtles. Couldn't imagine diving without them . . . glad you like yours!

Sounder · Post by **Sounder** » Mon May 14, 2007 4:19 pm

Depending on your boot size (and more importantly width), jets would be a comperable option for a smaller foot size. I have to wear turtles for my rock boots but wear jets in the tropics...

Sergeant Pepper · Post by **Sergeant Pepper** » Mon May 14, 2007 6:47 pm

There must be a lot of people with humongoid feet around here. I recently started diving the Turtles also, but they seem to be a little big on me. Scubapro certainly needs to do something with their XL / XXL descrepancy.

ArcticDiver · Post by **ArcticDiver** » Tue May 15, 2007 4:30 pm

One more vote for Turtles!
I found my old Blades to be excellent fins; until....I went to doubles. Then they just unloaded thrust to fast. So, I spent a lot of time churning and not a lot of time going. Made me real tired.

Then I had two very nice folks let me try Turtles. They are a little bit compared to the sqeeze on fit of the Blades. I keep thinking they are going to fall off. But they never do and are great.

Now to get a pair of XL Jets for wetsuit work and I'm all set.

In short, at last, you'll love the things.

Grateful Diver · Post by **Grateful Diver** » Tue May 15, 2007 4:38 pm

Sergeant Pepper wrote:There must be a lot of people with humongoid feet around here. I recently started diving the Turtles also, but they seem to be a little big on me. Scubapro certainly needs to do something with their XL / XXL descrepancy.

It ain't that folks have big feet ... it's just that Turtles are more appropriate for drysuit boots ... I wouldn't part with mine.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

lurch · Post by **lurch** » Thu May 31, 2007 6:21 pm

dsteding wrote:I love my Turtles. Couldn't imagine diving without them . . . glad you like yours!

+1

fishb0y · Post by **fishb0y** » Fri Jun 01, 2007 7:50 pm

I wish I saw this thread before I bought my XXL Jets... of course there is always e-Bay...