Voit A6 Viking and Skin Diver fins

[nikeajax]

First I want to start off saying, my wife is so cool! We were out thrifting yesterday, and I wasn't as alert as I usually am from my allergies, and I heard her say as I walked past, "Hey, what's that?"

"Holy (expletive deleted), that's a Voit Viking fin!" There was only one, so I asked the lady at the register, "You have the other one right, is it behind the counter!"

"No, it's in the bin with all the plastic wear..."

After much digging and almost giving up, we found the other, WHEW!

I was examining the fin while waiting in the car, she was getting a few more groceries, I though, "Gosh, these look like their Skin Diver fins..." Well they're almost the same but with subtle differences. Probably one was modeled around the other, as car companies will do with their autos: the A6-V has a closed toe, with a small nickle sized hole, I'm sure so your foot doesn't stick from the vacuum and the SD is open-toed. The A6-V has a blade-edge, for my lack of a better word, that starts at the end of the fin tapering and continues just at the beginning of the heal. The blade creates more surface area for just that much more thrust as can be seen in the image:



Here are the Vikings with my entire Voit collection:



Jaybird

[duckbill]

I'd have to dig my Skindivers out, but if I remember correctly they are a good bit stiffer than the Vikings too. I never found a pair of Skindivers that didn't cut into the top of my big toes and make swimming with them a big turn-off. I love my Vikings, though. Vikings were my first pair of flippers, and also the ones I used on my first dive in 1977 at Captain Cook's Cove in Hawaii. Vikings are still my pool flippers and I use them all summer long. Off to watch Miss USA!

[nikeajax]

Gosh, DB, I think this is the first image of you on this site! Still the man of mystery though, as we never get a clear image. This is kinda like one of those Spy-movies: "Special Agent Duck Bill- Internationale Man of Mystery"...

The Skin Diver is just slightly stiffer than the Viking: perhaps it has something to do with the pigment used. If I recall correctly, they actually use carbon to mix into the rubber, and it does make them a bit harder; well that's what they put in tires anyway.

Jaybird

[drado]

DB, I hope you don't mind, but I just really felt the need to run the photos through some sort of filter...

[duckbill]

Jun 6, 2012 5:25:46 GMT -8 drado said:

DB, I hope you don't mind, but I just really felt the need to run the photos through some sort of filter...

Yep. That's more how I remember it! Everyone knows nothing was in color back then

Actually, I know the photos are badly in need of color correction. I think I already did some correction, but don't know how to do it right. Those photos were on slides (that's all my Dad ever used), and I projected them on a wall and took photos with my digital camera. Someday (along with a million other things) I will get a good scanner than will capture slide photos better than I do using my hokey method I'm stuck with for now.

Jay, you must have forgotten this one that was posted a while back. Nothing recent. This one goes back several years itself. I was teaching my son how to properly parade rest his mask (Just as I now notice I naturally wore mine from the start.)

[nikeajax]

Oh dear, now that I've seen what you look like, I s'pose it's the end for me: high speed car chase followed by a duel to the death underwater...

I was looking at my Duck Feet, comparing them with the Vikings and Skin Divers:



It's as if they combined the two, almost literally; to make them stiff, they added rubber, those things weigh a ton! The UTD's must really be heavy then!

The toe box of the DF's and A6's is quite generous, whereas the SD's tapers: I can see how that could be a problem if they were a bit too small, causing rubbing.

Jaybird

[nemrod]

It is the more uncommon Viking A66 isn't it that has a longer blade and quite a bit more propulsive power than either the Skindiver or Viking A6 models? I find the Nemrod Super A with the wedge shaped blade a more effective fin and fits my feet better than the A6 Voit products.

But, maybe someday we can hope for urethane Super Vikings or Voit UDTs, hell, I would love some clear ice blue urethane Super Jets, the fin I love to hate but always delivers when needed.

Those are sure some purty blue Duck Feet .

James

[nikeajax]

Thought I'd share some more images:





Healthways Scuba Deluxe, and .25-inch beaver tail exposure suit, Marin Stabilizator mask, Scubapro decompression computer, Stebco Mae West, Dacor pack, USD Aluminum 72, Voit fins and knife, and not sure about the weight belt...

Jaybird