Got new fins! Atomic splits...

[mitsuguy]

Alright guys, well, being as we sell Atomic at work, I decided to grab a new set of fins to match my Atomic mask and snorkel...

For the past couple days, I've tried out a couple different Atomic fins, the smoke on the waters, and the regular splits... I decided against the smoke on the waters for a couple reasons - 1) my shoe size is kinda small for the size fin I wear and the spring strap isn't tight enough 2) I couldn't tell the difference between the smokes and the regular splits and 3) I wanted something other than smoke/translucent black...

Anyways, prior to these, I had used my Tusa Xpert Zooms for about 300 dives... Loved every minute of them, even changed to a larger size when I changed my boots... At any rate, they were getting kinda beaten up, and as I mentioned, I wanted to change to match...

L-XL in a Tusa Zoom is what I was wearing with a Tilos 3 mil or 5 mil boot with a thick tennis shoe like sole... It was a snug, but good fit... Now, with the Atomics, I am wearing an XL, which fits perfect front to back, but there is some extra room side to side. This is where the spring straps not working comes in to play... the spring straps don't hold my foot tight enough and my feet wobble... going back to the standard straps fixed that (I tighten the strap on the sole part of the boot as I did with the Tusa fins, not the neoprene part on my achilles heel....)

Couple obvious differences right away - first, they are longer than the zooms, by about 2" - they are also wider, but not by much... they don't have as much of an angle to the blade as the tusa's do, and they feel stiffer than the zoom's as well... they also have a much cooler standard fin strap...

alright, so, differences in the water - as noticed out of the water, they are also much stiffer in the water... they honestly feel very stiff, like a paddle fin almost... I can do all my standard and alternate kicks, like I could with the Tusa's, (frog, scissor, backward, etc), and all of them are actually easier to do as there is more force than with the Tusa's... one thing I definitely like is that if you really put some force behind it, a single frog kick will really move you...

now, downside - my feet and ankles aren't used to this much abuse... I am used to not having much resistance at all and just kicking a little faster to make up for it - with these, I have to use more power, but fewer strokes... this takes a toll on your ankles and feet (I only did 4 dives today with the new fins)...

So, if you are considering splits, and want something stiffer, more similar to a paddle, but easier to kick still and lots of versatility, get the Atomics... if you want something floppier, but still fast and maneuverable, get the Tusa's...

One last note, I didn't notice any difference between the smokes and the blue standard fins that I got, performance wise...

[3rdEye]

nice choice....i like mine (but i got the smokes)

you can also adjust the tightness of the springs on the smokes, i had to put mine on the tighter setting

[mitsuguy]

Originally Posted by 3rdEye

nice choice....i like mine (but i got the smokes)

you can also adjust the tightness of the springs on the smokes, i had to put mine on the tighter setting

Tried that... still wasn't tight enough... technically, I'm between the L and XL size wise so I kinda have to cinch em down just a bit...

[K9Pig]

Great choice...I just bought my daughter a pair of the "pink" ones and she loves them...

[mrmccoy]

I dove with the Tusa zoom experts this past weekend and didn't really like the ''floppyness'' of them but on the dive before that I used some mares avanti fins. My instructor had a pair of atomic splits which seems alot stiffer then the Tusa zooms. After my dive with the Tusa zooms he told me that he tried a pair of the zooms and didn't like them.