MS Viper, DaFin, Leblon, DMC Fins Repellor Ocean Fins

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MS, DaFin, Leblon, DMC top sides.  The Leblon has its water vent on the top.  

MS Vipers are an excellent design, sand exits the foot pocket quickly.  Marketed by Science (Mike Stewart bodyboards), separate from regular Vipers, whose web page is minimal. Likely made in US.  About $63.

DaFin has a website that looks like it's suffered rot.  Their fins are everywhere; some cleverness with selling new colors and patterns (Vissla has ones colored like the Leblon).  Typically $66-69 but sales prices can be found.

Leblon is a tiny startup, ships from Orlando, connections to Rio (Praia do Leblon, near Ipanema) and doing an independent crowd-funding effort.  As you can see, the available size M fin is pretty massive.  It's about as stiff as a DaFin, with the side rails being quite stiff, yet attached to the rest of the fin body with a bit of flex.  Expensive, but sale prices if the crowdfunding succeeds.  The crowdfunding is being administered by themselves, not through a service like Kickstarter, so there's a certain amount of risk.  

DMC Fins is another little outfit with an interesting history.  I spotted their new "ocean fin" at Ron Jon in May ($74).  It's made of a silicone-like material, very comfortable.  The side rail system is flexy and seems to work entirely differently from the stiff Leblon side rail.  They have an interesting feature making it easy to stand a pair of fins upright.

To judge from Facebook, DMC is vigorously seeking lifeguards who do competitions and serious bodysurfers (nice recent photo from Puerto Escondido.  Also Japan and Australia.  

Leblon (one guy, JSC Mauricio) has been busy at Rio lately (along with DMC).  He and a few others are  promoting better surf-zone swimming by picking up techniques from the (odd) mostly European sport of competitive swimming with fins in pools.  Leblon is busy on Facebook. 

DaFin Australia and NZ are busy on Facebook.  Can't find much in Hawai'i or the US.  

Viper seems to have gone into a slump.  They've gone back to natural rubber, don't have a distributor in Australia (!), but you can buy Viper-themed clothing from Hurley.  

In terms of selling recreational equipment, this has to be a tiny market.  The fins are, except for the MS pair, not what bodyboarders like, there's not too many water photographers and videographers swimming around, lifeguards probably don't lose too many fins, and the general public in the US don't bother with them.  Maybe Brazil, Australia, and New Zealand are different?

Edited: 08/19/2017 at 06:31 PM by ww

Used Churchill's (was that the name?) for body surfing big shorebreak.

Churchill is one of the original fin designs, along with Duck Feet (Voit at one time).  I suspect that Churchill sales are greater than all these other brands combined.  They're part of Morey.  

Edited: 08/19/2017 at 02:26 PM by ww

I've been using the dafins for a few months. They're really stiff compared to the churchill, but then I used those until they rotted out. Mostly lap swimming for me, training for my next career as photographer.

ww, what are your favorites?

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I was right.

Thanks ww, I've been looking for my next set of fins for bodysurfing, misplaced a pair of Churchills

Usual setup is DaFin with a combo heel pad and tether.  Their sizing system means ML (9-10) is tight and L (11-12) is loose enough that a lip will neatly and cleanly extract the fin.  I think I have a ML pair lying around in case someone would like to adopt them.  

I never got comfortable with regular Vipers.  I have a couple of pair, not getting used.  My sense is that they need an investor angel to put up the funds to update the design (mostly better foot pocket) and create new molds.  They have a great basic design. Still made in California.

The MS Viper fin is excellent.  For me, the L size stays on the foot, no need for tether.  

The Leblon is available only in M (9-10.5), which I can wear in the morning, but by afternoon, the foot's grown too big, so it's not practical to use.  It's bigger, stiffer, faster than DaFin. It was obviously faster on the first trial, a big help for bodysurfing, where instant acceleration matters.  

Looking at JSC Mauricio's ambitions for more skillful and aggressive ocean swimming, Leblon looks like the tool.  One of the new models he's crowdsourcing is a bit downsized and softer, likely to be useful for normal people.

After I picked up the DMCs, there was a lack of waves, a knee problem, and an eye infection.  Will get to the beach this week to finally swim around.  The soft material is very, very comfortable and I went with ML.  The DMCs and Leblons were both at a "big" bodysurfing contest at Rio de Janeiro a week or two ago, so there should be a bunch of competent swimmers who have used both.  

DMC is Don McCredie's little business; as the website explains, he's a Sydney native, big on swimming and bodysurfing.  Check their busy Facebook page.