First impression of a new mono swimmer

[rslomkow]

Well I decided to try the mono fin thing out.

I got a Waterway Model 2 Long Distance

This is with the re-enforced heel (the tan bits of rubber), the edge protectors (those black stripes on the side) and the neoprene inserts to reduce blistering (the black stuff inside the fin).

It is a fun fin, the only other mono's I have tried are cheap little plastic toys and a Waterway Model 1 - Hard. The Model 1 hard was too hard for me and it was tricky to prevent it from slipping side to side. It felt like there was a big thing at the end of my feet.

What is fun about this fin (Model 2, LD) is that it dissapears. Sure when I fisrt started swimming I got some of the slip, but once you start moving, it barely seems like it is there. When surface swimming there are no splashes, I just shoot along. When being silly and coming up from 5m I can shoot myself up to the middle of my thighs out of the water.

At the moment the up-kick feels kind of weak to me. I am an experienced dolphin kick swimmer (back before I was fat and old I used to race butterfly) and it is definetly a different timing. Also I find it is easy to slip into poor form because you still have power! You can just wiggle you ankles and go somewhere with the mono. I like to use this fin for a full body dolphin kick.

It is a fun fin, it does feel like it extends you whole body and shoot it through the water in a way that dolphin kick with bi-fins does not do.

When really trying hard to power this fin I could cramp my feet and calves, but it is possible to stretch them out in the fin.

This fin I suspect is too soft for me to really send me deeper, but perhaps not it is a really relaxing fin (though my times for 22m and 44m were the same as with my Cressi Gara 2000 HFs)


On Fit

Foot pockets:

the 310 aka 45 are the larges foot pockets Waterway makes. I have large feet. They are only 43 long, but EEEE wide, and they are tall. It turns out with this foot pocket style "tall" is the most important factor. There is plent of width, there is plent of length, but barely enough hight (your foot goes much deeper inside than with tradional fin pockets)

I should not have ordered the neoprene padding, as it reduces the room inside the pocket.

Putting these fins on pinches a nerve on the top of my right foot that send pain down through my toe Once my foot is in the pocket seals arround the foot, making it difficult to slide my foot deeper inside, but it only resembles comfortable if I slide my foot deeper inside. I could not even wear lycra socks in these as they stand. I am hoping there will be a little bit of rubber fatigue and wear of the neoprene to make putting them on easier. The left foot (a few mm smaller) is pretty decent.

So far 15 minutes was the longest period of time that I was able to wear them before needing to take them. They really do seal, there is no water exchange and they make my feet warm!

Ordering Mistakes:

Of course it would have been better to try on the footpockets ahead of time, but I had tried a pair of 43s and they were not too narrow, but were tight so I though just up the size and I would be OK. They are suppose to fit tight. I should not have gotten the inserts, I should have planned on using a neoprene or lycra sock.

I should not have used Polyorg. I had seen a couple of responses of them being slow. 4-6 weeks menat a little over 4 months, the other swim goggles in my order did not arrive. Just not responsiveness from the owner. It was frustrating. Though in the end I did get a nice fin and a mono-backpack.

I should have not entered 200-400m swimming distance (while that is realistic) I am not racing those distances and I should probably have gotten medium stiffness fin (I did ask for a medium stiffness fin, but I checkind the box for longer distance)

I probably should have gotten a fin with Omer footpockets. I think the comfort would have made them more fun and easier to let other people try.

[fcallagy]

I found the same with the leaderfins footpockets I can only wear the fin for 15/20 mins at a time before it gets too uncomfortable.
I also found rescue/ safety diver very difficult with a mono so now i am staying with bi fins at present.

[X-Fins]

Guys I encourage you to train with your monos and you will see how much confortable can be. Most of long distance finswimmers use this kind of monofins for hours, trainings and competititions.

enjoy the monofin rslomkow, best regards !!!

[SnuFPunK]

The first time I put my monofin on and went in the water, I ended up coming out of the water 10 minutes after I entered it, literaly crying with pain and asking myself why the hell did I spend so much money on this torture device.

I just kept on practicing with the mono, and now I can wear it for 2 hours no problam

Point is... keep on training with it, itll grow on you.

~ Snuf.

[rslomkow]

Thanks for the encourgement.

One week later (yesterday) I went to the pool again with my mono and it was more fun this time

In the last week I realized part of the problem. I have a pinched nerve on the top of my foot, near the second and third toes. I can push it in a sliding motion and make pain shoot throught my foot and toe withought the mono! I never noticed it before because I never apply pressure there.

Putting it on is still a challenge, but if I resist pointing my toe and pull the foot pocket up I can get my foot in so that it doesn't hurt much once it is on.

This time I did 30minutes before it became painful. And the footpockets with the lining really are the right size for my feet, just takes some getting used to.

Now I am beginning to get the stroke, I need to slow down. Just like when I first started with long fins

[sanso]

I tried on a medium stiff model 2 last weekend and - of course - now am considering getting one of those thingies, but some questions remain.
Kicking with this fin seemed too light for me, so I'm wondering if I should get a bigger blade or a stiffer blade... What do You say? What would the effect be?
And is there another dealer in/around germany who sells waterway?
And where are the posts/threads that compare waterway with, say, specialfins and the other monos out there?

[Kars]

I am a happy WW MD2 Middle distance user. I also own a WW MD1 (the big one) Long distance. I find that the WW MD1 LD is now too soft for me because I can so easily 'overload' it. When I just use 'a little' force I feel the energy is not put into thrust. This is especially the case when starting and turning, especially at depth when one is negative and need force to getting started.

Size is also dependeble on your height and weight. I'm 1,89M and 69KG.

I hope that you'll find this post usefull, much succes!

Kars

[rslomkow]

So I am getting happier with my fin. The big discovery today was one of my fellow diver brought lotion (which he uses to put his WW Sprint) on with. This let me put it on without pain, still kind of tiring after 30minutes and switched doing sets 44m DNF (it is a 22m, 5m deep diving pool) to stretch out my feet. But letting them slide in was a miracle! Guess I need to ad that to my fin bag.

Also I got to compare an older WW Sprint to my WW LD. The most fascinating thing was shape. The Hard sprint is scooped facing downward. This means when you dive with it you pretty much only get down stroke and nothing on the up stroke. The fin also doesn't really bend.

My LD straight by default and bends a lot, and you need to apply calf muscle to it on the upstroke. This provides a kick that is much more like a traditional dolphin kick.

Also the older Sprint had the black rubber for the foot pockets which is much harder than the blue rubber on my new LD.

I still don't find the LD to be a fast fin but I find it to be a relaxing fin, and I got to my knees jumping out of the water with it, so there is plenty of force available if you want to give it the kick.