2015 LUNOCET PRO

Ningyo!

Welcome!

It's great to see you've had a positive delivery experience through www.ultimateswimfin.com !

I hope your post indicates improvement has arrived and is more of the tone going forward.

OK..... I think your Lunocet arrives assembled with the center section complete.

On one end you add shoes. On the on other you bolt the flukes.




You will notice the pads where the shoes bolt on are slightly curved on one side to match the curve of the toes of your cycling shoes. On the opposite side of those same shoe pads the holes have a recessed hole cut larger than it is drilled all the way through. That allows the heads of the bolts to not stick up as much.... So the three bolts for each shoe go in from that side. Your shoes may allow a little adjustment forward and backward before you tighten them all the way.... That makes your distance from your feet to your fin slightly adjustable. Since you are smaller and just starting I suggest keeping the fin distance from your feet as short as possible. This will make it a bit easier / gentler to move in your swimming motion. Likely the small muscles on the tops of your feet will get sore during the first week of swimming getting used to their new job!

On the other end of the spring assembly.... Bolt on the flukes. This takes a little patience because you are holding the pieces in place while starting the nut on the bolt. If you travel a lot and know you will be taking your fin apart to pack.... I suggest glueing the nuts in their recessed holes. It makes it much quicker and easier to reassemble from then on.

Now you have your fin ready to swim. You may like wearing low rise socks to protect your toe tops from rubbing blisters.

When adjusting your spring tension it is all about making it feel and swim as you wish it to. Your expectation that the softer setting may be just right for you is logical.

If it is too soft you'd feel like there is no fin back there and you can't get ahold of the water to get going.

If it is too stiff it feels like there is too much resistance to your swimming movement because the spring is not bending to set the angle of propulsion. We say the fin is "stalling" instead of flying as it is designed to do.....

If Your fin is just right it does fly! Each swimming movement large and small leads to propulsion. You get that perfect sensation just like Goldilocks!

Don't be afraid to experiment!

Let us know how it goes.

Hi Finsailor,

One objective of the '15 flukes compared to '14 was to be lighter.... Thus thinner....

After extensive use neither of the '14's I'm using punched through at the end of the internal aluminum skeleton.

I have punched through there in the past though on my "classic". I just noticed a drop of water exiting there after taking off the fin to go home. It didn't get worse and didn't seem to effect performance.

I decided to let the fin dry a few days then bent the tip to open up the damage like you did in your video and used a tube of adhesive called Goop to force some into the opening. I still use those flukes on a fore fin and it hasn't opened again yet.

In the past I experimented with attaching the two flukes together thinking I might get extra power by joining the two flukes together in the center.... So the split between them couldn't spill water while swimming. That did not seem to add power so I don't recommend that joining process but I learned that a normal tire patch bonds well to the flukes. You could try that if you wish. I used truck tire patch because they are much tougher. These ideas have helped me keep going well. I did eventually wear out that tire patch! I did not need to use a patch out where you are discussing now. The Goop solved the problem.

I agree with you in not sending your flukes away for that problem. Swimming wise it is a non factor.

It has been my thought while watching '15s go through the water that the rubber out beyond the skeleton.... Out beyond the split you show flexes enough that it may not be adding as much as it could to propulsion. I think there is something good available to be gained out there.

Longer term I think you and I are the first to show that a split can occur out there on the tip where the rubber flexes over the aluminum. I've also pointed out the issue and know it's being addressed as the design evolves.