2014 lunocet

[Chipswim]

A few remarks - regarding flip turns - there is a difference between fin swimmers and free divers. Freedivers are going for distance - fin swimmers for speed. Chipswim - my best time no-fins dolphin kick is 16 seconds for 25 - i can do it as slow as about 25 and could probably do a little faster than 16 if I worked at it. I don't focus much on sprinting. You'll learn a lot about hydrodynamics by trying to go slow. A good swimmer with one of those little finis mono fins can do 25 in 10 seconds. The record, with a sprint stiffness mono fin - for 50 meters - is a little over 13 seconds.

Thank you for the info. Very interesting details! I'm working attempts at bits of all this into my morning swims partly out of the astonishment of getting to learn directly from writers of this thread!

At 63 I can still manage deep water barefoot starts (with a rope and a boat) . That would be the only time I experience some of the fin swimmer speeds you just described. Found some pictures of them racing on the surface. They leave wakes like boats!

Until I started reading this forum I've been entertaining myself on the bottom of pools where all others are swimming on the surface.... Thought it would look so fun everyone would come down with me but that has not been the case..
.. Yet.

One of the things I thought I needed to discover was an underwater turn which included kicking off the wall. The one that has become usable starts by rolling on one side approaching the wall. Then reaching the wall with the upper hand.... Using that hand to initiate the turn let my butt come into the wall backwards followed by heels so the fin cant catch. With just à few tries rotating back to level and placing feet on the wall happen in the same motion. That dependably sets up a nice position to press off the wall headed the other way. It becomes a fairly smooth gentle turn.

Works pretty slick. Wonder if anyone has experimented with a similar turn. I've put something non skid on the heels of the shoes, and the two screw side of the foot pads because they want to skid if the line up to leave the wall isn't just so. The tips of the flukes and the bottom side of the spring are also contact points but they are already rubber.

 

[Chipswim]

One of the questions emerging in this thread right now is whether the Pro Lunocet will find a following in any or all of the disciplines. ...... Or maybe it could become it's own different event.. (HydroTorturing). I suppose it's conceivable it wouldn't win any significant following and fade to extinction. Seems that possibility has become much less likely...... Whatever is about to happen will certainly be documented in this forum over the next few days weeks and months. It should be really interesting!

 

[cdavis]

Chip, there are some turns video on the Extreme dolfinism thread, the last few pages, that should be applicable to the Lunacet

 

[REVAN]

On the topic of dynamic turns in a pool: One of the biggest concerns in a long dynamic swim is maintaining calm relaxation and suppressing contractions of the diaphragm during the swim when there are high CO2 levels present in the lungs. Many swimmers, myself included, have stopped using the wall to push-off in the turn, because using the wall requires recoiling the legs and performing a jumping motion which bunches up the abdomen area and creates stress, setting off contractions and making the remaining swim harder. I have found that it is better for me to not use the wall and remain more relaxed during the turn. With a good monofin, there is little penalty or difference in energy expenditure between pushing off the wall vs. pushing off water. (FYI: I was US DYN champion in 2012 - 2013)

 

[vali]

I really think that turning back using the wall and wearing a monofin is bad not only for the facts that REVAN stated above, but even because the monofin create a very big lift at that moment. I tried many times to turn pushing the wall and when I pushed with my legs, the felling that I was stuck for a second by that wall was very obvious. It is simple fluid dynamics I guess. So the little advantage of pushing dye quickly because of the lift. But perhaps it work in DNF

 

[Chipswim]

I really think that turning back using the wall and wearing a monofin is bad not only for the facts that REVAN stated above, but even because the monofin create a very big lift at that moment. I tried many times to turn pushing the wall and when I pushed with my legs, the felling that I was stuck for a second by that wall was very obvious. It is simple fluid dynamics I guess. So the little advantage of pushing dye quickly because of the lift. But perhaps it work in DNF

One just can't top the level of expertise available from this group!
Thank You!

 

[vali]

Thank you Chipswim!
Not to mention that monofins are very fragile and expensive [at least for my pocket ] piece of equipment and bad things can happen when pushing the walls )

 

[Fondueset]

Thank you Chipswim!
Not to mention that monofins are very fragile and expensive [at least for my pocket ] piece of equipment and bad things can happen when pushing the walls )

I'm not a competitive diver - but you can see my turns in the videos. With a little more concentration I could clean them up - and sometimes do - but basically with a hyperfin you get way more whoosh with less drag than you would off the wall just by bringing it up into position.

You don't get the same whoosh with a foil based fin but pushing off the wall still seems a waste of energy.

 

[vali]

One of the questions emerging in this thread right now is whether the Pro Lunocet will find a following in any or all of the disciplines. ...... Or maybe it could become it's own different event.. (HydroTorturing). I suppose it's conceivable it wouldn't win any significant following and fade to extinction. Seems that possibility has become much less likely...... Whatever is about to happen will certainly be documented in this forum over the next few days weeks and months. It should be really interesting!

