Candice Landau
Last Updated on April 21, 2024 by Candice Landau
All opinions here are my own. They do not reflect the opinions of my peers, instructors, the dive shop I train under or the company I work at. And, as an instructor once told me, “the right fin is the one right for you.”
When I first got my OMS Slipstreams, I had a love-hate relationship with them. They were awesome for frog kick, but not as good at flutter kick, at least in comparison to my Scubapro Seawing Novas.
In strong current situations, even once I’d purchased the Slipstreams, I still defaulted to my Seawing Novas. Until a few months ago, frog kick was something I relegated to lake diving. It was very well-suited to calm water, silty bottoms, and, in my opinion, more relaxed diving, but not, as I saw it, to the high current jetties we often dived in Oregon. Still, if they were “Navy approved,” there must be something to them?
It wasn’t until recently that I forced myself to use my Slipstreams in all situations to try to get a well-rounded idea of their performance.
Truth be told, there was another reason I started using them more heavily. Every so often, I dive Oregon’s Newport jetty. This involves a lot of rock scrambling, which in turn means, heavy wear and tear on my gear. The fin keepers I had grown accustomed to wearing with floatier fins like the Seawing Novas, were shredded on a regular basis. As a result, I was continually buying new fin keepers. This was annoying. So, when the last pair broke, I said “screw it”, and pulled out the Slipstreams to use instead.
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This brings me to my first point. The slipstreams are heavier fins. They’re not as heavy as their similar counterpart, the Scubapro Jet Fin, but they’re still much heavier than the Seawing Novas, even though they’re both made of the same material. The OMS Slipstreams are thicker and weigh more.
The benefit of using Slipstreams was that I no longer needed fin keepers to keep the extra air out of my boots. And, I no longer needed ankle weights because they were that little bit heavier. This meant my trim in the water improved, there was less gear to worry about putting on, and I got to do frog kick—my favorite—with much greater ease.
These are my new default fins. I have used them to dive lakes, I have used them in the Hood Canal for deep diving, I have used them in the Florence North Jetty in high current situations, and I have used them diving with students.
Possibly the only thing I’m not a fan of are the spring straps. They’re not that easy to take off, which has resulted, many-a-time in awkward falling over. And, I have to admit, I wish there were more options beyond the traditional black, if just for visibility for your buddies, or students. Other than that, they’re my new favorite!
An update after six years (writing in April 2024)
After six years of diving just about every fin under the sun (I’m a gear junkie through and through) and after testing many pairs of fins, these still hold up. They’re my favorite fins for drysuit diving AND they’re my favorite fins for warm water diving. They are, however, still heavy, even if, like me, you own a larger pair for the drysuit and a smaller pair for wetsuit boots. This means that I no longer take the warm water diving version on trips. I now opt for something lighter like the Apeks RK3s or more recently, the Scubapro S-Tek fins. Both allow for excellent and easy frog kicking and are much lighter.
The spring straps do ease up/get a little less tight over time which is honestly a good thing as they start out tight. You could also have someone sew a little tab on the bag to make them like other fins that have this. Not necessary in my opinion, but certainly an option.
That said, you won’t go wrong with these fins. If I could easily buy them in other colors I’d probably own one of each! For now I’ll have to settle for painting my own.
What do you think of them? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
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