Nick Pelios Freediver, Creator
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Most people don't know what to look for when choosing their first carbon fins for freediving or spearfishing. How long? How stiff? Which angle? Which footpocket? Here's a video to make your life a lot easier, a complete guide that will help you understand the different issues you need to consider before getting a pair of freediving bi-fins.



Choosing The Right Footpockets

Hey guys, we're at the Alchemy headquarters in Athens and today we're going to be looking at selecting the correct blade stiffness for you. Before we get into the stiffness of the blades, we're first going to start with the footpockets and choosing the right footpockets is not so much about selecting a certain brand, it's more about finding what fits you best. You want a tight fit but you don't want any discomfort and you certainly don't want any pain. By having a tight fit we can maximize the transfer of energy down into the blades and it's going to give you more propulsion in the water.

The footpocket that you choose will determine which angle you have available and the angle that you have will determine how a certain stiffness of fin will feel in the water. Here at Alchemy we offer two different angles, we have the V3's with 23 degrees and the V3-30's with 30 degrees. The key difference between these two angles is that the increased angle of the V3-30 will make it feel like a certain stiffness of fin is softer than if we have the V3's and 23 degrees.


Soft



Alchemy offers five different stiffnesses: soft, medium-soft, medium, medium-hard and hard. Soft fins are great for smaller people, let's say in the 50 to 70 kilo range. The softer fin you're going to feel like you have less lactic acid build up as you are doing a deep dive and they're also going to be great for teaching and recreational purposes. Times when you're gonna be using the fins for long periods of time throughout the day and again you're gonna feel less wear and tear on your legs.


Medium-Soft

Medium-Soft blades are great for slightly larger people let's say 60 to 75 kilograms and because they're slightly harder you're gonna feel a little more power and you're going to be able to move more quickly through the water. The downside is that you may feel a little more of wear and tear on your deepest dives so this is one consideration if you are one of the smaller people. They're a great all-purpose fin good for underwater photography, teaching, spearfishing and recreational purposes.


Medium



Medium stiffness fins are again for slightly larger people I would say from 70 kilo plus and they're gonna have all of the same benefits as the Medium-Soft but they're also great for spearfishing because you have the extra power so if you're moving through current or using a thicker wetsuit and more led then you're gonna have that extra power.


Medium-Hard



The Medium-Hard, again this is for larger people, I would say guys at least 80 kilograms maybe even more. Great for spearfishing, maybe not so much for deeper dives but if you're hunting in the 20-30 meter range and you need that extra power especially when you're bringing up large fish or if you're propelling yourself through cold water again with heavy weights and thicker wetsuits.


Hard

The hard stiffness fins are for larger guys, let's say 100 kilos plus and for special conditions. The extra stiffness is gonna mean that you have more power available to you but it's not going to be great for deep performances. But however any times when we're pulling out large fish, maybe moving through cold water with extra buoyancy, extra weight and moving through a strong current you're gonna find that these work very well.



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