Advanced monofins

[BennyB]

Well, i've taken a punt and ordered a monofin from Kershkov, the maker of the Gipperfin on the Polyorg website. Took me a long time to get in touch with anybody, still have not heard back from the people who make the Hyperfin. The guy from Polyorg did reply to my email after a couple of weeks, he was away during that time hence the no-reply. Was happy to give him the benefit of the doubt, but by that stage I had already ordered.

Interesting also that Bogdan from Waterways replied within 24 hours to a query I posted on a Finswimming forum. I've ordered WW's before and I certainly think that their customer services is one of the best in the industry.

That said, I tried the WW Glide last night and to be honest I was a little disappointed. The fin itself was very good, a big step up from the old WW's, but it didn't have the "wow" factor that noted with the other russian fin I tried. It seemed like there was very little angle on the blade, I was expecting a bit more there. The footpockets were incredibly tight, but they seemed to fit well all around and were soft inside. Definitely no give in them but you couldn't keep them on for very long. But still, it's a pretty good fin.

Cheers,
Ben

 

[watts]

Benny how much did you pay all up and could you keep us posted on what the fins like and how long it took to get. Why are these fins better than the standard/old style fins?

Hurry up and get back to Australia:friday Summers coming up.:inlove

 

[BennyB]

Dude it's 30 degrees here, I ain't moving

Will let you know the gory details when the fin arrives.

I think the big difference between these fins and the older monos (invitation for all the other advanced mono users to chip in) are that the blade starts closer to your toes instead of mid way down the foot. This seems to give more propulsion. The footpockets are completely different and seem to hug the foot all around, rather than have a couple of stress points like the old fins. There is an angle on the blade so when you glide you are more streamlined rather than the blade angling down and causing resistance. The wing also seems to give support to the blade and makes it flex in the right areas. They also weigh a bit more, between 2.5kg and 3kg is the usual I think.

Anyone else have any opinions?

Cheers,
Ben

 

[M@trox]

Hi !
Hmm, looks like you all guys are little monofin-specialist !

so, maybe you can give me an answer to a question i ask myselfe for long.

Some years ago, a post in this forum, one guy said something like
"no serious freediver would ever use a monofin with wing for CW "
And in fact, why did carlos coste use a non-wing mono ?

Any advices ?
For myselfe i use a Flyer from Specialfins, I lofe that fin, but cant tell if its good or not good for CW or dynamic because i am still a beginner and no more than 80m dynamic and 37m in CW. I felt no "compressing" of the mono-wing in depth...

Best regards,

Joe

 

[OceanMan]

I think that a wing mono is better than a non-wing mono for dynamics and cw (that if the wing does not compress too much at depth). I can think of many deep guys who use wing-mono for cw (molchanova, Stig, Pedersen, Jatu.....).
I think it's just a matter of time before Stepanek and Coste turn to wing-mono. But these two are so good that they don't seem to feel the need for this kind of fin.rofl

 

[BennyB]

Well my new monofin arrived at work this morning. I'm getting some seriously strange looks from my colleagues (hmm, maybe I should take it off rofl )

Haven't tried it on yet, haven't even taken it completely out of it's packaging yet but it looks pretty good. Acid test will of course be when I take it to the pool on Wednesday.

One thing i'm nervous about is the footpockets - they look way way way too small, ie, I had trouble putting my hand in there (I have small hands too). But I guess we'll see in the pool. Maybe nothing a lot of lube and a shot of Morphine can't fix.

Will post some photos up in the next few days....

 

[GirlOfWater]

Hey BennyB and congrats on your new mono!

I decided to wait a while with getting an advanced fin both because of the money and the fact that I need to do some training with my new (and first) WW too...

But I'm really interested in hearing how your fin works out and exactly how/where you ordered from Was it the Hyper or the Gipper fin you got? Please please put up some pictures! And you know if the foot pockets are really too small you can always send the fin to Norway instead. I wouldn't mind :t

Have fun and keep us updated,
Elisabeth

 

[X-Fins]

Benny, congrats !! finally you got it!!!

will be perfect to notice us how much increase your PB in the first attemps. Im shure will be about 15-20 % for the first training session, at least it's the range that we use to ear. Let us know !!!

Best regards, Luis

 

[OceanMan]

Very excited.
Can't wait for pictures/report about how it performs.
I want to know especially about the footpocket angle.

Hey ! Will you bring it at Chepstow? :friday

 

[BennyB]

Very excited.
Can't wait for pictures/report about how it performs.
I want to know especially about the footpocket angle.

Hey ! Will you bring it at Chepstow? :friday

Depends on whether I can get it on my foot or not.
Tried to last night. In a word, PAIN!!!!!
To be fair I only tried with a plastic bag, and got my foot in but couldn't quite get the strap over my heel. I think with some soap/water and some elbow grease I should be able to get it on, and keep it on for a minute or 2...

I don't think I could use my 1mm half-socks in there, simply not enough room.

As far as angle goes, the pockets seem to be on a reasonable angle as you can see from the attached photos. You can also see how tight it will be when I lined my toes up to the top of the footpocket... ouch!

 

[OceanMan]

Mmmm what is the footpocket size?
Maybe you should try without plastic bag as it takes some room. Soap/water is a good idea.

 

[BennyB]

I told him Euro 44 (UK 9.5). The footpocket has no size markings on it so not sure if this is what he actually put on.

I'll try it properly at training on Wednesday, I was just using the plastic bag at home so I wouldn't get soapy water all over the bed. I get enough grief from my wife about freedive-related mess :martial

 

[rafacuatic]

Ouch...big feet and small pockets.
I think that the only way to use it for long time freediving(not only 5 minutes) is to enlarge it......
Rafa

 

[X-Fins]

hi Benny I encourage you to use. First time it's hard but little by little you can do it. Not for hours as this kind of footpockets are really adjusted but probably in sessions of 15-20 minutes, take a rest or take bifins or your other mono and continue again with 15-20 minutes.

