2014 lunocet

[Apneaddict]

A quick video of some pool footage of the 2014 Lunocet with the classic flukes:



The technique here was poor, as I wasn't warmed up and just wanted to get a couple of lengths in before some empty-lung EQ practice.
Suit was also very draggy... but the video shows that you can get from point A to point B with a handful of kicks which expended hardly any energy / force. I can efficiently get it going about 10% faster as well.

I'll have the Pro flukes on my feet next week (if Georgia can beat this latest ice-storm).
Ted has made 1 set of flukes and tested them himself and he noticed SIGNIFICANT increases in acceleration / thrust... which is great for freediving with our "burst and glide" approach. I would expect it to be good for CWT as well as DYN.

Can't wait to get a hold of them. Could very well revolutionize things for us apneists...
I'll have to dial in the settings with the new durometer springs and also figure out the optimal pin settings for my strength / technique.

Should take a few sessions (1 week or so)... but I'll post my early impressions here for those curious and for the monofin geeks / mer-men / women.

 

[Kars]

Sounds VERY promising! - is it already next week?
I like you said the Pro flukes may fit competition freedivers much better because of the recognised kick and glide approach.
Do I see it correctly that it's $349 us?

Did I mention I cannot wait for more impressions and video?
Hope you can record it in 60p and then also show slow-motion, from the side, and see your and the foils action in detail.

Would love to see it compared in sprints too.
I must say my expectations are on the rise with your reporting and the pro flukes.

<Edit: improving my poor English>

 

[marginatus]

Sounds VERY promising! - is it already next week?
I like you said the Pro flukes may fit competition freedivers much better because of recognised kick and glide approach.
Do I see it correctly that it's $349 us?

Did I mention I cannot wait for more impression and video?
Hope you can record it in 60p and then also show slow-motion, from the side, and see your and the foils action in detail.

What he said!

 

[neurodoc]

A quick video of some pool footage of the 2014 Lunocet with the classic flukes:



The technique here was poor, as I wasn't warmed up and just wanted to get a couple of lengths in before some empty-lung EQ practice.
Suit was also very draggy... but the video shows that you can get from point A to point B with a handful of kicks which expended hardly any energy / force. I can efficiently get it going about 10% faster as well.

I'll have the Pro flukes on my feet next week (if Georgia can beat this latest ice-storm).
Ted has made 1 set of flukes and tested them himself and he noticed SIGNIFICANT increases in acceleration / thrust... which is great for freediving with our "burst and glide" approach. I would expect it to be good for CWT as well as DYN.

Can't wait to get a hold of them. Could very well revolutionize things for us apneists...
I'll have to dial in the settings with the new durometer springs and also figure out the optimal pin settings for my strength / technique.

Should take a few sessions (1 week or so)... but I'll post my early impressions here for those curious and for the monofin geeks / mer-men / women.

What size is the pool you're swimming in for this video? Definitely count me somewhere among the curious and fingeeks. I'm currently swimming with the same fin and waiting on Pro flukes for it as well!

 

[Apneaddict]

It's a 5m deep 25m long Olympic pool, when divided like it is in the video.

 

[Fondueset]

It's a 5m deep 25m long Olympic pool, when divided like it is in the video.

Looks like about a 25 second 25m with a solid push off and five kick and a halves.

 

[Fondueset]

I got in with my #3 Starfins and did a mess of 25s today. I know you train short intervals - so this might be an idea for comparing the Pro Lunocet to a moderately soft hyperfin.

I find I can do easy 25s of about 38-30 seconds with one single kick with the star fin. To match your pace above I need to do two but I found it easer doing two of the kick-and-a-half style that you were using - with these I can use very little effort - if I go to 3 (single kicks) I can do soft undulations that almost feel like gravity is driving them on the downstroke. Using that technique I can easily maintain a 24 second pace with intervals <=10 seconds indefinitely - or at least well past the 10 I did. If I do 3 (1.5) kicks I can maintain an 18 second pace almost as easily with the same surface intervals. ( If I want to be miserable -a.k.a. 'working on CO2 tolerance' - then I limit myself to <=5 second intervals - but my watch's surface interval timer is set to 5 seconds so they all come out looking like one long one

I'd say my best pace endurance-wise is probably around 20- 23 seconds or so with the hyperfin.

Anyway - a suggestion when you get the pro model - which is being marketed as a competitive freediving fin and therefor needs to be measured against hyperfins - is to do 25s with controlled intervals and see how you feel between the two fins after 10 or so. The time of the laps is not as important as the interval between them since freediving is really about distance-for-effort.

Your numbers will doubtless be different - but I think this might be a good way to get a fairly accurate idea of their relative energy-for-distance performance.

 

[neurodoc]

If I were to use a Lunocet or DOL-fin for competition, I would try to get a pair of these cycling shoes: http://www.bont.com/cycling/products/Specialty/crono/ Looks like they would be super hydrodynamic! though, I do not know anywhere that they are available. Since cycling's UCI banned them for time trial competition, perhaps the manufacturer would find our uses for the shoe interesting? I'm sure they spent a lot of R&D coming up with these, only to have UCI ban them...

 

[REVAN]

If I were to use a Lunocet or DOL-fin for competition, I would try to get a pair of these cycling shoes: http://www.bont.com/cycling/products/Specialty/crono/ Looks like they would be super hydrodynamic! though, I do not know anywhere that they are available. Since cycling's UCI banned them for time trial competition, perhaps the manufacturer would find our uses for the shoe interesting? I'm sure they spent a lot of R&D coming up with these, only to have UCI ban them...

