Quote:
Originally Posted by mitsuguy
booties are fairly cheap too, but does increase the price nonetheless...
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I don't want Shortyman to feel too cornered by that. Even the cheapest option I recommended to him is going to end up putting him in the poor house after shipping, given that it was pretty much a matter of "costs as much as the top end of the budget and doesn't include shipping", or "sounds real cheap, but with boots and shipping it's still comes out more than you wanted to spend."
If he gets boots, they're going to have to be cheap... like, under $20 cheap. Tropical Booties are $16.90. They're 3mm, so they're going to keep your feet warmer and better protected than nothing at all, but may be something you want to upgrade later. You'll get used to that "wanting to upgrade" thing before long.
Added to the 37.50 cost of the Oceanic fins package, the total cost gets bumped up to $104.30. We already know from the Mares package that $100 is pretty much the upper limit, and that has to include shipping. Fortunately, ScubaToys comes to the rescue again with free shipping through Christmas for orders over $50, so we just need to shave $5 to come in under budget, and more savings are presumably good if the gear quality isn't sacrificed too much.
Tusa Liberator open heel fins are $29.20, so you could shave off eight bucks there if you wanted to. I read a review by someone who owned a pair of these and then bought a pair of the Mares Avantis. They said they didn't notice much difference between them. I love the Avantis, as I said, so these are probably a good fin for the price.
The Panview mask looks pretty good for $35.28 as well, and you could find another ten dollars or so in savings there if you wanted to go with that mask instead of the X-Vision I recommended earlier.
I haven't tried this mask out, but if it fits you and it's claims about giving you an unobstructed panoramic view are true, that's a good mask for the price.
I hope those options are helpful to you. Insomnia cured. Good night.