We use fins for a whole host of fun water spots — swimming, SCUBA, snorkelling, free diving, body surfing or body boarding, or to propel a float tube, belly boat or kick boat.
What ever sport you use them for, you probably already know that your fins are your greatest ally. Just try getting into the water without them, and see how far you get. With all that gear on, you need fins to help produce thrust, so that you can move forward through the water.
← Most fins look like this
The most common fin design that people use are long and flat, sometimes very rigid, and others somewhat flexible. Either way, these fins work to produce thrust because they give you a mechanical advantage through leverage as you kick through the water. Water, like air, is a flowing fluid. The difference is that water is 800 times more dense than air and humans need fins to help get the power needed to move through this density.
This is a pretty simple video that explains the dynamics of flat fins :
Flat rigid fins will give you the mechanical advantage to propel yourself forward through water and produce quite a bit of forward speed. However, maneuvering, turning, or pivoting can be tricky, because rigid fins don’t give a lot of flexibilility or motion to get the leverage required to make small radius movements.
But did you know that there’s a fin design that allows you to make small pivots in the water, and even to swim backwards?!
Unique in design, Force Fins are actually prefered by military special forces, Search and Rescue, and Marines because they are the best performing fin in the world.
This fin design is literally the only fin in the world that easily allows you to swim backwards! (also called back finning). This is actually VERY difficult with flat fins! Here’s a video showing a diver who is obviously very experienced and skilled in back finning. Most people will never achieve this level of proficiency, because it’s so difficult.
Most people look like this when they are trying to back fin (ie — not good) -
I’ve found that with Force Fins, I have increased mobility in the water for things like swimming through cut outs or tunnels. I can easily manoever by making tiny positional changes, just by catching the inside or outside edge of one fin, and using this leverage to pivot. You just can’t do that with a flat fin.
Force Fins are so powerful and maneuverable, pretty much everyone I dive with has converted over to them. They cut a pretty unique profile in the water too. I suggest to try them out, you’ll probably be converted, just like I was.
