Hi everybody, welcome to Scuba Diver Magazine, the best place for your scuba diving information
news, and basically these tips and tricks to help you become a better scuba diver. So
in today's video we're going to be taking a closer look at how to change over the heel
straps on your open heel fins, because whilst there are lots of different designs, the most
fundamental, sort of traditional design tends to be fairly similar across most fins, and
when you're first starting out, you do have to put a bit of effort, there's a little technique
to it, and you may not want to feel like you're damaging your fins. So in this video, I'm
just going to show you how to do a couple of different fins. The mechanism is very much
the same, but yeah, you do need a certain kind of twist and a push to actually get your
fin strap off. So yeah, let's jump in and see how to change the fin straps on your fins.
Okay guys. So the first thing is to understand what you're dealing with. So there are a few
different ways of attaching a heel strap onto a pair of fins. There's a kind of traditional,
pretty classic design, and then you get some sort of outliers, some different ones, which
I'll just mention first. So this one for example, this one comes from Apex. This is the apex
RK3 fins, and this one just has a pretty standard just bolt, a nut and a bolt that goes all
the way through, and that's it. So that's pretty unique, and it just means that swapping
over your heel strap means that you have to fit exactly the same to it, and you do need
some tools to swap it over. But most traditional, recreational style fins
will have this type of post on the side, and this is what your heel straps are actually
attaching onto. So the first thing is to you understand that what you're dealing with to
actually get your old heel strap off, and the other thing to understand is that whilst
they may look similar, unfortunately they're in no way universal. They're not the same
across all brands. So it does mean that you can't just mix and match. You can't buy any
fin strap on the market and fit it to your fins because a lot of the time, if it's not
the same brand, it's just not going to fit, I'm afraid. Your best chance is to stay in
the same brand, but even that isn't a golden promise, because if you take Scubapro for
example, Scubapro have a bunch of different heel straps that only fits select fins in
their range. So one of their Scubapro fin straps won't
fit every Scubapro fin. So it's important to understand which fins you have and which
heel straps can actually fit to it. Yeah, so we're looking at the posts. So these guys
are a sort of what your actual buckle is attaching onto, and it's just a matter of getting it
over this sort of widened section. It's pretty easy to be honest, but there are some mechanisms
that do make it a little bit tricky. So we're going to start off with this one, this one
comes from Tusa, and this is a very traditional rubber ratchet style strap.
So the first thing that you need to do is to remove the actual strap section of it,
because this section, this rotating part of the buckle needs to come off and a lot of
the time that pinch clip is actually stopping that strap from coming off, and obviously
when your heel strap's in position, when you're on the dive, you don't want it to come off,
because then your entire fin's going to come off.
So that's a clever mechanism. Another mechanism that they have you'll see in a second, but
getting this part of the buckle off is pretty easy, and it just takes a little bit of effort
and a bit of a push to get it off. So a lot of different heel straps, there'll be 360,
so they can rotate all the way round. Others will be limited to which direction they can
go. They'll have a little lug on the inside that stops them from rotating too much. But
all you really want to do is just push them kind of in the opposite direction.
So this one, where the strap would naturally sit to come straight upwards if it was in
this position, you want to push the buckle downwards. So down towards the tip and you'll
hear it click. Then if you lift it off, you'll see what I affectionately call the snowman.
So this little snowman has a wide circle at the bottom and a small circle at the top,
and you'll see just down right a the bottom he's got a little notch. Now that notch lines
up with this cutout, which means that this buckle can only be taken off when it's in
this position. So again, that's another mechanism so that the fin strap doesn't come off whilst
you're in the water, because this means that your heel strap is literally vertical. So
that's just a mechanism. But if you're having trouble trying to get it off, it might mean
that you need to rotate it a little bit to get that sort of lug to line up.
So yes, and getting them off is really easy. So this one, you can push it upwards, but
then you have to rotate it and find that lug. So that's pretty easy. You do have to push
kind of hard. Some fins you have to push a little bit harder just because of the materials.
The important thing is that you don't want to kind of wrench it around too much, because
you can just kind of wear away ... Because this plastic, if you do sort of force it too
much, you are going to damage it. But you can normally, just with fingers and thumbs,
just give it a good push and that should come free. I'll put these ones back on first. So
yeah, you just need that buckle. You put it on and then you're just pushing it in the
opposite direction until it clicks. Again, it's a fair amount of force, but not
too much. If you're really struggling, then you might have to reassess how you're actually
removing it. But normally just a forceful push will sort of get it out. Then with your
heel strap, there's a back and a front and there's also a top and a bottom two heel straps.
It's rare that they're just completely flat. So this one, for example, you can see we've
got the Tusa logo and then we've got this bump with two grabby handles. So this is the
top, it also means that it's the outside and a lot of heel straps, if you just put them
upright, they'll naturally curve in the right direction, manufacturers make them so they
naturally kind of hug the back of your heel. But another way to tell is that on the inside,
you'll have these ratchets. So these raised sections, they'll be on the inside of the
heel strap. Then obviously as you tighten, they'll be on the outside. But yeah, typically
when it's fully extended, these will be on the inside against your foot. So we're going
to put them back on, very easy, just pinch the clips, just push that into position and
you're ready to go diving. So that's useful if you're just replacing it for exactly the
same, but you can always upgrade them to spring heel straps, which are my preferred.
This one is very similar mechanism, ever so slightly different, but I'll just show you.
Again, I like to do it's so that it's facing downwards, just so I can use the actual fin
to help me and give me something to grab hold of, give it a little tug downwards and then
lift it off. You can see how we have very much the same snowman design, except he doesn't
have that little lug at the bottom. Then the heel post is sort of very much the same.
Exactly the same on the other side, give that a push, give it a wiggle, and that will come
off. The heel straps, so this spring heel strap, a bit more obvious. So we've got these
big thumb loops, that goes at the top so you can grab hold of it to get it on and off,
and you can see how it's very naturally cambered to the back of your heel strap. So it's very
obvious that it goes back on this way. Now, the thing is, is that whilst these do have
that snowman, if I take this one off really quickly, you'll probably that you won't be
able to fit it onto the other fin. So this one, because he's got that notch,
that's preventing me from getting that on. So that's a pain, and I imagine if I try and
fit the string heel strap, it's a different size snowman. So a lot of brands will do this.
I don't think it's particularly malicious or anything, they're planning it, but it's
just a matter of when they're designing it. They don't really confer with one another
and decide on a universal size. So yeah, it's really best to stick to the same brand. Otherwise
you're going to come across that problem. Yeah, even in brand, it's best to stick to
exactly what's built for your fins. Universal ones, universal fin straps, they do work,
but there's always going to be an exception to every rule. So it's best to stick to the
same brand, the same kind of fin strap., if they do make a spring heel for your fins then
that's perfect. But otherwise it's not really worth risking investing in this heel strap,
because a lot of the time you might have to just send it back.
Okay. So that was changing a heel strap on a pair of fins. A very quick, easy one for
you today. But yeah, if you've got a pair of fins and you're kind of struggling with
it, just take a look at that knot, see if there's any kind of mechanism that might be
slowing you down or something that you need to get around. But a lot of the times it's
just rotate it, give it a push and it should just click straight off. If, of course you
are having any troubles, then let us know down in the comments below and we'll try and
get back to you, and try and give you a helping hand. Yeah, don't forget to like, share and
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