Spring or Rubber Straps?

[jasondbaker]

Springs without a doubt.  I remember being totally geared up in my drysuit, climbing over tricky rocks on the Lake Michigan shoreline only to break a fin strap when getting in the water.  I had spring straps the next week.

My advice is to make the straps yourself.  You can build custom spring straps for less than $20.  And these straps will be better than the ones sold by vendors.  I built my first pair of straps.  I decided to buy the straps (Manta?) for my tropical fins and regret the decision. 

I use quattro fins for the tropics.  The problem with the commercial straps is the way they mount to these types of fins.  They have a metal sleeve/buckle which slides over the hard plastic "knob" on each side of the fin.  This metal sleeve doesn't stay attached very well. The manufacturer usually includes a couple zip ties to help hold the buckle in place.  : Trust me, this doesn't work well.  I ended up removing the standard buckle and building my own using some stainless steel parts from home depot.  My attachment is significantly more secure.  An additional incentive to building your own straps is you can custom fit them to your foot and boot.