[samdive]

I think you need to speak to Haydn - the "merman" of Taunton - Haydn are you out there??

he knows more about this kind of stuff than anyone else I know, and I know a lot of monofinners.

My replies

pregnancy - i would expect it would slow you down quite a lot. Monofinning requires quite a bit of flexibility from the back and from the abs - which surely would be affected. No doubt there are some mother monofinners out there who could answer that better - but I'm sure it would slow you down at least in the later stages

arms out - plenty of monofinners swim with arms at their sides, I do both. Even with your arms in front of you, it's not that hard to monofin and carry something, particularly something long and thin, like a snorkel, that can almost be used to help you steer if its held out in front of you. A wider object held in front of you can act as a kind of set of pectoral fins in helping steer

calorie burning -quite high, particularly at speed and in cold water. Eric Fattah might know the number! all I know is that cold water monofinning makes you very hungry afterwards....

feet bound together and no fin - can get quite good speeds if your style is good, this is a way of learning to monofin and perfecting technique - if you train the technique without a fin, or with small fins - we use boogie board fins, when you put one on you rocket away!

I would guess that not having a "human" bone structure would enable more manoeuvrability, more of a "3D" finning action as it were, less up and down in the jerky, rocking horse technique we see in new monofinners, and more fluidity from the top half of the body down through the "leg/tail".

Personally I prefer a harder monofin and find that a "floppy tail" wastes a lot of the energy that builds up through the rest of the body action involved. However I do know plenty of people who dive with softer fins. Beginners often start with a softer fin and get harder as their technique (and muscles) develop. There is a bit of a difference between a "floppy" tail/fin and "floppy legs". Floppy legs can actually be a good thing as they then follow on from the motion of the rest of the body rather than creating a jerk themselves. But the fin bit at the end needs to be fairly strong to carry that off into the water.

My thoughts... can't wait to read the book. I've already devoured all the Helen Dunmore Ingo mermaid books - and yes I know they are meant for kids, but they are brilliant!

Sam