Plenty of people will advice you against buying your own diving gear when you just started diving. It’s skills that matters most, not the gears, they say. But I beg to differ. I have to strongly disagree with that statement as in my humble opinion, part of the things that could make or break your dives is the diving equipment. Rental equipments are not always new and well maintained, and therefore, buying your own equipments is definitely an investment if you plan to be a diver for a very long time. At the very least, buy your own diving mask, snorkel and fins. Don’t tell me you’re okay with wearing leaky masks that doesn’t fit snugly on your face? Or a mask that plenty of divers has spit on to defog? (Yes, people. Some divers do use their saliva to defog their masks) Or fins that rubs on your heels that it injured you badly after diving? Eww, no. No thanks, not for me. I’d at least use my own mask, snorkel and fins, thank you very much.

Picking your first pair of diving mask and fins is a serious business, and after some research and recommendations, I decided to go with this; the Mares Avanti Pure Fins. This pair of fins is pretty much lightweight, and it weights just about 0.6kg and is made of soft of thermoplastic rubber, making it one of the most travel friendly fins in the market.

The Mares Avanti Pure Fins is originally made to be worn barefoot, but the design is unique in the sense that it can also be worn with booties. The Mares Avanti Pure is an excellent pair fin that’s also budget friendly. I bought it from a dive shop in Kuala Lumpur for less than RM300, and pretty much a good deal, I must say.

The Mares Aventi Pure’s ergonomic heel pad minimises pressure on the Achilles’ heel while the bungee helps the strap to stay in the right position while finning.

Easy finning, works great with flutter or frogkick. I usually have problems with rental fins as I couldn’t muster effective kicks to glide through the water, but the channel on the Mares Avanti Pure fins helps to glide through the water effortlessly even with gentle kicking. The Mares Avanti Pure helps improve ankle flexibility and leg endurance while the ownward angled blade promotes the ease of surface swimming. (I bet it’s awesome to be used as snorkeling fins too)

The fins helps with underwater navigation and is pretty buoyant. I even tried the reverse kick with this Mares Avanti Pure and it’s definitely easier to use and less tiring on the feet in comparison to other rental fins that I’ve worn before.

So do I recommend the Mares Avanti Pure? Yes, I definitely recommend this fins, especially for new divers and for those who are diving in warm tropical water and those with small feet and for ladies who are prone to leg cramps and fatigue.

I’m not sure if this pair of fins provide strong thrusts that will be able to fight strong currents as I’ve only used it in calm underwater environment but I can definitely vouch it’s effectiveness in calm tropical water.