I was in the mood one day to upgrade from my Duckfeet to something a little more surf friendly and bounced around shops from Morro Bay to SLO looking to buy something. The selection was pretty dismal, and typically the surf swim fins are hidden in most shops around here anyways. If you’re in a shop and can’t find them, look underneath the wetsuits or in the corner of the shop furthest from the door. Ultimately it was Moondoggies in downtown SLO that won out. They had various brands that I had wanted to try but they were lacking in sizes. The Lagunas were the only fins they had in stock that would fit me so I figured that’s where my $50ish was going.

Laguna Surf Fins are interesting in that the foot pocket and the blade are made of different materials. The foot pocket is made of neoprene and a tough fabric to cut down on abrasions from the fins. They have straps over the top of the fin and the back of the ankle to allow you to adjust them to fit you. The blade itself is plastic and plenty stiff. The fins are odd but I had high hopes for them.

For me the fins were a bit of a let down. They were pretty reasonable on my feet, although I did grind a hole in my foot the first time out, but they just feel “wrong” to me. The feel of the power transfer between the foot pocket and the blade was weird although the power was there. A lot of being in a wave and surfing it is based on feel and if something doesn’t feel right it’s just not going to work out for you.

All that being said they’re not a total loss. The Lagunas are an awesome loaner pair of fins. I keep them in the truck along with an extra bodyboard in case an opportunity to hit the water presents itself. I bring them along on Catalina swims in case I or someone else needs a pair to keep up as a pacer. I chased Evan for about an hour wearing them on his swim, and he wore them the week before in Laguna when we bodyboarded/bodysurfed before Cliff’s Catalina swim.

Bonus surf related note, they do float. While bodyboarding in Laguna Evan lost one in a wave and it stayed at the surface and I was able to retrieve it. They’re not super buoyant, more neutral really, but that’s all you need to keep from losing them at the bottom of the ocean!

You can get Laguna Surf Fins from 662BoardShop.com or your local surf shop. Learn more at LagunaSwimFins.com

Having taken the Swim Safety Device out a few times now it’s become apparent that it intrigues even the most equipment eschewing open water swimmers. No matter how hardcore your stance is on adhering to channel rules you still worry about being visible in the water and having your stuff stolen off the beach while on training swims. For me the Swim Safety Device is going to be the most valuable when I’m swimming in urban settings like San Francisco’s Aquatic Park or Chicago’s Ohio Street Beach where I feel really uncomfortable leaving my personal effects on the beach. It would also be useful for a point to point swim where I want to tow my stuff with me, but it’s not something I want to use everyday I’m in the ocean. For a new ocean swimmer this could be useful as basically a set of training wheels to build your confidence as you get comfortable in the water.

For those of you that haven’t seen one of these Swim Safety Devices they’re basically an inflatable dry bag that you can tether to yourself. It does double duty as a safety device and a dry place to keep your stuff as opposed to unsecured on the beach. It increases your visibility in the water and gives you a flotation device to hang on to if you need one. I weigh upwards of 225 and could successfully support my entire weight with the buoy without causing any leaks.

So using the SSD is pretty easy… you put stuff in it, roll it up, clip it shut, inflate the air bladder and then attach it to yourself. They don’t ship it with any instructions so your best bet to figure out how to do it the right way is watch the video they put out to promote it.

I’ve tested the SSD in a few different situations with mixed results. In all cases I loaded it up with a fair amount of junk, including shoes, to see how it performed actually loaded.

My first test was in Avila Beach and well, that didn’t go so well… I broke it on the way out! The week after the tsunami from Japan we had much bigger surf than usual. I tried to swim out through the waves and they broke the buoy right off of it’s tether! It body surfed back to the beach without me. Luckily someone down there caught it for me and just the clip broke, nothing else. Later I fashioned a high tech fix to the broken clip, string… So far that’s worked pretty well :)

While the surf continued to be up I was determined to find a way to test it in a more controlled setting so I took it to the pool. I looked like a huge dork, but it was a great way to get a feel for it in ideal circumstances. My major concern with the SSD would be that it would impede my swimming by getting tangled in my feet/legs or just hit me all the time driving me nuts. Luckily it didn’t do either. The tether is short enough that the buoy rides in the wake off your butt and it floats enough that you very seldom make contact with it. Not to say I didn’t make any, but it was limited. I tried breaststroking as well and this was also no problem.

Now that I knew it worked in a highly controlled environment I really wanted to see how it would do again in actual open water. Last week I went to San Francisco  and brought it along for a swim in Aquatic Park. Aquatic Park has no surf to speak of but it does get wind and chop and currents. I swam with a group of friends and they all made a little fun of me but then also got a little interested… funny how that works right :) On this swim we swam in a square and I experienced water moving in pretty much every possible direction in relation to me and the buoy which gave me a really good feel for how the SSD would react in a good deal of situations. In wind and chop the buoy will tug at you and get blown around behind you. If the wind/water is moving across you it’s going the drift out from behind you and move to the side. It still didn’t hit my legs much, but I did hit it with my hands occasionally. At the end of this swim I was mildly irritated with the SSD. But it totally served its purpose… it kept my stuff dry at an urban beach where leaving your stuff on the sand is hugely ill advised.

I still haven’t been able to test it in really gnarly swells and chop, but I’m not sure I would want it there. Having broken it once I’d be worried my stuff would end up sailing away in really rough seas.

So to wrap things up, let’s break down my pros and cons real quick…

Pros

• Floats a large man (me) with no problem
• Doesn’t leak (so far)
• Makes swimmers way more visible to lifeguards and watercraft
• Great way to keep your stuff safe while swimming

Cons

• Not good at getting through surf
• Cheap connective hardware
• Sort of irritating in choppy/windy conditions
• Chafing potential with the waist belt
• Mine doesn’t want to fully deflate which is kinda irritating

Overall at about $30 I think it’s a good deal for open water swimmers. You might not want to use it every time you go out, but there’s definitely days or certain beaches where you’re going to want to use it. You can order an SSD through the International Swimming Hall of Fame.