Comparison - Apeks RK3 Vs Hollis F1

hello fellow scuba divers and welcome to simply scuba so in today's comparison video we're gonna relooking at vented fins so the two real big hitters in these kind of technical advanced prevented fin designs are the apex our k3 which is still relatively new and the Hollis f1 fin so basically these two are both hitting the same kind of cords the f1 has been out a lot longer that our k3 has been around for a long long time but in a slightly different iteration which I'll talk about later but let's compare these two fins okay so first of all we're looking at the aesthetics and kind of the hardware of the fin so I'm going to start off with the hottest f1 so you would be hard charged to go to any inland dive site around the UK and not see a pair of these fins when I started to go and sort of scuba diving so these are a decent size big heavy weight pair of fins they're made out of a single piece of this kind of mono preen material so they're tough as nails one thing that I do note is that they do they do kind of scuff up but it kind of gives them that sort of age I suppose all fins do scuff up especially when you're run set in and around to the rough terrain but even on the outside it's got kind of this matte finish to it that does kind of smudge it's not the end of the world but it says something worth them sort of noticing so these are a pretty flat pair of fins you do get some angle but you've got this massive rail running down the side which kind of hides it they're a decent length they're one of the they're a little bit shorter than some standard sort of recreational were sort of paddled channel style fins but these are a bulk they're a big heavy pair of fins is why a lot of drysuit divers kind of move over towards these they acted a little bit of trim weight to get your legs down get your feet down they're a big big pair of fins they got some cool style to them though when I was sort of teaching in the UK I used to use a pair of these they're their toughest now as they do look good and because they got this big big panel you can shift through the water the little vent in the front is quite cool that's got some style to it on the underside it kind of mirrors that and that's helping to improve the sort of functionality spring heals as well very very useful especially dry suits or twin sets trying to bend down and deal with a strap is the last thing you want to be doing so we're just pulling that over your heel much much quicker on the underside not much to to look at but you've got a big old sort of foot pocket inside of that get your foot inside there and it's just a slide straight out at the end of the dive so overall I quite like the style it's kind of futuristic it's very kind of Batman you've got a big sort of tough piece of rubber and they've got that good sort of solid feel to them moving on to the rk3 so that our k3 came along from the Aqualung rocket fins I think they're unbranded Aqualung and that's where the RK comes from arcade sort of the rocket three these are a slightly shorter pair of fins when you compare them to the to the hollis they're a little bit shorter not a great deal but still a little bit shorter they're still vented so you've got the vent coming in the front they're still made out of a single piece of this kind of rubber mono pre material this one doesn't have any kind of joining in here you can kind of see on the on the F ones we've got these lines in here which suggest that it's either moulding sort of two bits together but with this it's just a single piece you've got that single section of the mould down the center which is just the two parts of the cast coming apart a few other things I quite like about these sort of RK three fins you've got these little attachment points you've got attachment point right at the tip of the fin and right in the bottom of the foot pocket so you can clip them together you can hang them up on a peg that's particularly useful especially if you're making a complicated entry trying to get out of the water you've got a little carabiner or a decent-sized bolts now clip them off and you've got both of your hands to work with so that's a big selling point they've got a matte finish to them which I like they are tough as nails again they're pretty flat in their profile so they pack down quite easily spring-heeled strap as well which I definitely like they don't have a an actual thumb loop so on this one you have a hole so a lot of technical divers will consider that as snag hazard so if they're swimming long you don't want something catching on that so what apex are done is they filled in that hole you can still grab hold of it and get it over but it's less of a snag hazard so that's something worth looking into decent size four foot pocket again and overall there are smart pair of fins this is what I currently use as far as weight as well they're a lot lighter than the than the f1 but as they so general overview I like them both I do like the almost retro style of the rk3 a little bit more I'm turning more into a retro diver the the more I spent in the water and these do come in a lot of different colors you get a gray version of the f1 which is a little bit lighter and you can get a yellow tipped version but actually if you want to be sort of well seen in the water you can get a completely yellow or orange or even pink version of the archein breeze so now we're going to move on to sort of specs looking at the kind of technical side of things let's take a closer look okay so now we're getting down to the nitty gritty we're looking at the specifications of the fins so we're gonna be looking at the weight the materials little features and I'm ever so slightly different so starting off with the f1 fins so the f1 fins are really the heavyweights these start off at about three and a half kilos for a pair so they are a heavy pair of fins if you're travelling diver it might be worth steering away from them but if you're quite happy with a big - the clunky heavy pair of fins them perfect they do have a lighter version in the f1 LT those strip it down to a whopping 3.1 kilos they basically just cut the tip of the fin off really I think they use a