heya,

i dunno what the plumas are like... the excel seem a little floppy tho seems to work ok. alas were just the best, lets face it. they are worth gold now.

the avanti tres arent too bad, but definitely not as good as the alas... i think they're about the same as the stratos.

stratos are good cheap fins for kids but they just dont perform fantastically... just average. you can get through a game with them but you'll hardly be setting the play alight with speed. their good point is they last for donkeys years so a good backup fin... i've used them at a worlds before, and they still work fine when a little old... sure as heck no kiwis were using 4-6 of them through a tourney. benson has used them on and off and he's the guy you would have got that from as he likes all fins new, must have just got a little exaggerated along the line.

vortex v6 are out there too, think thats what they're called, the kung-foo split fins. they save you energy in your legs bigtime and have ok topend speed but acceleration suffers a bit, and turning too as theres not much to push off...

the old cressi pro were pretty good too but naturally they were stopped and replaced with freefrogs which were just rubbish.

i've been hoping the leader fins are the business but the rep over here has been slack in getting us some trial pairs...

seems we're doomed to live in the shadow of the ala forever. unless of course you are a big guy with slower cadence and you like power fins, in which case you should probably be wearing mares quattros (or cruises are from the same mould but floppier material) anyway.



liam