Gear Review: OMER BAT Fins
Posted By Sven Anderson on 23 August 2004
When it came time to see what was going on down there, the tip over was done without splash or fanfare and the blades arc’ed nicely, helping me to make the first ten feet without effort or thought for that matter. I did notice that they responded a bit sluggishly to a bent leg/straight leg combo where the body does the work of starting the downward momentum thing, but reverting to my “flip" (both legs over my arse) sent me to the deep, and fast. My ears needed to do their thing quicker and the bottom came up at me with gusto.
There was none of the “oil canning” thunk of other fiberglass blades and none of the “whippy” flex of a less stiff fin. Just a definite downward and upward done with heaping loads of smooth.
I gave the blades some judicious push-offs from the bottom to see how they would react and all they did was look back as if to say, “SO?". Nice, especially if heading up involves needing that push because you’re lugging some dinner back with you.
Giving these blades the opportunity to be bi-coastal, I gave them a dose of Northern California abalone diving, often called senseless rock collecting by those not in the know, and they refused to scratch. And I tried. They slid off the kelp, shrugged off the rocks and just motored along without thought or a care in the world about the water being 30 degrees colder than the week before. I should have been as lucky….
One thing that was kind of lost on me, after algebra and relationships, was the dark tint of the camo. It looked dark out of the box, dark on the beach and dark in the water to the point that they might as well have been black, which is not a bad thing, but the leafy pattern was totally lost on me up here. In the sanguine blue of anywhere else, they didn’t blend in at all, but then neither do I in a black wetsuit. If you have to be blue, head of to the hardware store for the spraypaint.
The BAT blades are shorter than the other big-time fiber-based blades, the Matrix and C4, but make up for it in width. If you have been seen styling in the Millenniums, you have the shape down. A great middle ground between the Picasso Spuma spoon on ‘roids and the C4 quarter sheet of carbon fiber goodness, they present the spearo looking for the edge on getting down and back without beating yourself with an ideal blend of fit, form and technology. On a scale of 1 to 10, these aren’t getting returned to Mark. I figure that anyone spending time in the Southern California kelp lying in wait for a white seabass or yellow tail to pass, or you folks out East doing the same for stripers, will develop an instant like of these tools.
Give yourself the treat of a tryout at the shop or give Mark a call at 800 853-1911 or do the computer thing at www.omerdiving.com and be very well attended to.
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