[Article] Gear Review: The DOL-Fin Orca

[ArticleBot]

DeeperBlue.com's favorite inventor Eric Fattah, takes us on a step-by-step review of the latest apparatus for freedivers: the freediving hydrofoil monofin. A previous World Record holder and active athlete himself, Eric makes the perfect foil to test the DOL-fin Orca.

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[trux]

Great review. Thanks for it, Eric!

Let's hope Ron will demonstrate in person what it can do now at the WC in Okinawa. And I bet plenty of top freedivers will use the opportunity to test it in there, so if it is really good, we'll sure see them everywhere soon.

This is a photo from Kerian's Facebook Okinawa album:

[JennyWren]

Sweet review, man I'd love to try one out.

[rovanpera]

Ron and Natalia used the DOL-Fin for their Dyn dives yesterday in Okinawa TWC. Ron did 150m and Natalia 217m. Both were quite slow dives.

[JennyWren]

Any videos from the dol-fin at the WC?

[Haydn]

Hi Eric,
How do you think it would compare throughout a long distance surface swim fin? Did you try swimming frontcrawl or butterfly with it? Did the kick require amplitude starting at the shoulders or just from the ankles/knees?

[efattah]

Originally Posted by Haydn

Hi Eric,
How do you think it would compare throughout a long distance surface swim fin? Did you try swimming frontcrawl or butterfly with it? Did the kick require amplitude starting at the shoulders or just from the ankles/knees?

The Orca would be the ultimate for long distance. With no pain of any kind in the feet, and the possibility of using a zillion different strokes (no knees, or all knees, or just calves, or whatever...)

[sayNO2o2]

I got to play with this fin while Ron was in Hawaii. I was the biggest doubter about the fin to start with. I only used it in the pool. It blew me away. After a few laps just getting the feel for it I could easy match my kick count of my russian fin over 25m. The thing I noticed most was there was no power lost from flex in the foot pocket or over the leanth of the blade. So as you are kicking it produces the power with absolutely no lag. So I found I could use a smaller stroke than normal.
Can't wait to see where this fin and the technology takes free diving.
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[Jouskari]

I tried it in Okinawa. Although it exceeded my initial expections I think it still lacks the same power input as a Glide if I need to go a little bit faster than ~+ 1 m/s. At slow speeds it seemed to work fairly well (Natalias dive). Turning also requires some effort, but might be manageable with some training.

With a little more development I think it could be really good...

[REVAN]

Here is some raw footage of Natalia's dynamic In Okinawa:

YouTube - ‪Natalia Molchanova DYN at FWC with DOL-Fin Orca Monofin‬‎

YouTube - ‪Natalia Molchanova DYN at FWC with DOL-Fin Orca Monofin‬‎