Vintage Double Hose

Emergency fin sourcing

I put this here to get the max views and advice, but if it is supposed to be in the marketplace, please move.

OK, so I’m getting ready to go on a little trip and the Wife is coming and has agreed to participate in a little snorkeling with me and my Son. (backstory- she dislikes pretty much everything I ever want to do). So I spot these really nice all-rubber fins, they are nice and blue, and they have these nice birdies on them….who could be grumpy with such nice blue birdie fins? So I order up a pair with 2 weeks to go. Now I find with one week to go, that they are on indefinite back-order. Crap!!!! So I need to find a suitable replacement, badly, quickly!

Specs in order of importance:
Full foot
All rubber (no tuperware)
Blue (or at least not black)
Birdies, dolphins, or other seemingly happy animals on them.
Got to get them to TN in a week or less (maybe that should have been first on the list)



Any help pointing me at a product and it’s source would be greatly appreciated!!!

I thank you in the spirit of family unity.

Fred

Ahhhhhh bleep it....Fred you owe me, dang link to the page will not paste.....After the 3rd time I give up.

Anyway go here http://www.kiefer.com look under the "Training and accessories" tab, select "Fins" and then page 2 of the fins. The Kiefer Color fins might do. Lots of pretty colors, look to be quality and have a seahorse on them.

The fins whose image you have posted are Oceanways Aqua Professionals, made in the USA. The bird embossed on the foot pocket and blade is a swallow, confirming that the design is a Cressi Rondine clone. "Rondine" is Italian for "swallow" and this bird has appeared on full-foot fins manufactured by the Italian diving equipment company Cressi since Luigi Ferraro designed the original back in the aftermath of World War II. I have a very large sized pair of these fins, also in light blue, purchased via eBay, which I occasionally use when snorkelling.

Here's a picture of British actress Helen Mirren preparing to snorkel with her light blue Oceanways Aquapros while vacationing in Hawaii:

They are often used as rental "resort fins" or as lap training fins by competitive swimmers. As for your backordering problems with the fins, have you tried these online sources:

Florida Freedivers
https://www.flfreedivers.com/store/index.php?manufacturers_id=47&osCsid=p4jh464v0ggmm90cbilatcp9v6
Online Scuba
http://www.onlinescuba.com/Product.aspx?ProductId=2384

I have no idea how quickly these retailers would be able to supply you with the fins, if they have them in stock. I've noticed that Amazon.com retails them, but they seem to be out of stock at the moment.

Moving on to an alternative source of rubber full-foot fins in a colour other than black, your best bet may be a supplier of swimgear rather than a diving equipment supplier. Malaysian-made imports are the likeliest standard-bladed fins to be found in swim stores. The blades come in various stiffnesses and combinations of two colours. They don't have bird or fish icons on them, I'm afraid. One example is the Eyeline fin, which comes in blue/orange and rearns the recommendation of an Australian underwater photographer who, like me, is no fan of overpriced and overengineered tupperware fins:
http://www.divernet.com/Diving_Gear/gear_features/334185/my_favourite_kit_pete_atkinson.html
You can get Malaysian-made Eyelines online at

http://www.800allswim.com/training_aids-legs-feet.html
Then there are Water Gear fins, also Malaysian-made and available in all-blue:

http://www.fitness-equipment.com/acatalog/Fitness_Equipment_Water_Fins_and_Mask_239.html
and Speedo Rubber Fins:

http://www.kiefer.com/ProductDetails/StyleMasterDetails.aspx?pid=%7B6EC6ED59-6E25-4271-8336-CCF4534868BF%7D&gid=%7BF332E2DE-BCB2-4F17-AFD2-1A82C9603D0D%7D&pname=Speedo+Rubber+Swim+Fins&Referer=&Alias=&ptct=SGR-SR&CTitle=&
Finally, there are colourful rubber Taiwanese-made TYR Flex Fins:

http://www.triathletesports.com/Tyr-Flex-Fin-p/tyrflfn-ds-acb1.htm
The above firm claim to dispatch goods within 24 hours. When I snorkelled a few years ago at La Jolla Cove, I noticed at least one snorkeller wearing Flex Fins.

I hope the above gives you a little food for thought. There are many different models of rubber full-foot fins in production worldwide and the ones I have listed above should be easily available in the USA.

This may be the link Herman intended to post:
http://tinyurl.com/2ur68jm

I had the same experience when attempting to post the link, so I "tinyurled" it instead, which worked.

WELL DONE !

Thanks so much to you both!!!

Options-a-plenty. I just love this place. I really do.

If Swallows are good enough for a Dame of the Realm, they are good enough for the Mrs.

I wonder if they are African or European Swallows?..... (??? reference)

Lots of other crazy stuff at that Kiezer place too. That should take care of a couple of birthdays to come.

Thanks again, Fred

It's a pleasure, Fred. As a vintage snorkeller, never a vintage scuba diver, I find myself "lurking" a lot on Vintage Doublehose when the threads are understandably, though frustratingly for me, almost exclusively about regulators, so I'm always delighted to have the opportunity to post a contribution about basic gear when a question about fins, masks, snorkels or suits appears. I'm afraid I can't help with the precise identity of the swallow in the Cressi logo, but there's a thread here about it:
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/non-diving-related-stuff/62757-cressi-logo.html
One of the contributors reckons it's a "barn swallow" (Hirundo rustica)

chosen by Cressi "because they are considered graceful and fast in the town in Italy where Cressi was started." That town was presumably Genoa. I do hope the good citizens of Genoa just admired the bird's flying skills. Here in the UK, we hear stories about Italian hunters shooting small migrating songbirds for the table, which might explain the popular perception in the British Isles that there are fewer songbirds than there used to be decades ago.

Careful, he may insist on a proper shrubery for such important information!

Now there you go, Sir.


I took the opportunity, Britmarine, for a wee Monty Python reference.

Thanks none the less for keeping to the high road. They are a lovely and speedy little bird.

Just want to say thanks again to Britmarine and give a big nod to Flordia Free Divers.

https://www.flfreedivers.com/store/index.php

They had just what I was looking for, price was ~ 25% below what it was listed for elsewhere (even though they were on indefinite backorder from everyone else on the planet ) and the shipping was as quick as if they had drove it here themselves!

Older guy who answers the phone has a cool Australian accent as a bonus

Anyway, I deal with so many buffoons on a regular basis, it's a real pleasure to encounter someone with a quality operation!

Thanks again to all, I'll be making the presentation tonight.

Who could not love happy blue birdie flippers!

Thanks for getting back to us, Fred, to let us know how well the purchase went. The Aquapros are great snorkelling fins, I can speak from personal experience, and so far as I'm aware, they are the only all-rubber blue full-foot fins bearing the swallow logo. Cressi itself used to make all-rubber full-foots in the same light blue colour back in the early 1970s, but they later vanished as many of the western world's fin manufacturers rushed to mount the tupperware bandwagon, encouraged by the petrochemical industry. You would have thought that Cressi might have continued to make at least one all-rubber full-foot fin to accompany its iconic Pinocchio mask that has been in continuous production since the early 1950s.

My understanding is that, like Scubapro Jets, your Oceanways Aquapros are manufactured in the Pacific Molding plant in Corona, California:

http://www.pacificmolding.com/
There's even a YouTube video demonstrating how the blue Aquapros with their swallow emblems are made at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgQ7pOUtpS4
I hope your wife has many happy hours snorkelling with her new fins.