Who can forget their first snorkeling experience? With the beauty of the ocean visible through goggles, and the ability to seemingly soar through the ocean depth, anyone will enjoy a great snorkeling experience.
However, snorkeling and free-diving requires you to use the proper gear. Among the gear you need is a facemask, fins, and the snorkel itself. It is important to have good quality equipment to get an excellent experience. With that in mind, if you are looking for the best snorkeling fins, you should check the Cressi Gara 3000 LD Free diving Fins. The fins’ features and their overall comfort will allow you to enjoy the ocean depths without worry.
Cressi Gara 3000 LD Review
The Gara 3000 looks like the Gara 2000 in design. However, the material used to make the 3000 LD is softer than that of the 2000. The fins are meant for long distance snorkeling. In fact, the LD in the 3000 LD stands for “Long Distance”.
The 3000 LD fins are more powerful but less demanding than the 2000 fins. With the 3000 LD finds, you will use less effort to kick. Therefore, you can use them for longer and can even keep up with the fish!
The softer blade of the fins also make them excellent for use in cold water. If you have been snorkeling for a while, you know that cold water usually stiffens materials, making them less flexible.
Excellent Fins
The Gara 3000 LD fins are similar in shape to the 2000 series. However, the 3000’s blades are made of softer materials. The fins are especially modeled in order to meet the needs of the enthusiast who wants nothing short of a powerful fin. You can wear these fins for many hours while snorkeling. The best thing is you will require less muscle effort when kicking
The blades also work perfectly in cold water, which usually stiffening materials and makes them less flexible. Stiff fins are not ideal if you will be spending most of your time on the surface.
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Cressi Gara 3000 LD Size Chart
Below is an overview of the Cressi chart size for various regions:
US | 6-7 | 8-9 | 9-10 | 11-13 | 13+ |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
UK | 4½-5½ | 6½-7½ | 7½-8½ | 9½-10½ | 11½-12½ |
Euro | 38-39 | 40-41 | 42-43 | 44-45 | 46-47 |
If you will be wearing the Cressi Gara 3000 LD fins with socks or booties, get at least one size bigger than your normal shoe size. If you usually snorkel in warm waters and don’t wear booties, you can order your normal shoe size.
Cressi Gara 3000 LD Dimensions
The Cressi Gara 3000 Length varies for various leg sizes. Below are the dimensions of the Cressi Gara 3000 LD fins:
Size | Length | Width | Height | Length Blade | Single Fin Weight |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
40/41 | 87.5 cm | 21 cm | 7.5 cm | 61 cm | 930 g |
42/43 | 88.5 cm | 21 cm | 8.5 cm | 62 cm | 975 g |
44/45 | 91 cm | 21.5 cm | 9.5 cm | 63 cm | 1070 g |
46/47 | 92.5 cm | 21.5 cm | 9.5 cm | 63.5 cm | 1160 g |
You should consider the temperature of the water when looking for snorkeling fins. Cold temperature make the fins stiffer.
Cressi Gara 3000 LD vs. Professional
The grey blade 3000 LDs are the best entry level fins in the market. The fins have the most comfortable foot pocket of ANY fin out there.
The two Cressi fins are not real different in overall performance. The only real difference is in their feel.
However, the Professional’s foot pocket is not as comfortable as the 3000. If you are swimming with the Professional barefoot, the high tab in the back of the fins tend to rub the tendons. The 3000 LD does not have this problem. Moreover, the Professional footpocket and blade do not feel more efficient or powerful than that of the 3000, especially in shallow water.
The Cressi 3000 LD are awesome fins and are excellent for surface swimming and shallow diving. However, if you have wide feet, the fins may squeeze your feet near the front, making them get sore. If you have wide feet, the 3000 LD fins probably aren’t the most comfortable fins to choose.
Cressi Gara 2000 Vs. 3000
The Cressi Gara 2000 and 3000 find are both grey and their foot pockets look similar. The classic shape and flat surface of the 2000 fins makes it look better. The 2000 fins do not have the irritating raised large rubber logo like the 3000 series has.
However, the 3000 LD is the recent model and its blades are a couple of centimeters longer. Moreover, the material used to make the blade is softer than that of the 2000. Therefore, the 3000 LD is an excellent fin if you will mostly be snorkeling in cold water.
When it comes to pricing, the Cressi 2000 is about 40 percent cheaper than the 3000 series.
Consumer’s Opinion
The Cressi Gara 3000 LD free diving fins have been in the market for some time. When you check the product at Amazon.com, you will see hundreds of positive reviews from happy customers.
Negative Feedbacks
As you can very well understand that, there is hardly any major negatives of the 3000 LD fins. The only downside with the Cressi 3000 is that you cannot replace the blades. If the blades get a crack anywhere, you will have to discard the whole fin.
Bottom Line
The Cressi Gara 3000 LD fins are an improvement of the 2000 series. These fins are softer which means you won’t use a lot of effort to kick in the water. The shoe is incredibly comfortable to wear even without socks and the blade is as good as it gets.
The 3000 LD would behave well in as depth depths as 41.7 meters. However, I wouldn’t recommend them deeper than 20/25 meters. Overall, I highly recommend the Cressi Gara 3000 LD fins for their excellent performance.
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