Steel spring heel straps

[Phil Ennis]

Hope to see you there, ask Sandy behind the bar or one of the other staff to point me out.

[Jay]

Nice to meet you last Saturday mate - will be frequenting Capenwray a bit this winter no doubt. You work during week too?

[Mark Chase]

On the subject of fin straps

My Quatro buckel cheep plastic hinge pin broke FIRST DIVE with the fins. I replaced it with a chrome plated doubleended screw and mushroom bolt normaly used for holding kitchen cabanits together and thats been there ever since. My fin strap split about half way through in the last two days of my Gozo trip but the raised letters of Mares saved the day and it did the last few dives without total failure.

Springs are good but I worrey about the dammage to the dry suit boots

Just a thaught

Mark CHase

[Mr T.]

Hey Mark,

Good point about the wear on dry-bag boots - that's why my DUI Rockboots come in handy. If they get tanned, buy new ones without effecting the suit itself.

[Pierre Farrugia]

I think if the SS strings have the plastic pipe on them, would not cause any damage. Is there any SS spring users on here? Anyone have links of Turtle fins.

Regards

Pierre Farrugia

[Davey Willo]

Pierre

You're right mate, there is a plastic pipe covering the spring, I agree that there should be no more wear than any other fin strap..

The Scubapro Turtles are nearly exactly the same fin as the Scubapro Jetfins, only with a larger foot pocket for the Sasquatch's amongst us...

[Driftwood]

Or for those wimpish moaners that complain about the foot pocket on the Jetfins good ol' Drifty is passing on only going over half their foot (kinda like it's suppose to?)

:thumb:

[Mdemon]

SS springs + plastic pipe cover would seem to be a more robust solution than a plain old bit of rubber strap.

However, I'm amazed that some people would spend as much on the fixings as on the fins themselves!

I'm sure I've seen some people either using just plain elastic bungee, or using it as a backup.  Now call me Mr Scrooge if you want, but it seems that this has the benefit of being dirt cheap, as well as being much more resilient to tearing.  Any thoughts?

(Due respect to our DIR brethren, but I'm on a budget here!)

And veering dangerously off-topic, has anyone got any ideas on how best to get fins OFF?!  My dry boots weld themselves to my fins, and it's getting embarrassing having to be "undressed" by my buddy...he's 6'2" and looks nothing like Mum. I've drilled a drain hole already, so there's no vacuum, and I'm not sure "greasing" fins is a good idea! (The fins are Hurricane Typhoons - jetfin-type clones).

[John Gulliver]

A guy I know has made his own straps out of bungee cord covered by a bit of plastic tubing. It's cheap, it works fine and in case it breaks he carries extra bungee cord in his divebag. He says it works just as well as steel springs and costs a fraction of the price. As regards fins becoming almost welded to your drysuit boots, I have the same problem. It's a real struggle to get my fins off.

[Mdemon]

Glad to know I'm not alone!  I'll put some thought to it and see if I can come up with something.

I'll also try and put together a trial bungee strap - is it possible to upload pictures to this site?