There are many different designs of blade, most of which are heralded as the most efficient, controllable and fast style of blade. Having done much research into this topic I am convinced that the most effective style of blade is the one that integrates with the diver the best. Not all divers want the same thing from their fins, meaning that everyone finds different attributes of the blade to be important or redundant. There are a large range of technologies on the market, some look conventional and some look ridiculous, but I’m quite sure that they all have their fan clubs that would support them in their application for best fin ever made.
There is no doubt that split fins are fast and efficient, though it is a common statement from divers who are unfamiliar with them to complain that they are too flexible and have a tendency to “flop” around under excessive strain. I believe this is simply a technique issue that is overcome by practice with the fin, once the diver is comfortable with the fin’s peculiar feedback the comments are usually very favourable.
Wing fins are similar to split fins in that they are astonishingly light weight (being as SP chopped most of the fin off!) and are therefore great for travellers and snorkelers, but they are also effective in more serious applications. Though I’d be surprised if many commercial divers opted to use such a revolutionary design in their work l– the integrity of the struts are simply not anecdotally tested enough for many pros to trust.
This fin shape is only really employed by freedivers who like to use a dolphin style of finning motion, where the whole body is involved in the propulsion of the diver. The fin is normally very wide and very stiff, the shock absorption is not created by the flex in the blade, but in the bend of the knee and hip. They are very fast fins but obviously require practice to make use of their unique attributes. They are not very easy to manoeuvre in either, making them almost unused in SCUBA diving.
