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Old 05-08-2018, 04:42 PM   #196
growingupninja
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Re: Carbon Fin Reviews

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Originally Posted by Marco View Post
So, any outcome with the tests?
Not yet. I am waiting on a medium Bluetec Checkmate from Petros. I did test my logging system in the ocean a couple weeks ago. For fun, here are some results...

This one was kinda crazy, as a warmup I did a 10M hang for a minute in our water (it was 56F at the surface) and no mask. You can see heavy dive response. The huge HR increase halfway through we suspect are the device getting confused by the low heart rate; they don't engineer hr monitors with the intent of measuring rates in the low 20's. My normal resting is 55bpm. Going to test this further against a manual pulse taken from the carotid artery, but for actual fin test HR will be higher and the device is accurate.

This was a touch and go, and I finned my way around on the bottom instead of using the rope... very metabolically expensive.

This one was swimming down and then swimming a 10lb weight up from the bottom.

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Old 09-10-2018, 02:58 PM   #197
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Re: Carbon Fin Reviews

Lost one of my beloved Bluetec Blade fins off the boat yesterday and so broke down and got a pair of Cetma Pranas (thanks Petros and Dave) medium in a Pathos pocket. Here is my first impression after tooling around in a pool today for bit....

Very nice fin for stereo bifin kick. The progressive stiffness feels great and provides instant torque and acceleration when I open the throttle. Make of the fin is very similar to my Bluetec Blade (one of the very early 'progressive' stiffness models), which is something I looked for, however the Cetmas have the crazy steep blade angle. I have always been a bit skeptical of the blade angle... it was interesting. The fin feels significantly softer on the forward sweep due to blade angle. Back sweep feels powerful but does not feel like more effort than my old fin. So, good power for traditional bi-fin kick.

Downside to the blade angle is that not giving the same thrust on the forward kick is that my dolphin kick feels a bit weaker. For many spearos this will be a non-issue, but when teaching, lobster diving, and spearing deep I use a fair bit of dolphin kick on ascent.

For depth competition, the CMAS rule is that if you are using bi-fins you are not allowed to do any dolphin kicks--you must do stereo/common kick when doing constant weight bi-fins, so for anyone doing CMAS comp this will be a non issue. I will be using the fin for competitive bi-fin at depth World's in Turkey soon...

Anyway, Cetma Pranas, very excellent fin for regular bifins, could be better if you do a lot of dolphin kicking in your bifins.

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Old 11-16-2018, 05:26 PM   #198
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Re: Carbon Fin Reviews

Quote:
Originally Posted by growingupninja View Post
Lost one of my beloved Bluetec Blade fins off the boat yesterday and so broke down and got a pair of Cetma Pranas (thanks Petros and Dave) medium in a Pathos pocket. Here is my first impression after tooling around in a pool today for bit....

Very nice fin for stereo bifin kick. The progressive stiffness feels great and provides instant torque and acceleration when I open the throttle. Make of the fin is very similar to my Bluetec Blade (one of the very early 'progressive' stiffness models), which is something I looked for, however the Cetmas have the crazy steep blade angle. I have always been a bit skeptical of the blade angle... it was interesting. The fin feels significantly softer on the forward sweep due to blade angle. Back sweep feels powerful but does not feel like more effort than my old fin. So, good power for traditional bi-fin kick.

Downside to the blade angle is that not giving the same thrust on the forward kick is that my dolphin kick feels a bit weaker. For many spearos this will be a non-issue, but when teaching, lobster diving, and spearing deep I use a fair bit of dolphin kick on ascent.

For depth competition, the CMAS rule is that if you are using bi-fins you are not allowed to do any dolphin kicks--you must do stereo/common kick when doing constant weight bi-fins, so for anyone doing CMAS comp this will be a non issue. I will be using the fin for competitive bi-fin at depth World's in Turkey soon...

Anyway, Cetma Pranas, very excellent fin for regular bifins, could be better if you do a lot of dolphin kicking in your bifins.

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Would you recommend the Cetmas for regular spearfishing / surface swimming?
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Old 11-16-2018, 07:01 PM   #199
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Re: Carbon Fin Reviews

@jhip sure, they make very nice fins. Try to demo a pair as Cetma makes a variety of models and stiffnesses.

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Old 11-16-2018, 07:07 PM   #200
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Re: Carbon Fin Reviews

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Originally Posted by growingupninja View Post
@jhip sure, they make very nice fins. Try to demo a pair as Cetma makes a variety of models and stiffnesses.