At about $670 for the Crono shoe, you would do much better to get a DOL-Fin Orca for competing and avoid the shoe drag all together. The Orca's streamlining would far surpass the Cronos in a monofin orientation.

 

[Stephan Whelan]

Editors Note: Due to a significant dis-agreement with Ted Ciamillo over non-payment of invoices owed to DeeperBlue.com and subsequent legal threats on his behalf towards both DeeperBlue.com and myself as its owner - This post has been taken down.

 

[Chipswim]

I'd like to be an encouragement to the emerging Lunocet community. I'm looking forward to my new Lunocet Pro arriving!

My first Lunocet was the carbon core fluke model which I enjoyed greatly..... swimming about one hundred hours with it.

It was a suprise to me when the 2014 Lunocet was so different in appearance looking very much like part of a marine mammal. Swimming one of those nearly every day since it arrived .... about 150 hours....has been quite rewarding.

Rewards are the joy of swooshing through the water swiftly with human power...... plus fun and fitness. My 2014 Lunocet "hooks up" well with the water producing thrust with large or small strokes. I'm not shy about tweaking the Lunocet to make sure it behaves like I want it to. For me it's fun to make the fin go fast. I'm 6'4" 250# age 63. I like the stiffest setting......plus a little.

When Ted announced the Pro was being developed it once again suprised me because the previous two versions swam wonderfully once dialed in.

Here is the coolest part of my post!
Talked to Ted this morning. He has been in the water with the Lunocet Pro .... The latest version we will receive as we order. He is genuinely thrilled with the fin's responsiveness creating even more acceleration and top end speed.

March will be my first month with the Pro. More impressions then.....

 

[noa]

I'm another who's waiting for his pro model. Been fervently following Lunocet since the beginning back in 2008, always waiting for that magic fin that never really happened. I think the wait is over.
More to be said when the fin is on my feet, and water surrounds us...

 

[Chipswim]

My last two Lunocets have become magic enough to swim every day with a big smile on my face. I have gotten creative and personalized the flex to feel like I want it to. I agree that this new Pro Lunocet shows promise of unlocking human swimming performance beyond that experienced up till now.

Ciamillo's idea that swimmers should fly through the water instead of paddling through the water has led to his break through series of innovations. Even when I get my new Lunocet I'll treasure my previous versions and all the great times under the water. It is great fun to participate in the discovery process. Ted Ciamillo is certainly among the most likely designers to move monofin swimming ahead with his proven ability to turn a vivid imagination into fins we can swim.

This morning three was only a few of us in the pool so I could swim diagonally across the deep end then up a lane to the shallow end. To entertain myself I'd watch a surface lap swimmer go under the flags on the far side then see if my monofin would allow me to cross the deep end on the bottom and still catch up by the shallow end. These fins can do that!

I watched the new video of the dynamic apnea swimmer pumping and coasting the Lunocet. Ted expects the Pro will be perfect for that!

As for me....I can't stay off the throttle.... To much fun!

 

[Apneaddict]

We will see!!

I've been tracking the package and the Pro flukes are now in Canada. I expect them tomorrow and hope to take them for a test swim.

There should be more force going through the Lunocet with the bigger flukes, so I'll have to adjust the pendecle spring setting.

Ted has sent it with a stiffer durometer spring pre-setup with a good starting point... But I'll adjust from there.

Best guess at this point:
It'll feel like a hybrid between a fin and a foil... like a true fluke.

It's all a guess at this point... In the pool is the true test... That's where the rubber meets the water!

 

[Chipswim]

Can't wait for your impressions!

 

[Fondueset]

I predict better thrust, but higher drag. It is not difficult to design a fin with good thrust (it just needs to get bigger) - it's the drag that gets tricky. I don't think we'll see any radical improvement over hyperfin performance. Rather we can hope to match the hyper fin's thrust and drag in a package that has better and more consistent fit, durability and cost. The bar is much higher with the pro model being sold as a competitive fin.

 

[noa]

All these predictions are gaining momentum. I think when some of us get their pro models and start sharing experiences it's going to catch fire...

 

[neurodoc]

At about $670 for the Crono shoe, you would do much better to get a DOL-Fin Orca for competing and avoid the shoe drag all together. The Orca's streamlining would far surpass the Cronos in a monofin orientation.

Yes, REVAN, you're right about that. I thought they could be gotten cheaper, and forgot the Orca does not use cycling shoes. Sorry! I had never seen the Crono shoe before and immediately thought of its application for swimming.

 

[Kars]

I wonder how Ted is feeling, with so many here expecting their Lunocet pro's and the accompanied high expectations, it could be a bit nerve wrecking.

 

[neurodoc]

I imagine it must be nerve wracking! if it is an improvement over the current Lunocet, I think I will like it a great deal. I've been having fun swimming with the current one, exploring its range. I think I can go almost as fast as with my Glide fin, but it requires a different technique. For me, it is like the difference between sprinting on a bicycle at the end of a race, and having either a very high gear or a slightly lower gear. The Glide I have is like a high top gear-takes a great deal of strength, and you get lots of speed. The Lunocet responds better, for me, to a much higher cadence like a lower gear on the bicycle. I have been smoothing out my stroke enough that I can do a higher cadence and still maintain some form, and that results in better speed. I realize speed isn't what most apneists are looking for anyway; just sharing my swim experiences and comparisons. Speed is still fun, and makes for a different workout. I am hoping the Pro flukes make it a great dyn fin, as my Glide is not an ideal dynamics fin (stiffness 5).