Equipment Review: Aqua Lung Storm Fins
Today I want to take a look at the newest addition to Aqua Lung’s lineup of fins, the Aqua Lung Storm Fins.
Right out of the box I was immediately impressed by the look of this fin. It is quite modern in design with a very sleek and stealthy appearance. It comes in two main colours, black and white, and the coloured tab and fin strap indicate the size. But no matter what colour combination you end up with, they all look incredible.
The Aqua Lung Storm Fin was designed to be a lightweight, durable and versatile travel fin for snorkelling and scuba diving, which I feel they have accomplished with their Monoprene ® construction and innovative foot pocket design. The entire fin is made of one solid material with no lamination points, which means you will never have to worry about your fins coming apart as they age.
The foot pocket of the Aqua Lung Storm Fin is designed to be worn barefoot, but you can wear it with a neoprene sock or a thin boot. The Monoprene ® material offers a huge boost in comfort with it’s almost velvet texture while being worn barefoot and the rounded edges of the foot pocket are a nice touch as well. The inside of the foot pocket features a hexagonal tread pattern which offers the wearer a good amount of grip so your foot doesn’t slide around. The bottom of the foot pocket boasts some chunky tread for when you’re standing on a slippery boat or dock and the heel strap is an elastic rubber bungee strap with a large loop which offers easy donning and doffing as well as a lot of wiggle room for sizing.
The blade of the fins features a modified fish-tail tip which helps to eliminate “tracking,” the side to side shuttering motion you get with poorly designed fin blades. The blade itself incorporates prominent channels and ridges that trap water and direct it down the length of the blade. This helps to add overall power to the fin and control for helicopter turns and back-finning. The hole in the blade exists to allow for more hanging and storing options.
One last thing I noticed is that these fins are almost totally flat in profile, making them much easier to pack in a suitcase. Hence, the travel fin design.
My overall verdict on the Aqua Lung Storm Fin is that this is an amazing travel fin that incorporates some of my favourite design characteristics of much larger and much more expensive fins. It does, however, lack in having the necessary power for undertaking dives that involve a lot of current. Cold water diving in a dry suit is pretty much totally off the table as well. But aside from that, this fins does an amazing job of what it was built to do, travel.
