Last winter, I think it was February, I was waiting in a parking lot for my dive buddy, Jason. He was late, as usual, and, though it was sunny and a relatively warm 25F, I was waiting impatiently in my truck to save body heat for the dive. He pulled up and handed me a strange parcel he'd picked up during a brief stop at work on the way. It was my new Waterway Wings Nemo. I unwrapped it and we walked in down the boat launch ramp. Thus the maiden voyage with my new monofin was a 400 yard swim in 38F water. It was miserable. Surface swimming was a nightmare. My feet fought eachother for control and the pain was incredible. The graceful and efficient movements I'd seen Peter Scott and Eric Fattah perform the previous spring in Telegraph Cove seemed a hopeless abstraction. I suspended judgement, but was ambivalent.
Throughout the winter I alternated between my ice fins and the new mono. Gradually the pain lessened, but it still did not seem a practical tool. Spring arrived and we begin to dive in shallower water, with longer horizontal swims.
One destination in particular involves a 400-500 meter swim along some old cooling pipes that serviced a now-demolished power plant. I began to traverse this in a series of dives, working on my technique just above the bottom. Video showed I was bending my knees a lot and I was lamenting whether the elusive full-body undulation would forever evade me. I PM'd Laminar and told him I was having trouble 'locking my legs' as I'd been advised. He told me to use the monofin "like a paintbrush". I began to relax.
Cruising along I started working on my spine - seeking out the same feeling of spaciousness and ease I find in Taiji; surrendering into the wave as I pulsed along between the big cooling pipes. In shallow I practiced swimming with quick,short ripples in water less than a meter deep. This helped because I got instant feedback if I went to far in either direction. More and more I was leaving my camera on the float as I got into a whole new kinesthetic dimension - irrespective of visibility, fish, temperature or whatever. I never had to wait to get anywhere.
Now it has become nearly impossible for me to not wear my monofin. I've been doing all my fish sneakage and photographs with it. Last weekend I beaned a curious carp on the head with it. The carp bolted, wheeled and came right back up to my face. I glided up stealthily on a huge Walleye and got some great in-close video. Underweighted; I held myself down with one finger jammed under a rock covered with razor sharp zebra mussles while I tried to track a school of drums with the camera. I spent four and a half hours in the water with it.
I love my monofin! It is the best object in the universe!! Perhaps my daughter summed it up best when I asked her, after her trip to little cayman, how the fin worked for her and with an odd look in her eyes she replied; "I don't usually feel this way about material things..."
Throughout the winter I alternated between my ice fins and the new mono. Gradually the pain lessened, but it still did not seem a practical tool. Spring arrived and we begin to dive in shallower water, with longer horizontal swims.
One destination in particular involves a 400-500 meter swim along some old cooling pipes that serviced a now-demolished power plant. I began to traverse this in a series of dives, working on my technique just above the bottom. Video showed I was bending my knees a lot and I was lamenting whether the elusive full-body undulation would forever evade me. I PM'd Laminar and told him I was having trouble 'locking my legs' as I'd been advised. He told me to use the monofin "like a paintbrush". I began to relax.
Cruising along I started working on my spine - seeking out the same feeling of spaciousness and ease I find in Taiji; surrendering into the wave as I pulsed along between the big cooling pipes. In shallow I practiced swimming with quick,short ripples in water less than a meter deep. This helped because I got instant feedback if I went to far in either direction. More and more I was leaving my camera on the float as I got into a whole new kinesthetic dimension - irrespective of visibility, fish, temperature or whatever. I never had to wait to get anywhere.
Now it has become nearly impossible for me to not wear my monofin. I've been doing all my fish sneakage and photographs with it. Last weekend I beaned a curious carp on the head with it. The carp bolted, wheeled and came right back up to my face. I glided up stealthily on a huge Walleye and got some great in-close video. Underweighted; I held myself down with one finger jammed under a rock covered with razor sharp zebra mussles while I tried to track a school of drums with the camera. I spent four and a half hours in the water with it.
I love my monofin! It is the best object in the universe!! Perhaps my daughter summed it up best when I asked her, after her trip to little cayman, how the fin worked for her and with an odd look in her eyes she replied; "I don't usually feel this way about material things..."
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Trying to minimize effort during bottom swimming I found it a little easier to maintain enough speed to keep me off the bottom with a leisurely kick/glide pattern. I think I was right in thinking I'd get more out of it with less movement - which is key for fish sneakage.
Hope you and your family are well.
