... as a rite of passage.

These fins were given to me by my SCUBA instructor. They are free or breath-hold diving fins and are nearly one metre in length. This provides the amount of power that the swimmer needs to move quickly downward to depth or upwards to the surface whilst holding their breath. To me these are a rite of passage as I am now successfully through my first section of diving skills which allows me to dive to a depth of 20 metres in cold-water (dry-suit diving). I am now starting training to enable me to dive to 35 metres, which means learning more about how the body reacts to the surrounding pressure and its uptake of nitrogen (saturation diving)... but of course the free-diver is relatively unaffected by these concerns.