Frog Kicking?

Don’t let ignorant people make a monkey out of you or turn you into a frog!

I have over a dozen pairs of Force Fins in our collection (it’s a family affection!). I have 3 sons that dive; they dive Force Fins. I not only WILL NOT, but I CANNOT use any other fin due to two destroyed knees compliments of USMC.

I started diving in 1983 as a Corporal in the Marines while stationed on a Navy base in San Diego. Back then, students were required to purchase a mask, snorkel, booties and fins. I purchased a set of Scubapro Jet Fins. Even as very fit Marine, I can remember the workout that everyone got using those fins and all the bananas we ate to avoid the inevitable cramps. Monkey business!

Then the injuries started. By 1998 I had to give up diving altogether due to leg injuries. My knees had been shot due to USMC and wrestling and my ankles were also injured. I simply could NOT handle the pulling effect of traditional fins. Every time I attempted to use them, my knee joints would be pulled apart. It was excruciating and it was simple physics.

Examine any fin, with the exception of Force Fins, and you will notice a VERY ROBUST strap, which is designed to keep the fin attached to the foot. Any diver will attest to the fact that when a fellow diver swims close to the bottom using a standard fin, silt will be disturbed in 2 swirls created by the propulsion of water in a 90° direction from the direction of the diver’s travel.

An elementary understanding of physics is all that is required to understand that the most efficient direction of thrust is 180° to the direction of travel (every action has an equal and opposite reaction).

A traditional fin’s strap is necessary to keep the boards, oh, I mean, fins attached to the diver’s toes since the fin’s direction of thrust is NOT opposite to the direction of travel. The diver literally has to DRAG the fin through the water. When someone attaches a board to your toes, the only reasonable way to move a board through the water is by frog kicking! Standard fins are so inefficient that instructors are FORCED to teach students to kick like a frog to avoid disturbing silt and to increase efficiency. This inefficiency caused me so much pain and injury that I was forced to quit diving.

Standard fins are so inefficient that instructors are FORCED to teach students to kick like a frog to avoid disturbing silt and to increase efficiency.

This inefficiency caused me so much pain and injury that I was forced to quit diving.

It was a EUREKA moment!

In 2003, my oldest son was preparing to graduate high school and go to USMC bootcamp. He wanted his SCUBA certification before shipping out. I accompanied him to a dive shop in Oceanside, CA. This same shop trained Marines on Camp Pendleton. Since we were both Marine veterans, the instructor and I hit it off immediately. When he found out that I had given up diving due to knee issues, he said, Try the fins that I (and the Navy SEALs) use – Force Fins!

He used yellow Force Fin Pros. Honestly my first thought was that I was being pranked. They were SO different! The instructor assured me that they were indeed his primary fins and then he showed me pictures to prove it!

Then he made me an offer that I couldn’t refuse. Try them! This was 2003 when I tried my first pair of Force Fins.

A week later, I found a used pair on eBay for about $90. (I still have them.) Unfortunately, I bought size XL which proved to be one size too small but were perfect with a comfort insert for my other boys when they started diving. I HAVE NEVER LOOKED BACK!

Eventually I made my way to Santa Barbara to meet the genius behind Force Fin and her husband, Bob Evans. While I was there with my middle son, Matthew, I was able to get my first Extra Force Fin from Blair Mott and a set of Tan Deltas for my son, and a set of splits just for fun.

My battered knees no longer complain and now that I’m in my 60s, I am grateful to not only be able to dive but to be a dive guide at a PADI 5-star resort. I have a reputation for longest guided dives, which is NOT due to anything other than my fins.

Why? Because Force Fins actually PUSH onto your foot as you kick them! ONLY Force Fins PROPEL you through the water. I dive often without even using straps. They are not needed during the dive. Try that with ANY other fin! I (and my kids) will dive with nothing else!

Force Fins generate all their power on the forward stroke NOT on the backstroke. The human leg can generate A LOT more power forward (try bending the knee and kicking something in front of you vs. kicking something behind with your heel without bending your knee). All other fins generate their thrust in reverse of this anatomical advantage.

I have, of course, run into a lot of friction from the Jet Fins community but I am not moved. One instructor declared, “You can’t frog kick with Force Fins! Why use them?” (Actually, I can with my current go to fins – Excellerating Force Fins, but that begs the question.)

My answer, Why would ANYONE on God’s green earth, WANT to frog kick, well, besides frogs?

Frog kicking HAS to be taught/learned. IT IS NOT NATURAL!

We are humans, not frogs! Try using fins by bending the knee NATURALLY and power-stroking on the forward kick. Just do what would be natural to you if someone had not pulled you aside one day and said, Hey, let me show you how to frog-kick, i.e. fix the inherent problem with those stupid fins!

Boards attached to toes have turned divers into frogs and made monkeys out of divers and Bob has restored our humanity!

Thanks Bob; I owe you a great debt. I will not, because I CANNOT, dive without Force Fins. I have led HUNDREDS and HUNDREDS of dives and help train dozens of divers; none of this would have been possible without you, God bless YOU!!!