slightly different material but you're saving what 400 grams it's it's a little bit lighter but but not really other than that so one thing that is quite handy is that on the spring heel strap they are bolted on so we have proper bolts that are going into here but you'll notice that you have two bolts so these two and you have exactly the same on the other side mean that you can adjust the length and the tension of that spring heel strap so if you want it a little bit looser you can move it so the they're both at their kind of longest or if you want it a little bit snugger you can tighten one and then you can tighten the other to make it really tight so that's a quite good way spring heels are always fantastic because they're always applying tension to the back of your heel so even as your dry suit compresses they're still holding on but you can adjust how tight they hold it on so that's quite a nice feature other than that when I was using these in the UK there are solid pair of fins if you want to shift they're gonna get you there you don't need super bodybuilder legs to use them but to get the full the fulsome performance out of them yeah you're gonna need to use your legs and they're quite good for exercising as well and sort of put these on your feet and they act like ankle weights for doing certain exercises big tough pair of fins and yeah using the UK I could definitely recommend these they're strong they're powerful you never have to worry about sort of bending and breaking them they they with tough as nails are up here's well I should note was a hundred and thirty-five pounds so they're at the higher level of sort of in cost and they're not the top they're not the most expensive but yeah these are a pair of fins that you'll buy once and and that's it they never wear out they're really tough as nails looking at the rk3 so that rk3 so the these come in two different versions as well you get the HD version and then you get the the standard version the HD version runs in at two point eight kilos so a lot lighter even compared to the three and a half of the standard version the standard version of the rk3 the lighter version runs in at 1.2 kilograms so very light compared to the to the hollis but if you don't need that kind of trim weight around your feet or your ankles then perfect these are pretty much neutrally buoyant in saltwater I tried it myself they do float in freshwater so yeah they're going to salt in they're gonna float in saltwater as well the the hottest ones the sink trust me they they disappear fairly quickly and yeah it's giving you a choice of two different materials the soft version is it kind of feels frothy when you're really shifting but you do shift through the water HD version a little bit stiffer so you're using a little bit more energy but you're going that much faster horses for courses if you a simple tough pair of fins than yoga for the HD version if you want a bit more of a sort of chilled out dive just go for the standard version at the moment they're exactly the same price so it says not worth there's no great difference as far as our RP these have an RFP of one one eight one hundred and eighteen British pounds so they're a little bit cheaper than the than the f1 so that's worth looking at these are also bolted in place but you don't have an adjustment so you want tighten that straps and that's worth looking at and that that is quite a strong sort of fitting so you've got two little more you've got a nut and a bolt to hold those in position on both sides so they're quite sensitive robust other than that very similar features as far as performance I'd probably put them on a level pegging as far as like thrust probably give a slight edge to the year to the F ones because they're that little bit bigger and they're really kind of pushing that water through but for most dives and I don't need to sort of shift you where to get anywhere too quick I just stick with the are kiiis [Music] okay so to bring this all together we have two very similar pair of fins similar style similar length the weight is sort of drastically gone to one side so the the Hollis F ones they're about twice as heavy at least compared to the the rk3 they're about the same length it's just different materials as far as performance is slightly moving towards the f1 you've got a bit more customization in that adjustable heel strap the bigger paddle is a bit more effective at moving you through the water as far as aesthetics I kind of prefer that rk3 that's a personal thing I just like the that's a retro-style these are very much the original kind of style of vented fins that came out back in like the 50s and 60s as an overall kind of winner I'm gonna lean towards the rk3 I used to use the F ones there are big tough pair of fins traveling with them not so easy because they do take up a lot of your baggage allowance with the RK threes I'm happy using these at home with my dry suit and then I can travel with them abroad quite easily and then use them around the world so my overall winner is going to be the RK 3 and of course you can choose your favorite color so you can match it it doesn't have to be matte black that you can only get the f1 in you can choose bright vibrant colours so yeah my overall winner is the RK 3 but of course this is a democracy let us know what your favorite fin is and why in the comments below any questions of course let us know in the comments thanks for watching and safe diving we are an online dive store serving the UK and the world for all your diving equipment needs so why not visit us simply scuba comm or click the Box on your screen

Channel: Simply Scuba

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Keywords: simplyscuba, simply scuba, Simply, Scuba, #simplyscuba, scuba diving, scuba, diving, #scubadiving, gadgets, tech, unboxing, unbox, products, product review, scuba review, #productreview, the simply group, Comparison, Apeks, RK3, Vs, Hollis, F1, Comparison - Apeks RK3 Vs Hollis F1, Apeks Vs Hollis, whats the best scuba diving fin, RK3 Vs F1, comparison video, Mark Newman, scuba diving (interest), scuba diving - topic

Id: DXTrgOAGXqs

Length: 13min 22sec (802 seconds)

Published: Wed May 15 2019