"...a propulsion system that precisely replicates a dolphin’s tail."

[shoutatthesky]

Actually I would say the surface area is quite a bit less than your average monofin. The propulsive principles involved in Ted's system are along a different line of thought. It seems to be more about the shape being more three dimensional than a 'flat' monofin. But I am no expert.
He sure has gone to a lot of effort and expense to conduct this exercise.
And you got to love the CAM gear. I have used a three axis machine for furniture making but what he is using for his machining is something else entirely. I wish this very cool guy all the best.

 

[Walrus]

The current "advanced" monofins also use a wing type shape if you look at the cross section.

It is very hard to tell the size without a reference, to me it looks really wide compared to the footpockets, guessing 1.5m ?
If so that's a big fin.
Ted any chance you can tell us the measurements of this fin ?

 

[shoutatthesky]

Even better - the plansrofl

 

[Sergiu]

The website is absolutely great. Already! I'd the idea along with the website are good enough to lure and land some serious sponsorships! Good luck Ted.

serge

 

[laminar]

Great design!

I have been thinking about something along similar lines for years after spending more than 15 years windsurfing and following the evolution of high aspect ratio sail design, loose leech trailing edges, camber inducers, variable mast curve and diameter, cam-less foils, materials, battens changes, sail tension, flat head, etc... I see many of the same innovations in this design.

Great work!

I would love to try one and review for DB! (I think I may have to get in line, though...)

 

[demasoni]

That fin looks incredible! Can't wait for a review...

Aren't there dolphin shaped monos currently out on the market? I wonder how these would compare? I could very well be wrong, but I believe I saw a video of the 2003 Sony Freediver Open where one competitor in CWT actually used a dolphin shaped mono...was it Davide Carrera? Can anyone confirm?

 

[trux]

Yes, there are many dolphin or whale shaped monofins - I have couple of them listed in the Collection of Weird Fins (or also in the original DB thread of the same name: http://forums.deeperblue.net/bi-fins/67558-collection-weird-fins.html), but the shape is not all. The Lunocet seems to have more advantages - the hydrofoil shape of the wings, the very significant angle of attack, the strong wing arms, and from the photos I have the feeling that the two arms have variable angle, so that you get always a concave (hence better propulsing) shape in the right direction with a slight tension of your feet. I may be wrong about the variable angle though, maybe it is fixed. Hope we'll see it soon in a more detailed photo, or that Ted peeks in again with some more details.

 

[laminar]

I think one of the most interesting points of the Lunocet's design is that there's an opening right below the toes to allow water to flow over the leading edge at the centre of the "fin." This was something I always felt was not done well with current designs.

Pretty darn cool.

 

[jome]

What kind of swimming technique does this require? Ie. are we talking "classical finswimming" or some completely new type of motion?

It looks really impressive - how ever I'm far too old and cynical to get hyped about anything like this anymore. When someone actually puts it to the test and objectively reviews it and the conclusion is that "this is the most efficient fin ever" - I will be the first in line to get it (or reading the posts here, maybe the not the first, but among the first, say 100 )

But like Trux said - if it does even half as good as it looks, it should be pretty good.

I can just imagine the looks on the life guards faces when you lug that into the pool We already have enough trouble getting them convinced that we're not slicing kids in half with glass fiber blades.

 

[trux]

I wonder how is it going with the project. In the project timeline the August 29th (yesterday) is noted as an important date. Did the planned Splashdown event and the press releases took a place, or were they postponed?

The "Global Position" page on the website shows already distance traveled = 300 (km? miles? meters?) and the current speed of 8kmh, but since it also shows the current depth = 1,029 km (!), I am afraid it does not show any real data.

I am looking forward to any news!

 

[Ol Dirty Diver]

Two days ago I was awoken at 5:20am by a call from Ciamillo. He asked if I had just called him, to which I groggily replied no. He wasn't sure who I was...Just accidently called me apparently. Anyway, I asked him how the Subhuman Project was going. He told me that they were planning to go on their first mission on October 1. I asked if the timeline had gotten pushed back (as he told me before that the project would get underway in August with a mission to venture beneath a hurricane). He said no...October was always the plan.

?

 

[trux]

I just found a new article on Freedive Central about The Life Amphibious project of Alex Sarasitis - it is very similar to the Sub Human Project of Ted Ciamillo mentioned in this thread. And to add to the similarity, they also come with an innovatory monofin (though it looks quite different than Lunocet). Read more about it at Freedive Central and on the Trygon's website:

Freedive Central » The Life Amphibious project

Life Amphibious
The Sub-Odyssey Project

​

 

[Jouskari]

Does anyone know what´s the latest news for Teds project...??

 

[trux]

There are some news in this thread: http://forums.deeperblue.net/monofins/78367-lunocet-progress.html