Extreme Dolfinism G2

[REVAN]

It would appear that I need to redo the video above. Due to my background music choice, Youtube is restricting viewing in 244 countries. Seeing as how there are fewer than 200 countries on planet Earth, I'm guessing that no one can see it here, or on the moon. The list of restrictions is so long that I cannot even see the whole list. Past letter 'S' is off screen with no way to scroll down on the display. So, if anyone can see the video please let me know. It's too bad, because I thought it was pretty nice and entertaining.

 

[Stephan Whelan]

Sadly I can't see it @REVAN

 

[Apneaddict]

Worked for me.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[REVAN]

Well, I haven't been able to find any good music that I like as well as the original ("Heaven Can Wait" by Meatloaf). Here is the video before I had added any music.



PS - If you have the song, start it coincident with the start of the video. It's nice.

 

[REVAN]

This is a good video for short attention spans (and I did the music myself, so no distribution issues):

 

[Philip Fennell]

It is a combination of longer, and stiffer plus streamlining. The Orca2 has a solid aluminum foot plate that does not flex and has excellent power transfer compared to cycling shoes. The suspension system for the fin is different from your X-18 as well, but I think the others are the main contributors.

@REVAN I noticed in the first video that the trailing edge of the Orca2 is different, the fin is deeper, compared to the Pilot and any previous pictures of the Orca2 that I've seen. Is that a recent enhancement?

 

[Philip Fennell]

This is a good video for short attention spans (and I did the music myself, so no distribution issues):

@REVAN I just noticed something cool in this video; the way you executed the role before returning to the surface... it was quite neat. You brought the fin to about 90 degrees to you legs and then rolled with ease because the leading edge was perpendicular to the axis of the roll. I'm going to have to try that out this weekend. Nice, thanks!

 

[REVAN]

@REVAN I noticed in the first video that the trailing edge of the Orca2 is different, the fin is deeper, compared to the Pilot and any previous pictures of the Orca2 that I've seen. Is that a recent enhancement?

I almost never swim with a stock DOL-Fin product. When I get something I like a lot and I've got a lot of time on it, it turns into a stock product, and then I start swimming with something different to start testing things that might become the next stock product if I like it well enough. That was not the only non-standard thing about that fin. It had a different internal frame also and lacked the float structure of the stock Orca2. I'm always testing new ideas just to see if they lead anywhere.

This fin blade is one of those "something different" changes. I dove the first half of the trip with the stock fin, then swapped fin blades for the second half of the trip to compare differences. I'll use this modified fin blade sometimes and see where it goes, but so far, I haven't been able to determine any real advantage over the stock fin blade. It may just be an expensive modification with no advantages. Then again, maybe I just have not done a detailed enough test to see the difference. The better the fins become, the harder it gets to detect improvements. So, far, my pool and ocean swimming says they are equivalent, but I haven't done any serious training with it yet either.

 

[REVAN]

More from the Bahamas:

 

[REVAN]

I was traveling when the news broke of Natalia Molchanova missing at sea. As a result, I got the news rather late, not hearing of it until the 5th. It is all so tragic, and now that it has had time to set in, I find myself reflecting on the significant role she played in helping to launch the DOL-Fins with this one dive she performed in 2010.



At that time, the world record was 224m, and this dive was so very close to that WR in total distance covered.

Natalia, with Ashley Chapman and myself, at the 2012 Team World Championships, just before my National Record Dynamic. This was one of the best times of my life.

Since this photo was taken, I've lost Nick Mevoli and now Natalia Molchanova, both of them friends from that 2012 Team W.C. competition. It's very sad and sobering.

R.I.P. my friends.

 

[REVAN]

I had the opportunity to dive a front mount O2 rebreather with the Orca2. It worked surprisingly well and there was good synergy between the two pieces of equipment, and it was pretty fast in the water compared to regular scuba.

The front mount system actually allows for maintaining the traditional monofin core undulation, whereas traditional recreational scuba with a back mount tank breaks that, forcing a kick that is more a squatting motion and not as streamline.

It was a lot of fun to try out the front mount system, and I'd estimate I was cruising somewhere in the 2 to 3 knot speed range. After trying it, I'd kinda like to find a front mount rebreather to add to my arsenal of diving equipment. On the other hand, maybe I could just build one - Hahaha!

