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Advanced monofins
- Thread starterjome
- Start date
Thread Status: Hello
, There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
It can take a long time to get an up-to-date response or contact with relevant users.
It can take a long time to get an up-to-date response or contact with relevant users.
lets hope its not a case for the secatares and mr.toes.....:crutch
While your fin would fit beautifully, walking would be darn tricky without those big toes!
While your fin would fit beautifully, walking would be darn tricky without those big toes!
Ok, here's the first round review. In a nutshell- oh yeah baby, this fin's the goods 
Being a bit dubious that I would actually get the thing on at all, I soaped my feet up really well and to my surprise they slipped in like a glove, even easier than my Waterways fin. Once I got the strap over my heel they were very tight but not as bad as I was expecting. You definitely don't need mini-socks with this type of pocket. Once you're in the water for a bit, the soap washes out and your foot is effectively glued to the pocket (in fact it was almost harder to take it off than to put it on). Of course, this is not a recreational footpocket, straight away you can tell you won't have it on for too long, but I didn't buy this for recreation so that's fine with me.
Normally with my WW fin I would do a 50m lap in around 45 seconds, with my normal effort. After my first lap a guy commented that it was pretty fast, so I timed myself and using the same effort as my old fin I was doing consistent 35s laps. So roughly a 20% increase in speed for the same effort.
The fin is heavy at 3kg but very buoyant. You notice this as you move along - it is very easy to get your legs back into the downstroke position as the buoyancy helps lift your legs.
The other thing I was amazed at was the glide. I usually stop kicking when I see the "T" at the end of the pool and I slow down quite a bit before I turn. With the Kershkov I stopped kicking at the T and I ploughed straight into the wall at virtually the same speed. There is quite an angle on the footpockets, this is basically achieved by a huge piece of rubber underneath the foot that angles upwards. The noticeable difference with the angle when you fin along is that you don't slow down as much in between strokes if you are in the streamlined position (legs straight), The additional weight would help this as well.
After about 6-8 x 50m laps my feet were crying out in pain. This was a good 15 minutes after i'd put it on which isn't really that different to the Waterways, i'd get 20-25min out of it. Though when I took my WW off, my feet would be red on the top and on the outer side, when I took the Kershkov off they were purple all over. Difference is that the Kershkov hugs the feet equally all over, whereas the WW's tends to rub one or 2 parts of the foot.
I mentioned the footpockets to Kershkov when I gave him some feedback earlier and he just wrote back saying that they will get bigger the more I wear the fin, so this is encouraging.
Ten minutes rest later, I put the fin on again and did a very quick breath up and ended up doing an 80-90% effort, which normally I never would have done after doing half a dozen 50m laps. Seems to be a very energy efficient blade. Kept it on for about 15 min again before the pain got too bad. In my eyes 15 minutes for the first time wearing it is pretty decent.
So all in all i'm pretty damn happy with the fin, a remarkable difference to the older style. In a couple of weeks i'll have a go at a max and see how it compares with the old fin. I also head to Chepstow on the 12th so we'll see how it fares down to 40'ish.
I always keep in mind though that Peter Pederson was using the old style fin when he got his 200m world record, so I can't bash the old style too much. There's never a substitution for good old fashioned hard work. Though if I can buy myself a couple of extra metres....
Cheers,
Ben
Being a bit dubious that I would actually get the thing on at all, I soaped my feet up really well and to my surprise they slipped in like a glove, even easier than my Waterways fin. Once I got the strap over my heel they were very tight but not as bad as I was expecting. You definitely don't need mini-socks with this type of pocket. Once you're in the water for a bit, the soap washes out and your foot is effectively glued to the pocket (in fact it was almost harder to take it off than to put it on). Of course, this is not a recreational footpocket, straight away you can tell you won't have it on for too long, but I didn't buy this for recreation so that's fine with me.
Normally with my WW fin I would do a 50m lap in around 45 seconds, with my normal effort. After my first lap a guy commented that it was pretty fast, so I timed myself and using the same effort as my old fin I was doing consistent 35s laps. So roughly a 20% increase in speed for the same effort.
The fin is heavy at 3kg but very buoyant. You notice this as you move along - it is very easy to get your legs back into the downstroke position as the buoyancy helps lift your legs.
The other thing I was amazed at was the glide. I usually stop kicking when I see the "T" at the end of the pool and I slow down quite a bit before I turn. With the Kershkov I stopped kicking at the T and I ploughed straight into the wall at virtually the same speed. There is quite an angle on the footpockets, this is basically achieved by a huge piece of rubber underneath the foot that angles upwards. The noticeable difference with the angle when you fin along is that you don't slow down as much in between strokes if you are in the streamlined position (legs straight), The additional weight would help this as well.
After about 6-8 x 50m laps my feet were crying out in pain. This was a good 15 minutes after i'd put it on which isn't really that different to the Waterways, i'd get 20-25min out of it. Though when I took my WW off, my feet would be red on the top and on the outer side, when I took the Kershkov off they were purple all over. Difference is that the Kershkov hugs the feet equally all over, whereas the WW's tends to rub one or 2 parts of the foot.
