How a Bungee Strap Ended My Long Fight With Fin Buckles

For about fourteen years I geared up the same way. I sat on the bench of a charter boat, pulled on my boots, picked up my old open-heel fins, and started the fight. Two buckle straps, one on each side, stiff with salt and cold water. On a good morning I had both fins on in a minute. On a bad morning I was still fumbling while the divemaster was already counting heads. I am sixty-one now, and my hands do not work as well in January as they did at forty-seven. Last year I replaced those old fins with a pair of Mares Avanti Quattro + fins. The reason was not the blade. It was the bungee strap.

I bought the Mares about twelve months ago, after I had already switched to 3mm Cressi boots. The boots were the first fix. My old surf booties were thin and cold, and the open-heel fins I had been using for years were long, about twenty-six inches, with buckle straps that had to be opened a notch and closed again every time. The boots made the foot pocket fit better, but they did not fix the buckles. If anything, the thicker boot made the strap fight worse. I would get one side closed, stand up, and feel the other side digging into the top of my foot.

Here is what the buckle fight looks like on a real boat. You are on a bench with your tank on, or you are on the swim step with your mask in your hand. The boat is moving. Your fingers are wet. The strap is stiff. You need to thread the buckle, pull it tight, and hope it lands in the right notch. If you guess wrong, you either cut off the circulation or leave the fin loose enough to slip on a frog kick. I had been opening the same strap a notch for years. It never got easier. I just got more patient, and patience is not a skill I want to practice before a dive.

The Mares Avanti Quattro + did not ask me to practice anything. The strap is a bungee. You pull it over the heel of the boot, set it where it needs to sit, and let it go. On the first dive I made one adjustment, moving the bungee to a different setting on the strap. That was it. I have not touched it since. I have about sixty dives on these fins now, most of them from charter boats and shore entries in the Keys, and the strap has not moved or loosened on its own. I still check it out of habit. The check takes a second, which is the point.

On the first dive I made one strap adjustment. I have not touched it since, and that was about sixty dives ago.

The strap is the reason I bought the fins, but it is not the only thing I notice now. The blade has four channels, and the listing describes a four-rib structure and Channel Thrust inserts. I am not an engineer, and I cannot tell you what the water is doing at the back of the blade. I can tell you what my legs feel. These fins move me through the water with less fuss than my old pair. On a slow frog kick over sand, they hold their position and do not flutter. On the surface, swimming back to the ladder, they push well without making me work harder than I need to. They are stiffer than a soft snorkel fin. That is a fair trade for me, but it is a trade.

The foot pocket is perforated, which the listing says cuts drag. I believe it, because the fins do not feel like they are scooping water on the recovery. I take my fins off in the water, pass them up, and climb the ladder in my boots. The bungee is easy to find by feel, even with gloves on, and that matters on a night charter when the deck is dark and everyone is tired.

I have used the Mares on every scuba dive since I bought them. That includes shallow sand hunts in ten to twenty feet, deeper hunts in thirty feet, and charter dives on the reef. On a sand hunt I wear the boots and use a slow frog kick so I do not silt up the bottom. The fins are heavier in the hand than my old pair, and they take up more room in the 4Runner. That is a real drawback if you are carrying gear from the car to the beach. On a boat, it does not matter. In the water, the weight disappears.

Nothing about them is delicate, but they are not a soft fin. If your legs are tired at the end of a two-tank day, you will feel these. My old pair was long and stiff in a different way, and I used to get cramps in my shins on the second dive. I have not had that with the Mares, but I also kick slower now than I did at fifty. A younger diver who likes a fast flutter kick may find these too much fin. A diver who wants a fin for snorkeling in a swim area should look at a full-foot fin instead. That is not what these are for.

I also want to be plain about the fit. These are open-heel fins, and the fit comes from the boot and the bungee, not from a buckle notch. My Cressi boots are 3mm. The combination works for me. If your boots are much thicker, or if your foot is wide, you should try them before you commit. The bungee has some give, but it is not a custom fit. I set mine once and it has been right, but I would not promise that for every foot.

What I'd Tell You If We Were Sitting at My Kitchen Table

If you were at my kitchen table, I would tell you to stop buying fins with buckle straps if the buckles are the part you dread. That is the whole story. The Mares Avanti Quattro + is a good fin, and the bungee strap is the reason I keep reaching for it. It is not a cheap fin, and it is not a soft fin. It is heavier to carry than my old pair, and it will ask more from tired legs. But it ends the fight. I gear up on the bench, pull the bungee over my heel, and I am done. At sixty-one, with cold hands and a boat waiting, that is worth more to me than any claim on a package. If your old fins have you opening a strap a notch every morning, go look at these. Keep your old pair as the spare in the carport. That is what I did.