I don't think that extinction will follow.
I try to dissect one aspect:
there was a time when monofins didn't existed as a piece of freediving equipment; we where all happy with the good old bi-fins. And then the monofin appeared and I'm very sure that at the beginning, the swimmer was not able to properly swim with those monofins and bi-fins ruled for a while...
I mean: Who can tell me that in some near future, the lunocet-pro will not develop a new technique fitted only for lunocet-pro? And this good technique will not develop some very exceptional results?
I guess is not so important with what piece of fins we dive, but how relax and fulfilled the one can be about that.
For example since I purchased my monofin, I use my bi-fins only at spearfishing. Tried the other day to do some DYN with my bifins after 3 years not wearing them: was a total disaster ). So now my monofin is a life saver

 

[vali]

I'm not a competitive diver - but you can see my turns in the videos. With a little more concentration I could clean them up - and sometimes do - but basically with a hyperfin you get way more whoosh with less drag than you would off the wall just by bringing it up into position.

You don't get the same whoosh with a foil based fin but pushing off the wall still seems a waste of energy.

I don't know what type of monofin I have [if is a hyper or foil based]
And again...I speak for my kind of people who don't master the very good technique; [you and the other monofin gods are excluded ]


offtopic pls:
what kind of monofin do I have now?

 

[Fondueset]

I don't know what type of monofin I have [if is a hyper or foil based]
And again...I speak for my kind of people who don't master the very good technique; [you and the other monofin gods are excluded ]


offtopic pls:
what kind of monofin do I have now?

Hi Vali - yours is not quite a hyperfin - it is very similar to the waterway Nemo. A hyperfin has hand-made foot pockets that are more streamlined and contribute to thrust by flexing. as well as a much greater blade angle. (also, usually less durable and much more expensive!) Your blade (and hyperfins) is low aspect ratio - the foils are high aspect ratio (thin and wide). The foil blades also do not flex like your blade and a hyperfins blade. They generate thrust in a different way more like airplane wings.

 

[Chipswim]

I don't think that extinction will follow.
I try to dissect one aspect:
there was a time when monofins didn't existed as a piece of freediving equipment; we where all happy with the good old bi-fins. And then the monofin appeared and I'm very sure that at the beginning, the swimmer was not able to properly swim with those monofins and bi-fins ruled for a while...
I mean: Who can tell me that in some near future, the lunocet-pro will not develop a new technique fitted only for lunocet-pro? And this good technique will not develop some very exceptional results?
I guess is not so important with what piece of fins we dive, but how relax and fulfilled the one can be about that.
For example since I purchased my monofin, I use my bi-fins only at spearfishing. Tried the other day to do some DYN with my bifins after 3 years not wearing them: was a total disaster ). So now my monofin is a life saver

It does seem the underwater community is swimming ahead together testing fascinating variations with great enthusiasm!

 

[REVAN]

I don't know what type of monofin I have [if is a hyper or foil based]
And again...I speak for my kind of people who don't master the very good technique; [you and the other monofin gods are excluded ]


offtopic pls:
what kind of monofin do I have now?

This is a bit of a hybrid. Many would just call it a Nemo type monofin because the Nemo is probably the most common of this style of construction. Perhaps a good general description would be a classic monofin with angle. You could then go on to add that it has full foot pockets, if that has meaning to the discussion.

 

[Kars]

Ok, here's my list of current fin types:

Classic - flat feet on bending blade
Flyer - slightly angled feet on bending blade
Hyperfin - torpedo footpockets with big angle on bending blade.

Foil type, different species, because the blade does not bend, but rotates.
Monofoil - rotating blade

Vali, I reckon your Specialfins fits the flyer category best, because yours has a small angle and a bending blade.

 

[vali]

Thank you Kars

Trimis de pe al meu HTC Desire 500 folosind Tapatalk

 

[Fondueset]

Thank you Kars

Trimis de pe al meu HTC Desire 500 folosind Tapatalk

Well said, Kars. I agree.

 

[noa]

Hey AA, how's that report of the pro coming along... : )

 

[marginatus]

Hey AA, how's that report of the pro coming along... : )

The man's right

 

[Chipswim]

AAnticipation!!!

 

[baboonty]

Hi,

I am a new member on this forum and I follow this thread from France where I live.

Unfortunately I cannot contribute to the debate in a positive way as I am always waiting for my lunocet ordered at the end of last November!
As told by others before me, the customer service is just non-existent and I received at best an automatic answer to my sent complaint e-mails .

Furthermore, it is extremely frustrating to read about your own experience of your Lunocet and comments of the differences between the normal or pro version while others paid the high price (399$) without having of possible choices and have still nothing!

It was the first time I made an on-line order in US (there is no dealers in Europe) and I am just dumbstruck by the differences with the " B to C" practices in Europe. At least we get advised of any such abnormal delay….

I was not able to enjoy my monofin during my Christmas holidays, now my hope is to receive my equipment in time for my next holidays at Bali in 4 weeks. It could be a very nice place to have a first Lunocet experience and give to this forum a more positive contribution from a monofin beginner.

Have fun.

Olivier Valverde