I mentioned the footpockets to Kershkov when I gave him some feedback earlier and he just wrote back saying that they will get bigger the more I wear the fin, so this is encouraging.
Ten minutes rest later, I put the fin on again and did a very quick breath up and ended up doing an 80-90% effort, which normally I never would have done after doing half a dozen 50m laps. Seems to be a very energy efficient blade. Kept it on for about 15 min again before the pain got too bad. In my eyes 15 minutes for the first time wearing it is pretty decent.
So all in all i'm pretty damn happy with the fin, a remarkable difference to the older style. In a couple of weeks i'll have a go at a max and see how it compares with the old fin. I also head to Chepstow on the 12th so we'll see how it fares down to 40'ish.
I always keep in mind though that Peter Pederson was using the old style fin when he got his 200m world record, so I can't bash the old style too much. There's never a substitution for good old fashioned hard work. Though if I can buy myself a couple of extra metres....
Cheers,
Ben
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Hi Benny, thanks for the picture..relly good you get improvements in your PB.
In the photo you can see a way to protect the corners of your mono. As freedivers use to make turns very near of the roof of the pool usually one corner get shocks against the roof. I hope help you to maintain your mono as new for long time. Best regards, Luis
In the photo you can see a way to protect the corners of your mono. As freedivers use to make turns very near of the roof of the pool usually one corner get shocks against the roof. I hope help you to maintain your mono as new for long time. Best regards, Luis
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BennyB said:
It's a good point and given the fins are constructed from closed cell foams and rubbers I would expect over time they will loose their shape, just as a wetsuit does. For that reason I would not use an expensive floating fin for CW dives and would go for a solid rubber profile like the Hyper.
Thanks for the tip Luis - is that just some kind of tape?
Apnelia - It took about a month end to end (order, manufacture, post), but I think I got him at a good time. Sometimes they are backed up with orders. I sent an email to the russian Hyperfin people about a month ago and got no reply, maybe they're hard to get in touch with. I think there's been a lot of Finswimming activity in the last month so maybe they're busy with that too. Keep emailing the Polyorg guy, i've heard he's a nice guy but things are slow there.
Cheers,
Ben
Apnelia - It took about a month end to end (order, manufacture, post), but I think I got him at a good time. Sometimes they are backed up with orders. I sent an email to the russian Hyperfin people about a month ago and got no reply, maybe they're hard to get in touch with. I think there's been a lot of Finswimming activity in the last month so maybe they're busy with that too. Keep emailing the Polyorg guy, i've heard he's a nice guy but things are slow there.
Cheers,
Ben
I took the fin out for a constant weight dive on the weekend, in summary it's not quite the bee's knees it is in the pool. It's still very good, don't get me wrong but it's definitely better in the pool than it is in the ocean.
The first 5-8m were a bit harder given all the additional bouyancy (very positive at 5m) then it settled down into a smoother ride. I started gliding at 18m which is quite a bit earlier for me, I usually glide at around 25-33m. Off the bottom at 42m it took a couple of kicks to get things going again, the blade felt a little soft but not too bad. Once again kicked smoothly up to about 30m then eased off the strokes and at around 15m I think I gave one more kick and then stopped altogether. Met my safety guys who promptly sank below me trying to keep up (didn't feel like I was going fast) then in the last 5m I got a bit more speed as the fin got it's full bouyancy back. The dive profile shows the ascent was a lot quicker than the descent, a couple of the guys said I was rocketing back to the surface though like I said it didn't feel like I was going quick. The total dive time for 42m was 1:20.
One of the other guys who had a WW Glide tried it and had a similar opinion, that it wasn't the best CW fin around. He thought his Glide was better in depth.
After thinking about it for a bit now i'd like to give it a few more tries, I think it's just a matter of getting used to the different styles of finning and the bouyancy changes. Not particularly keen on dragging 2 fins around with me everywhere.
Cheers,
Ben
The first 5-8m were a bit harder given all the additional bouyancy (very positive at 5m) then it settled down into a smoother ride. I started gliding at 18m which is quite a bit earlier for me, I usually glide at around 25-33m. Off the bottom at 42m it took a couple of kicks to get things going again, the blade felt a little soft but not too bad. Once again kicked smoothly up to about 30m then eased off the strokes and at around 15m I think I gave one more kick and then stopped altogether. Met my safety guys who promptly sank below me trying to keep up (didn't feel like I was going fast) then in the last 5m I got a bit more speed as the fin got it's full bouyancy back. The dive profile shows the ascent was a lot quicker than the descent, a couple of the guys said I was rocketing back to the surface though like I said it didn't feel like I was going quick. The total dive time for 42m was 1:20.
One of the other guys who had a WW Glide tried it and had a similar opinion, that it wasn't the best CW fin around. He thought his Glide was better in depth.
After thinking about it for a bit now i'd like to give it a few more tries, I think it's just a matter of getting used to the different styles of finning and the bouyancy changes. Not particularly keen on dragging 2 fins around with me everywhere.
