Navigation
Dive Fins - Open Heel
Stainless Steel Spring Fin Straps
You'll notice here that we recommend open heel fins with spring fin straps. Spring fin straps are popular with experienced recreational and technical divers because they are extremely reliable and easy to use. Because there is nothing to clip, snap or adjust, spring fin straps make putting on and removing your fins easy and fast, especially if you have to do it in the water! They automatically adjust to the divers feet during the dive, compensating for depth and compression of boot material. Some fins are available with string fin straps, while others will require you to buy the string fin straps as a fin accessory.
Beware of Fin Hyperbole
Fin designs are an aspect of dive equipment that seem more like fashion trends, and there seems to always be someone promoting "a better mousetrap". Most of these elaborate fin designs work fine when used to move forward at a modest speed using a flutter scissor kick, and the split fin design tests especially well in this regard. However, many designs are poor if you wish to frog kick or use almost any of the swimming techniques preferred by experienced divers in tight spaces. Full foot pockets and elaborate heel strap systems are also more likely to cause the loss of a fin in forceful swimming. Be sceptical of those "fin performance reviews" that favour the casual recreational diver. Many knowledgeable divers choose a versatile no-frills open-heel fin design with a stiff blade and a strong, reliable spring strap at an affordable price.
For more information about choosing the right scuba fins for you, please see our Scuba Fins Buying Guide.
Flat Rock
Reef Dive | 
Boat access
Depth: 2 m (6.56 ft) to 12 m (39 ft)
Level: Open Water and beyond.
Flat Rock is a boat diving site which lies west of Port Fairy on Victoria's Discovery Coast. It's a good location to get a taste of the boulder shore and reef complexes found between Port Fairy to the east and The Crags to the west.
Diving at Flat Rock
The depth at Flat Rock ranges from 2 to 12 metres and features endless cryptic habitat for the usual inhabitants. On the right day it's possible to slither up into the gutters and rock pools which dot this shoreline.
Location: Port Fairy, Victoria 3284
Ideal Conditions: This boat dive site is prone to surge and swell and is best dived in very good conditions with a low swell with light offshore north-westerly to north-easterly winds. See WillyWeather (Little River Beach) as a guide for the tide times and the height of the tide.
Boat Launching: Flat Rock is reached by boat heading out from the Port Fairy, Griffiths Street Boat Ramp.
{{southern-ocean-warning}}
Abalone Dive Site
© Mark Norman, Museum Victoria
Divers have the opportunity to catch Abalone at this dive site. Remember your catch bag, legal abalone tool, current Victorian Recreational Fishing Licence, and abalone measure. Please abide by all current fishing regulations if you intend to catch abalone.
See article-catching-abalone for practical abalone hunting advice from The Scuba Doctor, plus melbourne-abalone-dives for a list of other Abalone dive sites near Melbourne.
Crayfish Dive Site | © Ian Scholey
Divers have the opportunity to catch Southern Rock Lobster (aka Crayfish) at this dive site. Remember your catch bag, current Victorian Recreational Fishing Licence, rock lobster measure, and cray tags. Once you get back to the dive boat, or shore, make sure you clip the tail and tag your Crayfish as per Fisheries requirements. Please abide by all current fishing regulations if you intend to catch crays. See article-catching-crayfish for practical cray hunting advice from The Scuba Doctor, plus melbourne-cray-dives for a list of other crayfish dive sites near Melbourne. For tips on cooking your Crays, please see article-cooking-crayfish.
Eastern Maar country
Traditional Owners — This dive site is in the traditional Country of the Eastern Maar people of south-western Victoria between the Shaw and Eumerella Rivers and from Yambuk in the south to beyond Lake Linlithgow in the north. This truly ancient Country extends as far north as Ararat and encompasses the coastal townships of Port Fairy in the west, Warrnambool, Peterborough, Port Campbell, Apollo Bay, Lorne, and Airies Inlet in the east, including the Great Ocean Road area. It also stretches 100 metres out to sea from low tide and therefore includes the iconic Twelve Apostles. "Eastern Maar" is a name adopted by the people who identify as Maar, Eastern Gunditjmara, Tjap Wurrung, Peek Whurrong, Kirrae Whurrung, Kuurn Kopan Noot and/or Yarro waetch (Tooram Tribe) amongst others. We wish to acknowledge the Eastern Maar as Traditional Owners. We pay respect to their Ancestors and their Elders, past, present and emerging.
Flat Rock Location Map
Latitude: 38° 23.779′ S (38.396314° S / 38° 23′ 46.73″ S)
Longitude: 142° 11.920′ E (142.198674° E / 142° 11′ 55.23″ E)
Datum: WGS84 |
Google Map
Added: 2021-07-25 08:32:08 GMT, Last updated: 2022-05-24 18:47:39 GMT
Source: GPS (verified)
Nearest Neighbour: Little River Beach, 1,088 m, bearing 284°, WNW
Port Fairy, Discovery Coast.
Depth: 2 to 12 m.
[ Top ]
DISCLAIMER: No claim is made by The Scuba Doctor as to the accuracy of the dive site coordinates listed here. Should anyone decide to use these GPS marks to locate and dive on a site, they do so entirely at their own risk. Always verify against other sources.
The marks come from numerous sources including commercial operators, independent dive clubs, reference works, and active divers. Some are known to be accurate, while others may not be. Some GPS marks may even have come from maps using the AGD66 datum, and thus may need be converted to the WGS84 datum. To distinguish between the possible accuracy of the dive site marks, we've tried to give each mark a source of GPS, Google Earth, or unknown.
![Halcyon Infinity 30lb System [SS Small Backplate]](/diveshop/images/halcyon/Halcyon-Evolve-Wing.jpg "Halcyon Infinity 30lb System [SS Small Backplate]")
