Yes, we should always look at the whole package, so to speak. The competitive fin market is limited and there is a real need for good recreational monofins. The Orca demonstrates that high-end hyperfin level performance can be reproduced in a fin design that is comfortable and practical enough to be used for recreational activities like Ted's Hydrotouring. Doing this within a recreational budget is far more difficult, and so we keep on trying to do better. I have spent the past year trying to figure out how to make my fins better (either in performance or in lowering cost). Even for an experienced engineer, it is a difficult path fraught with many disappointments.
Very true words again.
We have talked about this subject in the past and I unfortunately repeat myself too often : )
The freediving world is so very small and the number of people that want a super high tech fin that will take them über deep is an almost negligible market.
Not that this segment should not be taken into account, but the commercial and development potential probably lies elsewhere.
Like you said with a good recreational fin. And when I say good, I mean one that can offer performance, versatility and ease of use, at the same time.
A fin with which one can comfortably and with decent speed swim several miles at a time. Either to cross a large bay, to explore a stretch of coast, swim to a nearby offshore island etc... Along the way to be able to freedive down and explore the reef, rock formations, marine life and other.
You're probably thinking that the X20 fits that bill quite well and I'm sure it does. However, (and here comes the tricky part for an engineer) the way it looks scares a more average person not used to the look a high tech equipment. A fin like the Lunocet is much more "inviting" visually and emotionaly. Forget if it works or not, that will come after.
I have shown pictures of your fins to several people and have gotten similar reactions. Very futuristic, high tech and complicated looking.
Metal frame full of sharp angles, screws, protruding bits and pieces... Do you get my point ?
It looks like pure performance but it does not attract the layman. All function, little form. And the form, or esthetics that it has, is very "techie" and engineer feeling.
Then look at your website. It looks like it was made from an engineer for other engineers. Full of numbers and technical explanations.
Look at the Lunocet website. Full of exotic and beautiful pictures that make people feel and express "wow", "I want that fin, I want to do that...".
Recreational monofining, hydrotouring, or whatever else one would like to call it does not yet exist as a whole. There is a market there, a potentially big market.
But the right product has to be made (I guess a fin that looks more like Ted's but works as well as your's) and once the right product exists it needs to be marketed right and given media exposure.
That is where I think Ted has a distinct advantage. He has figured this out and is on the right track in creating this new discipline and market. If it turns out that his fin actually works, then I believe that he's on to something.
On the other hand, we know that you have already figured out how to make amazing fins. All that would need to be done is tweak them a little to make them more inviting for a larger audience. After that it's all promotion and media work to show what can be done with this fin and how, and why it's an attractive thing to do etc...
