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Page 1 of 5 Nowadays, if you want a pair of spring straps for your Jet Fins (or any pair of fins that use adjustable heel straps) it is no longer necessary to make your own. However, if you would like to make your own you can still save a couple of bucks, and maybe even have something a bit better than what's available in the market place! Read on to learn how!
A printer friendly version of this article in Adobe PDF format is also available in the download section.
The History and Evolution of Spring Straps
Sometime in the mid '70's, Farallon started using stainless steel (SS) springs for
straps on some of their fins. The first ones I remember seeing
were on their top of the line fin that incorporated a brace that that
strapped against the divers calf and looked more like a leg brace for a
polio victim, than a diving fin. If you don't know what polio is
or don't remember hiking to the public health center with your
classmates in grade school to get the vaccine administered via sugar
cubes, you are showing how young you are! Those fins were very
pricey in that day, about $59.95, as I recall. Of course one must
remember that Jet Fins only cost $30 back then so given that Jet Fins
cost about $110 now, that would make the Farallon's price at somewhat
over $220 in today's market. Those fins never seemed to catch on
despite favorable reviews I read, claiming that they greatly reduced
leg cramps. Farallon also incorporated SS spring straps in their
version of the Jet Fin by attaching the spring with a pin that went
directly through the rubber block on the side of the fin, to which the
strap hardware is attached on Jet Fins (Figure A). Farallon also manufactured a SS spring strap that could be retrofitted
to any of the jet fin variants. Farallon was purchased/taken over
by Oceanic who then produced the spring straps under the Oceanic label
for a period of time. I guess they were too pricey to draw enough
interest to keep them in production as Oceanic stopped making them some
years ago.
As "tech diving" grew into more of a mainstream interest, instead of an
activity only spoken about in hushed tones in darkened hallways, the
desire to own spring heel straps grew, fueled in part, no doubt, the
growing number of cave divers, including those of the Woodville Karst
Plains Project (WKPP), who were then (and now) setting most of the
records in cave diving. Slowly at first and then with increasing
speed, the tech diving community moved toward the use of spring straps.
The Quest
In 1997 I began looking for a pair of the incredible, albeit elusive
"Oceanic Spring Heel Straps" (OSHS) for my Jet Fins. I played investigator and
tried every source you can imagine to unearth a pair. As a
Federal Agent of 33 years, I'm generally pretty good at tracking things
down. Not so in this case. I went to scuba flea markets,
ran WTB adds, E-mailed Oceanic (they didn't respond), all to no
avail. But I was determined to have my very own spring
straps. So what was I to do? I decided to make my
own. I must admit, if I knew that Jackie Smith was making them, I
probably would have just bought a couple of pairs from him. However, I
didn't know about those until after I made mine. Now I (and YOU)
have another reason to dive home made units - but I'll get to that
later.
I did know, from reading Techdiver and Caver, that anyone who owned a
pair of spring fin straps was the envy of the "Tech Diving Community",
their muscles rippled, their teeth glowed in the dark, women
swooned (oooooow, look at the size of the spring straps on THAT guy!),
the President asked them to address the Compendium of International
Divers?. well, maybe not. But at least they did have fin straps
that were the envy of the Tech Dive crowd - whether it was admitted by
anyone else or not!
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