I am building a special board tomorrow for our family vacation to Tahiti
This special board will have a camera mounted to the deck (GO PRO) and I have the
honors of being the film guy during part of the trip of all the surfers in
our the family.
The Board is 4’10 x 22 (17.5 nose - 19.19 tail) designed to be ridden on your
knees or belly with a volume of 25.0 liters. It will be glassed in Epoxy and I
want to ride waves in between photo shots and I thought a boogie board would be
cheesy.
I will have to power this thing with a pair of swim fins which I haven’t worn
since the 70’s.
My choices so far are as follows:
Custom XX Fins ____
Churchhill Fins ____
Catch Surf Stealth Fins ____
My brother told me to get Duck Feet however I remember how they were hard on
my feet when I wore them one summer. Maybe their softer these days?
With lots of reef sharks does it matter on the color?
Of the seven colours tested in this short video below, it appears that
the top three colours sharks are attracted to are yellow, silver and
black (in that order), with blue and red being the least.
Techniques for repelling predatory animals by the use of aposematic patterns and coloration
United States Patent 4494245
A method for repelling predatory animals by the use of aposematic
patterns and colorations is disclosed. A man (10) if isolated, alone,
or injured in marine or ocean waters (24) is substantially at the mercy
of numerous predatory organisms that live and thrive in the marine
environment (24) such as for example a shark (26). There are however
organisms or animals such as deadly Pelamis platurus sea snakes (28)
which possess oposematic colorations such as bright yellow backgrounds
(30) with black irregular spots (32). It has been found that sharks (26)
typically have an innate avoidance response to these sea snakes.
According to the method of this invention, therefore, the man or diver
(10) protects himself from the predatory animal (26) by wearing a
wetsuit (12) which mimics the sea snake (28) or some other
aposematically colored organism. Thus, according to one embodiment the
wetsuit (12) will be made of a bright yellow color background (34)
having a multiplicity of black irregular spots (36), (38), and (40). In
addition, bathing suits (50) and life preserver (52) may also be
manufactured to mimic the coloration of other naturally distasteful or
venomous animals. Also, hypothetical patterns which include the three
basic aposematic colors red, black, and yellow may be applied to other
diving and aqua marine equipment such as life raft (68) diving tank
(76), foot flippers (70) and (72) and the like.
Certainly the situation is sufficiently serious to warrant thorough
research into this area, and there could be a mint of money to be made
by the wetsuit manufacturer who runs with the ball, as well as obvious
benefits for us all.
I will keep a Hawaiian made spear gun loaded attatched to the side for the camera board.
Hey Surf, I highly recommend Vipers. I use them to bodysurf when my arms become too tired to paddle ha! They give good thrust and theyre padded with neoprene on the inside. Perfect.
Only thing is they’ll run you about $60 so if you don’t plan on using them often, it might not be worth the price. Here’s some info:
Marsh there are 19 family members going on this trip so if the plane goes down our family gene pool is gone for good.
12 of the members are surfers and yes most of them will be riding boards that I shaped. My son told the group last night that I get the first wave and no one takes off until I do. Pressures on. I will also being filming with a GO PRO HD mounted to a 4’10" I’m building tomorrow for the trip. I will need really good fins for the trip and yes we will be snorkeling and free diving with spear guns as well. To move my camera board around I will need to propel it with fins and I want to make sure I buy the latest greatest. I haven’t been on a good surf trip in a long time and I’m stoked like a little grom. To surf with my Brother, Sister and all our kids is going to be epic. Tahiti on a Atoll with a private surf break? Lefts and Rights? 90 pound Tuna? What?
I recommend the Vipers as well. They come in 5 inch and 7 inch. Very powerful fin. My son and I both have them and they’re great. I was a Churchill guy for most of my life, and these are way more power than Churchills, and almost as comfortable. I like them stiff, but they have a flex fin, too. But that defeats the purpose, IMO.
The force fins are the sickest I’ve come across. Super comfortable, have never come off in heavy surf. They come in 3 stiffnesses with pricetags accordingly. Get the comfort instep. It’s worth the extra few bucks and they’ll last much longer than the cheap rubber fins you get from the boogie boarding industry.
BTW, my recommendations to Surfding is not based upon what I use. Although I have been through the gamut of swimfins.
I use duckfeet with finsox and custom padding superglued into the top of the foot pocket–all my doing.
I have total comfort with my duckfeet, BUT, they are not easy on novice legs all the same.
Even a new pair of duckfeet on my legs requires some adjustment, as they do get softer and kick easier with age.
For Surfding, he’s said he’s a shorttermer for these and will be on vacation.
Therefore its all about comfort as he will not have time to build up his legs for much more, lest he ruin sessions/days with either leg/ankle cramps or ankle/toe lesions.
A general rule is the more powerful or longer the blade usually the less comfort assoicated with the fin–all around.
Fresh people, novices or ‘newbies’ should start with comfort and then work themselves up the ladder to their preference of powerful fins.
