Have you ever been smashed in the face by a massive wave and tossed towards the beach?
I’m sure you can appreciate how powerful waves actually are. Use them to your advantage and you’ll have a fantastic time on holiday.
With the best body surfing fins on your feet you’ll be able to ride the waves like anyone on a bodyboard or surfboard.
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Best Body Surfing Fins: Main Benefits
There is nothing quite like hurtling towards the shore at high speed as you’re lying in the water. Body surfers don’t even need to go through the hassle of learning how to stand up. But you do need the best body surfing flippers due to some big benefits we’re going to discuss now:
- Thrust
- Drag
- Maneuverability
- Positioning
- Comfort
1 – Thrust – When body surfing it’s absolutely essential you catch waves. It’s why even the best snorkeling fins aren’t good enough. The flippers you wear need to provide you with as much thrust as possible in order to catch wave after wave. You might only have a few seconds to react to one.
Here are a few design features on body surfing flippers that will give you the acceleration necessary to catch more waves:
- Large surface area
- Stiff blades
- Blade rail ridges
- Asymmetric foot pockets
Plus a few more little things to help improve thrust. Although bodysurfing fins might have a slower top speed than others like freediving fins they can’t be matched when it comes to instant acceleration. Huge waves are what gives you maximum speeds.
2 – Drag – Less drag is actually a huge deal when you’re body surfing. It won’t make so much difference if you’re lying on the best bodyboards. It’s easy to lift your feet out of the water and bodyboards even come with special design features to reduce drag as much as possible.
So body surfing fins need to be in contact with waves at all times or you won’t be able to stay on them and maneuver around. Body surfing fins tend to be short and stubby, which is the biggest reason why they create less drag when you’re submerged.
Please Note: Wearing the best neoprene fin socks will help your feet stay closer to the surface. If you’re willing to wear a wetsuit it will help with drag too. Neoprene is naturally buoyant so you’ll be slightly more close to the surface when lying prone in the water.
3 – Maneuverability – Once inside the wave you need to be able to maneuver around. Maybe you’ll need to make a sharp turn to the left or right. Not only do you need to be able to turn while body surfing waves, but you need to have full control over your body through stability.
Bodysurfing flippers are designed to help you move around in the waves while in full control of what’s going on. Features like the rails and asymmetrical fins that improve thrust improve your control too. It’s something you’ll really appreciate in monster waves.
4 – Positioning – When we talk about positioning while body surfing in big waves we’re really talking about acceleration and deceleration. When body surfing in smaller ones you’ll just want to go as fast as humanly possible. It’s different once they increase in size and sheer power.
You’ll need to have the ability to decelerate too. It all depends on factors like the size, speed, and shape of the waves. Once you start getting better everything will become clear. To reach the sweet spot you don’t want to be too high or too low on the wave.
5 – Comfort – There are actually a few things that contribute to the overall comfort of body surfing fins. How good they feel on your feet is an obvious example, which should be pretty good if they’re made from quality rubber. Vents that let water and debris out are almost vital too.
Even if the rubber isn’t as comfortable as you’d like it’s easy to rectify the situation with flipper socks. Asymmetric foot pockets let you kick with your feet close together as opposed to spread further apart. The best body surfing fins won’t have fully closed foot pockets.
Extra Body Surfing Flippers Features You’ll Like
Some of the best body surfing fins features don’t have anything to do with your comfort or performance on the waves. But they are still nice to have should you come across them. Here are a few of the little things you might not want to overlook because they’ll make your life easier:
- Float in saltwater
- Neoprene heel pads
- Lightweight
Float in saltwater – Everyone who goes body surfing in big waves will be thrown around like they’re inside a washing machine. At some point your flippers will come off no matter how good they fit on your feet. But some can float in saltwater so it’s a hundred times easier to find them.
Your fins will probably float to the surface before you do. Due to the fact they’re usually bright and colorful it’s even easier to find them. It might still be dangerous to retrieve your fins. If you get caught in a current without them it’ll be harder to swim back to the beach.
Please Note: To protect yourself from potential danger you should always use fin tethers. You’ll be able to strap the bodysurfing fins to your feet and it won’t matter how many times they come off. The best fins leashes are pretty inexpensive and will pay dividends.
Neoprene heel pads – Maybe you won’t even need to wear neoprene flippers socks because there are models with neoprene pads built into the heels. Will they feel nice on your feet? Sure, plus they’ll also stop you from getting nasty blisters after a hard day in the surf.
But they won’t protect the bottom of your feet, so you still won’t be able to step on something sharp without ending up in pain.
Lightweight – Body surfing is a really aggressive sport and you’ll burn through tons of energy. Any steps you can take to prevent fatigue means you’ll be able to stay in the water for longer. You also want to have enough energy to swim back if you get into trouble.
The best bodyboarding fins can be a little heavier because you’ll be relaxing on a board, but body surfers are on their own. So it might be worth paying a bit more attention to their total weight. If you’re wearing neoprene socks the extra buoyancy makes this less relevant.
Body Surfing Handplanes Improve Your Experience
If you want to take your experience to the next level it might be worth using one of the best body surfing handplanes you can find. I doubt the average person even knew what they were before seeing one on Shark Tank. Here are a few cool benefits you’ll get when wearing one:
- Trimming the face of a wave
- Holding the line in a wave
- Getting into the wave earlier
- Staying on the wave longer
Those benefits sound almost identical to the ones we’ve said you’ll get when wearing the best body surfing fins. I doubt you’ll regret combining the two pieces of equipment. These days there are a large selection of body surfing handplanes available like the Slyde with their own unique features.
Please Note: It’s not like bodysurfing handplanes are perfect and free from downsides. Even though you’ll be more skillful surfing big waves you will need to swim out to them with a contraption in your hand. Some of the best models are expensive and you’ll need another leash.
Best Body Surfing Fins On The Market Right Now
Use any of the best body surfing flippers on the market right now and you’ll have an excellent time in the waves. It’s hard to see what they can do to the designs to make them even better. You should know exactly what features you’ll need to body surf big and small waves.
If you want to know more about a certain pair of body surfing fins you can click on the links to Amazon. You’ll be able to read unbiased reviews from past customers with experience using fins you like. It’s good to get as much information as possible from multiple people.