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Thanks Lance!
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Old 12-11-2018, 07:56 PM   #201
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Carbon Fin Reviews

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Originally Posted by kavachi View Post
super super stoked with Cetma Mantras in Medium.

huge amount of grunt on tap for deep haulage, but still with that ankle- and knee-friendly Euro flex, and that radical 33 degree pre-load really suits me



The way their footpockets are built to reduce twist, coupled with the big rails, everything's channelled into forward thrust, feel to me much more efficient than my C4's and Waterways. Havent tried Alchemys



Loving Cetma's little Dynami-techs for around the reef, scuba work - anywhere full length blades are a hassle, and for long surface swims, can literally kick all day against current in those things, no blisters [am not wearing socks with either of the Cetma blades] and no knee and ankle soreness. bloody revelation after years of using old-school stiff carbon blades


Just ordered a pair of cetma pranas in medium. Can’t wait to try them out!


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Old 12-14-2018, 03:56 PM   #202
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Re: Carbon Fin Reviews

We just got all the new CETMAS in in all colors including colors that cannot be found online. Come on in to check them out at Spear America.
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Old 12-18-2018, 10:12 PM   #203
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Re: Carbon Fin Reviews

Just tried them out at the pool. WOW night and day compared to fiberglass. Can’t wait to get them out on the water.


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Old 01-02-2019, 08:59 PM   #204
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Re: Carbon Fin Reviews

Has anyone compared the Cetmas to the Meandros X-Pros?

Looking to do some lurking from ~7m-40m totting a speargun. I don’t do a ton of surface swimming.
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Old 01-02-2019, 09:51 PM   #205
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Re: Carbon Fin Reviews

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Originally Posted by Rob Ryan View Post
Has anyone compared the Cetmas to the Meandros X-Pros?
Looking to do some lurking from ~7m-40m totting a speargun. I don’t do a ton of surface swimming.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rob Ryan View Post
Has anyone compared the Cetmas to the Meandros X-Pros?
Looking to do some lurking from ~7m-40m totting a speargun. I don’t do a ton of surface swimming.
hey Rob, haven’t tried the meandros blades, but have spent a LOT of time in the last year spearing between 15 and 25 metres in current with my Cetma Mantras in medium stiffness and they are just so much better than my previous C4s and Waterways.
I chose the Mediums as the often need to kick up hard hugging the fish to avoid getting sharked. The Mantras just have this incredible efficiency - tonnes of power for hauling and yet super easy on the knees and legs. The acute 33 deg blade angle also a key part of the efficiency.
Should note the design of Cetma footpockets are a critical part of this efficiency, especially for me as they fit so well without socks i can dive all day in current with no blisters, and the fit means no power loss. If you possibly can try the Cetma pockets on before u buy, find the perfect fit
Only time i dont wear the Mantras is for coral hole hunting, and for scuba work, for which the much shorter Dynami-Techs are perfect for - incredibly efficient for a short fin. Two pairs of fins cover everything
Go the Mantras!
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Old 01-14-2019, 08:00 AM   #206
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Re: Carbon Fin Reviews

I put a selection of blades from the Greek company, Apnea, through some pool testing on Friday...

3 blades, Apnea Aktiv in medium and hard as well as the Apnea Symmetric in medium, all in the new C4 300 footpockets. Aktiv is their newest, flagship carbon fiber fin.

Test set was 25x50M underwater, in a 50M pool, leaving every 2:00, although a couple times I missed my intervals because the new C4 pockets are insane to put on (more on that later). 50's in longfins on the 2:00 is a very relaxed interval for me, much slower than a typical training set.

First the footpockets: the new C4 pockets are really difficult to put on (and take off). Every set actually comes with a plastic shoe horn. The reason they are hard to put on is that the pocket material has ZERO stretch. Surprisingly they were really, really comfortable once I got them on--at least as comfy as my pathos pockets that have been heat molded to my own feet. In theory you should get better power transfer with less stretch in your footpocket. The new C4's are the lightest, lowest mass, lowest profile footpockets I have ever seen, no doubt because of the strength of whatever material they are using. It's a performance pocket.

First impression on the Apnea blades: they are very solid for a carbon blade, on the other end of the spectrum when compared to wispy Bluetecs or Cetmas... They are a uniform thickness.

They're fast, faster than my Cetma Pranas. I did mixed sets, at least 4 lengths in each stiffness before switching. Easy swims, medium swims, and WOT sprints. Excellent torque and response, particularly with dolphin kick, which is to be expected with a relatively firm, almost straight fin.