 

[HydroApprentice]

Sounds awesome, I'd love to see pictures of that in action [emoji16]

 

[REVAN]

Sounds awesome, I'd love to see pictures of that in action [emoji16]

Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera rig with me to film it when this opportunity came up. Maybe next time....

 

[REVAN]

I finally got back to a little actual Dynamic training the other day. I had been feeling guilty and lazy that I wasn't keeping up with any apnea training. I'm always in the pool by myself and have no safety. The Natalia incident took much of the guilt away and made me feel much better about restricting myself to technique training only. If it can happen to her, it can happen to anyone, so please don't train apnea without an appropriate safety. Thanks to the good folks at the California Cup, I got to work deep into the diaphragm contractions again.

 

[Philip Fennell]

I finally got back to a little actual Dynamic training the other day. I had been feeling guilty and lazy that I wasn't keeping up with any apnea training. I'm always in the pool by myself and have no safety. The Natalia incident took much of the guilt away and made me feel much better about the restricting myself to technique training only. If it can happen to her, it can happen to anyone, so please don't train apnea without an appropriate safety. Thanks to the good folks at the California Cup, I got to work deep into the diaphragm contractions again.

View attachment 41257

@REVAN whenever I see a picture, or video, of someone using the Orca I'm always taken by how much of an extension to the diver it is rather than looking like merely an add-on.

After a somewhat lazy summer, largely waiting for my Elios suit, I'll be cranking-up my training.

One of my club mates tried-out my Pilot the other night. Early days for him and monofins but the first things he noticed was the low drag, which he thought was good, and despite is observations on the proportions of the fin thought it a bit 'thin' he was surprised by the good turn of speed I could get out of it.

 

[REVAN]

Though be it at a somewhat slow pace, the work continues here at Smith Aerospace Corp. I had tried to get this prototype done before my last trip away from home, but didn't quite make it. Now that I'm back, I have completed this functioning prototype for adding modular floats to the DOL-Fin Pilot2 monofin. As you can see below, it indeed floats.

The swimming performance of this prototype seemed completely nominal in the initial few swimming laps, but more thorough testing is needed before locking in a design for production. So, this is all preliminary, but it illustrates one way to make the Pilot2 buoyant if it becomes a priority for surface posture, or for head-down stability in a deep freefall. Someone who starts with a Pilot2 may opt for a small incremental step when moving from recreational diving, which favors a negative fin, to CWT line diving, which favors a buoyant fin, before needing to commit the funds to step up to the Orca2 monofin for competition diving.

 

[cdavis]

Ron, are those pics taken before a swim session, so that the shoes are still dry, or taken after using the fin in the water for long enough to get thoroughly wet?

The non compressible foam I added to my x18 makes it float higher than the pilot above(when the shoes are dry)but lower when the shoes are wet. I found it about perfect for lying flat on the surface in salt water, no wetsuit, or for vertical descents, but a little too buoyant in the pool, especially going slow.

 

[REVAN]

Ron, are those pics taken before a swim session, so that the shoes are still dry, or taken after using the fin in the water for long enough to get thoroughly wet?

The non compressible foam I added to my x18 makes it float higher than the pilot above(when the shoes are dry)but lower when the shoes are wet. I found it about perfect for lying flat on the surface in salt water, no wetsuit, or for vertical descents, but a little too buoyant in the pool, especially going slow.

The pics were before the swim, so the heels of the shoes (the parts above the waterline) were mostly dry, except for whatever wicking took place in the foam and fabric. When fully wet, it floats slightly lower in the water, but keep in mind this is not the ocean. Holding it underwater in the pool, it feels like about 1/3 to 1/2 pound positive buoyancy.

One nice thing I should mention about this design, it does not require any modifications to the Pilot2 or drilling new holes in the frame to attach the floats. It is a true plug-and-play design.

 

[HydroApprentice]

Nice idea with slowly expanding the capabilities of the pilot [emoji4] Any chance it can be retrofitted to the X-20? [emoji16]

 

[REVAN]

Nice idea with slowly expanding the capabilities of the pilot [emoji4] Any chance it can be retrofitted to the X-20? [emoji16]

I have a float design for the X-20, but that design does require drilling some holes in the frame to mount the floats. Let me know if you are interested in purchasing X-20 floats. It is a special construction, and not something that I have advertised on the website, but it is available.