New Monofin on the market!

[trux]

Well, it is true that I spoke to them, advised them about freediving needs, and recommended them couple of freedivers to talk to, but I'd be surprised if the new fin was ready that quick. Where did you see it? I cannot find anything about a new freediving fin on their website.

[PoseidonSv]

They wrote me and said they are making the fin and not that it was ready yet!

[trux]

OK, so Tropol now indeed started developing a monofin specially for freediving. They created a new page for discussing the individual topics of the development and of the new/needed features. Mr. Polak from the company Tropol asked me if I could post about it here on DB, and he hopes for plentiful answers to their questions, comments, and suggestions.

So if you miss something at current monofins, have ideas what a good freediving fin should look like, and what properties it should have, and what mistakes from current monofins they should avoid, please post your comments on this page: Tropol-monoploutve

The text is both in Czech and English, and you can comment in English, of course. Click the button at the bottom to enter your comment. Should you have problems with English and rather preferred German or French, just send me a PM with the text and I'll translate it for them.

[trux]

Hmm, I see that except Dave Mullins nobody dared commenting or suggesting something for the development of the freediving monofin on Tropol's website. I find it strange, because each time monofin design is discussed here on DB, the threads are full of people voicing their wishes, ideas, or even frustrations, and such threads are often crowded and frequently visited. People are crying why there is no manufacturer listening to our wishes. But when then a manufacturer really offers a possibility of developing a good fin specially for freediving, and wants to listen to our needs, there is just silence and nobody comes ahead with any comment at all.

Is really nobody interested in the new development? Or is this a wrong thread that no-one watches anymore?

Well, I gave them already some tips and suggestions, but I am in fact no regular monofin user, and just forwarded what I use to hear here. It would be much better if the best monofinners among us shared their experience. Of course, just if you really want to see your wishes being listened to.

I feel little bit disappointed and embarrassed because I contacted the company harassing them with the demands for modifications, and was nicely surprised by their positive attitude, but now little bit worried they may abandon the idea after seeing the absolute lapse of interest on the side of the freediving community.

[hudasmt]

I havent tried a monofin yet cause im still new with the bi-long fins but it would be great if that will be made available here in UAE,coz there are definitely no monofins here for sale unless you will go on-line which you wont be able to try them on before buying. My comments will just be the colors,if they can have it black with the fins having grey colors. I'd like to try the monofins!!!

[trux]

Well, as for the colors, there is no problem. Already now you have a free choice of colors with Tropol. You can chose any color combination with no extra fee. As for a retail store having monofins on stock for testing, I am afraid that's not realistic even in countries where there are huge freediving and monofin swimmer communities. The monofins are expensive, come in too many variants and sizes, so no retailer can really afford keeping them on stock just for testing. Time to time you will find a retail store having a fin or two to expose, but that's about all.

For choosing and testing a monofin, the best thing you can do is attending some freediving (or monofin swimming) competition or meeting, and ask fellow athletes for a ride with their fin. Sometimes manufacturers also visit such events and offer fins for testing (just like lately C4 did in Italy). I am really afraid you can forget dreaming about a retail store in the UAE having a wide choice of monofins available for testing.

[Kars]

HI Trux,

I don't know what happend, but I made a lengthy post about my preferences and monofin idea's and suddenly the page changed, and gone was the messageboard??

Anyway I made the following post, which I've emailed them. I hope they and you appreciate my input .

Dear Manufacturer Tropol,

First I want to express my gratitude of your venture into starting building high quality monofins, especially taking into account the whishes of a growing group of freedivers who you understand have different requierments and whishes.

On the forum on the website www.deeperblue.com there numerous topics concerning monofins. There are many practical discoussions and experiments done amoungst freedivers to improve and find the best or a better fin.
Like the following tread:
waterway glide vs. leaderfins hyper

1#

I happen to be a happy owner of a Hyperfins.ru monofin, this one is made with a 30 degree angle. Indeed it allows me to GLIDE further with speed.
In dynamic this feature allows:
Strait legs and more distance while gliding,
More efficient stroke, containing an good upstroke too.
Easyer learning the monofin stroke.

Diving Deep, 30 degrees helps in the following ways:
Better stroke = more speed = deeper dive and less narcosis for the deep guys.
30 degrees helps to increase the GLIDESPEED tremendously!
Exemple, when a diver is going down to say 60 meters, of that 30m or more will be falling down. A big speeddifference thanks to an improved hydrodynamics while staying in a relaxed posture.

I consider my ankels to be resonalbly flexible (more than most freediver's) and have tried many monofins, with various angles, from 0, 12, 15, and 30 degrees. The fin with 30 degree remains -by far- my favourite.

Off cause there are many other points that make up a good fin:

My ideal monofin has:

Responsive blade,
30 degree footangle,
Has close fitting, evenly load spreading, right and left foot specific, not so flexible footpockets.
No boyancy change at depth, nutral boyancy, maybe a bit boyand (for dynamic).
Durable quality.
Not too much mass.
Consistant quality. - so you can order the same fin a few year later and have the same fin stiffness etc. Also I I try a fin and like it and order the same, I know I'll get the same fin.

As for looks,
Blade and rubber colours following the wetsuit manufactures' colours: Black, silver, blue, gold, green, red etc.