About the stiffness: I would say that in comparison to other current fins on the market, the Apnea blades run a bit on the stiff side. In a pool, swimming in speedo and perfect streamline--far less drag than typical spearing getup--I could make the same speeds in the medium as I could in the hards. The hards were not so hard that they broke my form down but I had to actually think about reducing shoulder roll since I was getting so much torque out of the kicks. In a burly current, wearing a thick wetsuit, towing a full stringer or bag of shellfish, the hard fins could be very nice (although the mediums would certainly get the job done).

Was there a difference between the Symmetric and the Aktiv? Eh, besides price, the medium Aktiv felt much like the medium Symmetric. The Symmetric was perhaps a touch softer.

Final thoughts: the Apnea blades are a tough blade, excellent value, and going to appeal to the strong kick vertical dive type spearos. The Aktiv is a carbon blade that seems engineered for shorediving a steep rocky coastline where you clatter in at the base of a cliff and quickly start doing vertical miles.

I will be testing them on a line this next week.


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EDIT 01/31/2019: I took these with me to Baja and wore the hards for 5 days of diving. It was cold and murky and I was wearing my 6mm suit, lots of grinding rockpiles and walls. Most of the diving was shallowish (10M -20M). As I expected from the pool, they were fast and responsive, plenty tough enough for aggressive hole hunting and enough torque for horsing big fish and anchors. I did get better with the footpockets...! Good value in a medium priced carbon.
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Last edited by growingupninja; 01-31-2019 at 02:15 PM.
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Old 01-14-2019, 12:02 PM   #207
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Re: Carbon Fin Reviews

I'll add one

Just bought a new set of Carbons from Blue Tuna in Ventura (local shop) over the holidays because the price was something I couldn't walk away from and Matt the owner told me he would swap the blades to something else if I didn't like them.

I have had them out twice now, and I really like them. They have a great snap coming up from depth and surface kicking is smooth.

I haven't put them into the Current yet, so when the Yellows come in they will really get their workout. So far I have zero desire to switch the blades out to anything else.

http://bluetunaspearfishing.com/bts-...ness-fins.html
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Old 01-22-2019, 07:31 PM   #208
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Re: Carbon Fin Reviews

I’ll add:

C4 volare HT medium stiffness in C4 300 foot pocket:

I’ve enclosed a photo, side by side with Alchemy V3 and Bleutec Spearo.

Those are the best fins I’ve ever tried in my option, (mind you, I’ve had the chance to try diveR innegra, cetma, deep apnea and other top brands).

The foot pocket is crazy ! Reminds me of my road bike shows. Perfect fit and extreme responsiveness. Bit of a pain to put them as the foot pocket doesn’t stretch like some of the others

Blades: Their responsiveness is incredible. I got to dive with them to 105ft vertical drop, and while I love and trust my alchemy V3 for deep drops, I didn’t get leg burns like the alchemy. Horizontal swims: similar aspect, less effort for the same distance travelled... probably a 15-20% improved efficiency in my depth and breath hold , whether it’s the mental aspect or gear performance or combination of both....

The only downside is that they are quite long and hard to find a bag that will fit them. Also not the cheapest fins...

I’m predominantly a Spearo around structures such as rigs and wrecks so definitely I’ll have to be extra careful around structures.

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Old 02-07-2019, 07:53 AM   #209
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Re: Carbon Fin Reviews

Newbie carbon fin question.... I am not new to spearfishing been doing it for years however always on scuba. This season im coming to the dark side free diving side will be taking a class early in the season and know I need to get the appropriate free diving fins vs my scuba fins. Would it be a mistake to jump into a full carbon fin being a newbie to freediving? Considering doing it as hate to spend the money on cheap fins and do the upgrades over time to a carbon fin long term....
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Old 02-07-2019, 12:35 PM   #210
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Re: Carbon Fin Reviews

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Originally Posted by lycokayaker View Post
Newbie carbon fin question.... I am not new to spearfishing been doing it for years however always on scuba. This season im coming to the dark side free diving side will be taking a class early in the season and know I need to get the appropriate free diving fins vs my scuba fins. Would it be a mistake to jump into a full carbon fin being a newbie to freediving? Considering doing it as hate to spend the money on cheap fins and do the upgrades over time to a carbon fin long term....
As long as you know how to jump in the water and take off the bottom, any good carbon fin would last many years.

You have other options, as fiberglass, that you can always upgrade later. There's not too expensive composite blades around there that you can start with. Make sure to get a footpocket that fits good to you. Otherwise, will be a nightmare to wear even the best blades money can buy.

I like the Mares footpockets in terms of comfort. Others swear by Pathos. C4 300's are nice once you wear them, but it is a pita to do so, as they don't stretch much. Cressi's are nice too.
Try them (footpockets) before you buy them. You won't regret.
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