Cheers,
Ben
Attachments
These are very interesting posts, it seems like the Andronov type of fins really gives a bit of help to us freedivers
Concerning the category of the "leaderfins flyer" type of fins i would like to know if some people have experience with the Waterway "One Wing".
It seems that Weine Gustavsson was using one at this year's Nordic deep competition. And if i remember right, Guillaume Néry was also using one at the Nice AIDA Open this year (spotted the fin on video, but can't get a hand on it, seems like the cipa site is down )
I'm more interested in these kind of fins, since it seems to me that the Andronov type ones are a bit heavy and perhaps it's harder to change direction with them. But I am only guessing around.
So is there anyone having experience with the One Wing, or even better, who can point out differences between it and the andronov type (more on the underwater behaviour than on the technical side)?
Cheers,
Christophe
Concerning the category of the "leaderfins flyer" type of fins i would like to know if some people have experience with the Waterway "One Wing".
It seems that Weine Gustavsson was using one at this year's Nordic deep competition. And if i remember right, Guillaume Néry was also using one at the Nice AIDA Open this year (spotted the fin on video, but can't get a hand on it, seems like the cipa site is down
)I'm more interested in these kind of fins, since it seems to me that the Andronov type ones are a bit heavy and perhaps it's harder to change direction with them. But I am only guessing around.
So is there anyone having experience with the One Wing, or even better, who can point out differences between it and the andronov type (more on the underwater behaviour than on the technical side)?
Cheers,
Christophe
Hello Folks,
I was able to try out an WW Glide fin in Sweden.
Regretfully the footpockect's were a bit too big, and the blade (LD) to soft.
Currently I thinking about ordering some seperate blades and footpockets and building my own angled ww monofin solution. A fin with the stability of a wing, the angle of a glide, with good fitting footpockets but without the boiancy difference. And probably cheeper too.
It's going to be probably a fall or winter project.
Maybe WW or other companies will take note of this tread and try to devellop the ultimate freediving monofin?
Anyway keep up the posts and info, thank you!
Kars
I was able to try out an WW Glide fin in Sweden.
Regretfully the footpockect's were a bit too big, and the blade (LD) to soft.
Currently I thinking about ordering some seperate blades and footpockets and building my own angled ww monofin solution. A fin with the stability of a wing, the angle of a glide, with good fitting footpockets but without the boiancy difference. And probably cheeper too.
It's going to be probably a fall or winter project.
Maybe WW or other companies will take note of this tread and try to devellop the ultimate freediving monofin?
Anyway keep up the posts and info, thank you!
Kars
Hi Jon,
In answer to your first question, absolutely not. Although mine is getting better, it's definitely not a recreational footpocket. I could only suggest if you get one too big it will feel comfortable but will probably squelch around. As it is, I now consider mine to be very well fitting and I can only keep it on for about 20 minutes.
Second question - can't help you, though mine came from the Ukraine in about a week, it was damn quick. Cost about 40 euro to send.
Cheers,
Ben
In answer to your first question, absolutely not. Although mine is getting better, it's definitely not a recreational footpocket. I could only suggest if you get one too big it will feel comfortable but will probably squelch around. As it is, I now consider mine to be very well fitting and I can only keep it on for about 20 minutes.
Second question - can't help you, though mine came from the Ukraine in about a week, it was damn quick. Cost about 40 euro to send.
Cheers,
Ben
Hi guys,
I know you touched on the issue of buoyancy earlier in the thread but I was wondering if anyone out there with a new "russian-type" fin (ie WW Glide, Kershkov, Andronov or Hyperfin) has had to adjust their weight for CW?
I have the WW Glide and found on my first CW outing that I was very buoyant down to roughly 20m (didn't exactly measure neutral buoyancy but should have) then nice and steady on the glide phase BUT quite heavy at the beginning of the ascent - In fact I noticed extra effort was needed to get off the bottom until I got a good rythmn going. Previously I was using WW classic 1 model.
So I am wondering if it is better to lose the weightbelt altogether, spend extra effort on the first part of the descent and enjoy a good glide and an easier ascent?
Anyone experimented with this?
Theo.
I know you touched on the issue of buoyancy earlier in the thread but I was wondering if anyone out there with a new "russian-type" fin (ie WW Glide, Kershkov, Andronov or Hyperfin) has had to adjust their weight for CW?
I have the WW Glide and found on my first CW outing that I was very buoyant down to roughly 20m (didn't exactly measure neutral buoyancy but should have) then nice and steady on the glide phase BUT quite heavy at the beginning of the ascent - In fact I noticed extra effort was needed to get off the bottom until I got a good rythmn going. Previously I was using WW classic 1 model.
So I am wondering if it is better to lose the weightbelt altogether, spend extra effort on the first part of the descent and enjoy a good glide and an easier ascent?
Anyone experimented with this?
Theo.
Maybe a solid rubber wings type mono is best suitable for CW for no wasting energy,like no compresion suits.I am using one and is perfect in all deeps.
Rafa
Rafa