Gear Review: OMER BAT Fins
Posted By Sven Anderson on 23 August 2004
The edges are left full thickness. Genius: this reduces the risk of cracking along their lengths. About a half-inch in, the router goes nuts. A pair of 3-inch channels is made to a couple layers less than a 2-inch center channel, the result being a slightly stiffer backbone for the decreasing thickness of the blade as you go out to the edge. Hold up your middle three fingers together in front of your face and note how the middle finger is thicker than the other two and you get the look. The channels are not merely cutouts, but are scalloped as they go from footpocket to end with more material removed as you near the tip. All this, and with an insanely clean finish- no stray fibers or broken lines that spell water absorption and eventual breakage.
The blades are flat, though the built-in bend of the Omer pockets gives them a touch of angle at the foot to keep them in the water when hanging out on the surface.
The braintrust behind these things also put in some time when it came to the rails. Not satisfied to go the conventional route of a “T"-shaped rubber extrusion bonded onto the blade, these BAT’s have a twist on the “T”. The edge of the blade is kept happy with a small “T” and then a half inch in from there, still in the same extrusion, is a bigger set of rails that do the water channeling bit that keep these blades pushing the water with zero sideslip. Zero. Zip. Nada. If you envision a capital letter ”H” and reduce the height of the left side leg of the “H” above and below the crosspiece, you've got it. Tres cool and functional at once. They oughta give Nobels for this stuff.
Once you slide these into your footpockets with the usual stretching back of the rubber siderails, and the two screws, remembering the little shaped retainers, the ooh-ing and ahh-ing ceases and the fun starts.
Being on the far side of svelte, I was thinking that the 30 model was going to be a tad flimsy and prone to overkicking but these acted as if they were extensions of my ankle. The flex was firm, yet pliable enough to let the fiberglass return to its favorite plane of existence. From the speed at which the water was going past my mirrored Mantis mask, and the delicious fact that I could see the bottom booking by some 70 feet below me, the BAT 30 blades were doing all the work.
- Bookmark with :
- what are these?