Use without half sock, when you get your first blister or damage, use the plastic bag while get better, finally you will have a stronger skin. Plenty of schampoo or soap, some ones use vaseline.

Go ahead.

ps: can you talk us something about the porosity of the rubber, are solid or soft (wings, footpockets..)

 

[PoseidonSv]

So how do i order a monofin it i like to use socks and have 42-43 in shoesize european seems like one needs to order a 46 size mono since finswimmwes likes to have supertight footpockets for monofin sprint swimming.

 

[jome]

Looks good, hope you get used to it though!

BTW, why is everyone so obsessed about putting socks in their monofins? You got like 1cm of porous rubber surrounding your foot, that's plenty enough to keep your feet warm...

In colder months, I just put the sock over the footpocket...

 

[Walrus]

RE: Winged / floating fin for CW

Hi Guys,
I've had a leaderfins Hyper for a couple of months and recently got the Hyper Proffesional, have tried both with dynamic and constant weight. The new floating winged fins do work really well for Constant Weight, (definitely a step up on something like a water way fin) although for really deep dives you are loosing a lot of the benefits of the fin. As Benny pointed out the benefits of the new fin are partly :-
1. blade angle and foot position ie (further back from blade).
2. Hydrodynamics of the fin, the wing and the front "toe extension" section

I had a look at the hyper Proffesional and at 20m it is mostly compressed and at 30m it is totally compressed. So basically with most of these fins by about 20-30m down it is no longer a winged fin and it also doesn't have the front "toe extension" section. So for a 40-50m diver you still have a lot of the hydrodynamics for half the dive. If you are a 60-100m diver really you don't have the wings for the majority of the dive. I guess the wing does help you on the hardest part of the descent but not on the glide, and really not on the ascent. The people I know that use the floating fins for CW still feel that they perform really well, I would say that it's mostly from the blade angle and foot position and not so much from the wings.

Between the Hyper and Hyper Pro i've tried both fins for constant weight and dynamic and I prefer the Hyper for CW and the Hyper Pro for dynamic. The Hyper is basically a solid rubber version of the Hyper Pro. It is also a lower cost option for those on a budget. The Hyper Pro is a floating fin ( around 1 to 1.5kg of +bouyancy), the Hyper is close to neutral, maybe a little sinky ( say around 0.5kg -bouyancy). Out of the Water the Hyper Pro weighs just under 3 kilos, the Hyper just under 4 kilos. I like the Hyper Proffesional much more then the Hyper, mostly because the footpockets are excellent. (They custom made them to fit my foot size and it is quite comfortable but excellent performance, no give at all, ie get close to %100 power transfer to the blade. You don't wear socks with this as it's a close fit to your foot.) Also for dynamics a floating fin is nicer. The footpockets on the Hyper are not as nice but still reasonably good. There is a little bit of give in the toe section but if you wear small front socks and pad this out it's pretty good. Having said that the Hyper fin is still great, you have most of the perfomance of the Hyper Pro except for the floating part of it. ( I did a 201m dynamic in competition with the Hyper). I prefer the Hyper for CW diving, it retains the wings and hydrodynamics on the whole dive. I notice that on the glide phase the Hyper is more stable, probably because of the wings. The fin is a little heavy but I actually like this as it also adds some stabillity to the glide. I love the footpockets on the Hyper Pro and wish the Hyper footpockets were as good. If I had the bucks I would be tempted to order a Hyper Pro and get them to put a solid rubber wing on instead of the floating wing. It would probably still be a floating fin because for them to make the footpocket & toe section out of 2 different materials may be difficult.

In short if you only had one fin to use for both constant weight and dynamic I would probably go with the floating type. The floating fins are really good for constant, but a non floating(non compressable) version of the same fin would be even better.


Cheers,
Wal

 

[OceanMan]

Very interesting post. It's becoming harder and harder to choose a fin...

One question: will repetitive deep dives eventually damage the floating rubber? We know for example that wetsuits lose some of their property after a couple of years because micro air bubles from the neoprene are gone because of compression/decompression cycles...
The floating rubber may lose some volume...

 

[BennyB]

Good question Mattias. I'm not sure if many people have had their winged fins long enough to be able to say. I would imagine there would be some long term compression issues just like neoprene, to what degree this affects the fin is anyone's guess. I'm also wondering what affect the continuous affect of compression would do to the glues and edges where the spongy rubbers all attach.

Agree with Jome entirely about the sock issue. I wear 1mm half socks with my Waterways mono because they stop the wear against my feet, plus they plug some of the extra space, if you can call it "extra". In the Nice comp in May I lost a sock the day before the CW comp so went sockless. Not only did it feel just as good in the water, it was a hell of a lot easier to put the mono on in the boat. Last month I dived in Chepstow quarry without socks, where it was 16 on the surface and 8 at depth and I didn't notice the cold.
I wouldn't dream of wearing socks with the new mono because there's simply no room. Maybe some plastic or something to protect my feet from rubbing, or just grin and bear it.

A freediving mate reminded me the other day - "it's only flesh after all"

 

[jome]

Great post Walrus! Answers alot of my doubts about the different types of Hyper.

About the socks, I use a method of trial and error. When I get a new fin, I take it out without any foot protection. I will soon find out the couple of spots where it really wears on the skin, usually the tips of some toes. Then I let it heal and on successive sessions put just a little piece of electric tape on that very spot...

I never really got the plastic bag thing, but I guess alot of fin swimmers swear by it...