About pricing:

I now recomment beginners to buy a -cheap- Waterway Classic fin costing arroud E130,-
When they know and love the monofin, I recomment a 'professional' andronov/hyperfin model WITH a 30 degree angle, costing now about E400,- A 'big' price jump.
At the moment my whish would be to be able to recomment a simple beginners model, costing arround E180,- without wings, open heels, but with a 30 degree footpocket.
The Top E 350,- model would have all the advanced features, like footspecific footpockets, wings, colours, heels, more bladestifness choices, etc.

Since there are no fins in between the 150 and the 400 pricerange, your Beginners E180 model with 30 degree blade-angle could be VERY succesfull!

2#

About your second question: the construction of the footpocked.

I like the round and ergonomic appearance.
I don't mind the hollows when the are filled up with some lightweight non-compresseble foam.
Having the blade starting half way seems right and nice in line with the legs and body.

For me a good footpocked has the following key features:
- close fit with not flexible rubber for a efficient energy transfer.
- foot specific (left right shaped to avoid a painfull Big toe)
- riged heals, for clean power transfer to the blade and offloading the footsole muscles.
- soft (thiner) rubber edge (1-1,5cm) on top of the foot for easy acces and comfirtable fit.
(simiral to Mares Plana avanti closed heals fins, and Cressi Garra 2000HF fins)
- A patch of hard neoprene inside the footpocked (like the WW Classic) to provide a good workload spreading to a wider variety of different foot shapes (flat/high arching etc.)
- holes at the end to let the air escape when putting on the fin.
- low overall mass, means less enertia energy is used moving the fin.


Well thanks for your inquiery, I'm looking forward to your new products your kind and helpfull chech freedivers carry arround for anybody to try!

Love, Courage and Water,

Kars

PS1, Perhabs it's better to post all the questions at once, since it's easier to awser them al in one go.

PS2, I also tried your fin for a few laps in Sweden, my observations are here: http://forums.deeperblue.com/734866-post4.html

PS3, I tried to post this on your messageboard but it didn't work?

[Kars]

I'm sure techies like Andy and Eric Fattah have some intresting views to share too.

Kars

[Tropol]

Hi everybody, specially Kars!
I apologize for problems in our forum tropol.cz, there was some technical problem. Now is everything right.
We know, here in deeperblue.com forum is plenty of suggestions to monofins. In our pages we are trying to concentrate relevant pieces of knowledge in one place, therefore report in our forum like yours is greatly welcomed

Thanks

Lubos Polak

[hudasmt]

Originally Posted by trux

Well, as for the colors, there is no problem. Already now you have a free choice of colors with Tropol. You can chose any color combination with no extra fee. As for a retail store having monofins on stock for testing, I am afraid that's not realistic even in countries where there are huge freediving and monofin swimmer communities. The monofins are expensive, come in too many variants and sizes, so no retailer can really afford keeping them on stock just for testing. Time to time you will find a retail store having a fin or two to expose, but that's about all.

For choosing and testing a monofin, the best thing you can do is attending some freediving (or monofin swimming) competition or meeting, and ask fellow athletes for a ride with their fin. Sometimes manufacturers also visit such events and offer fins for testing (just like lately C4 did in Italy). I am really afraid you can forget dreaming about a retail store in the UAE having a wide choice of monofins available for testing.

That is very true!!! You cant even see any C4 fins here So how much is CZK 8500.00 translate into dollars or euro for the M4? If ever i might raise the money for it, what would be an appropriate size for me? I'm currently using a size 40-42 Beuchat carbon fins with a 2 mm socks and it feels very comfy for me. And how to order for it? I have the money now for the Suunto D4 but hesitating to buy it since i dont have a dive buddy to use it in the deep waters so most probably the monofins will be good for a change in training

[trux]

I just checked the website of the Tropol company yesterday to see if there are any news about the freediving monofin. Today I got an email from Lubos, one of the company owners. It looks like they are just closing the initial phase, where they were collecting information about the needs of freedivers, and researching some new technology that they plan using for it. So if you still have some wishes, tips, or recommendations, please do not hesitate posting them there as soon as possible: Návštìvní kniha www.weblight.cz.

After the initial feedback they decided for a monofin with 30 degrees angle between the footpockets and the blade, and new reinforced polyurethan footpockets with the axial distance between the feet of 120 mm - they did not get any messages regarding the feet distance, so they keep it at the standard value used for monofin swiming. If you have another opinion, do not hesitate to tell them quick. The footpockets will be casted in a single piece of PU, with reinforced rigid kernel to improve resistance, and to avoid compression.

[Fondueset]

Thanks for the update, Trux.

[PoseidonSv]

Thanks Trux!

Will be nice to see the progress with this

[trux]

Recently, Lubos from the Tropol company contacted me with some worries because he had feedback from a club trainer who discouraged him from developing a monofin with such a big angle (30 degrees). I wanted to know the opinion of some people who participated in this discussion, as well as of other freedivers, hence I created a new thread with a poll, where you can express you opinion, and influence so the development of the new fin considerably.

Plea have a look at the poll and cast your vote there: Tropol monofin - angle survey

[Mullins]

What specifically was the cause of their concern - ergonomically speaking?