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Monofin Purchase advice

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.
Mullins said:
Heh... just to add some more confusion, I find a Glide #2 to be too stiff for deep CWT dives. I'm getting a #1. I'm not going slowly either :t
Click to expand...

i'm sorry if i create some more confusion...
i was talking exclusively about my SPECIALFINS made monofin
it is possible that other brand have other stiffness at medium stifnes category; i don,t know yet
and i find my medium stifness blade to be not so stiff if i imagined just because i have strong legs [because i did speed-skating in my youth]
 
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Hi Mullins...thanks...my friend swears by a #3 glide and he sprints up from 91M CWT.

So, surely it seems that the variables are too great to be able to choose an ideal monofin without using and testing first. Ie. what works good for one may not be so good for another person.

you said you tried an MD1...what fin is that?
 
i can tell that my frediving instructor just purcease a GLIDE MONOFIN from WATERWAY and he said that it is a v good mono at a very good price!!!...only 270$
 
270 Euros for the Glide? that is about a 12% discount. :king

Still this is about 2.5x the price of the Nemo Wing...so the question is how much better is the Glide! I guess no way to really tell unless they are both tried out! :head
 
Spearo - yeah and Will uses a #4 - it's all over the place.

The MD1 is the basic, flat waterway fin. The blade is actually the same as the Glides but it has the flat glue-on footpockets. I see the wing is the same but with additional neoprene over the leading edge, so I suspect it'll perform similarly. In which case the glide is quite a step up.
 
The Wing HAS some angle of the footpocket, done through some padding inside. If I recall correctly the angle is about 12 degrees. Which is already a noticeable big improvement over the Classic fin. I tried Felicia's onewing fin in Rennes 2005.

The WaterWay Classic fin has 3 models, which relate to blade size. MD1 is the biggest blade, MD2 slightly smaller, and MD3 is really small - for children.

In relation to blade stiffness.
You can swim slow, medium and pretty fast with a soft fin.
You cannot swim comfortably slow with a hard fin.

If you're doing only CWT, take a medium or hard fin if you're heavy and your technique is not very good. If you're heavy and you push of at some deep turn, you may overpower your soft fin, resulting in you having the feeling you're wear a towel on your feet. I had this once with a Classis MD1 Long distance fin, 5mm suit at 40m. I corrected my technique and swam up nice and successfully. The trick was to have better technique and do not kick short and hard, but rather push applying the same energy spread over a longer time to the water.

Diving in cold water means that you wear more rubber, and weights and therefore are less buoyant at depth, in general needing a bit more stiffer fin to allow for strong start off kicks. - After a few kicks you're on speed and a soft fin is generally powerful enough thereafter.
 
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Don't make the assumption that blade stiffness has much to do with leg strength either. I can bend a #4 fin ok. The problem is that if I kick hard enough to do that, it means I'm travelling close to 2m/s. Getting a stiff fin might be ok in the short term but it's probably not going to do your technique much good.
 
Vali - correct me if wrong - but I think you are not using a hyperfin - but a fin with bifin footpockets. This is very different from a hyperfin in several ways.

Kars is absolutely right about stiffness - I love my Tropol - 19 degrees - quite stiff. I am also in love with my starfins - 29 degrees and soft.

Much better to go soft - better for technique - and more comfortable. Hard in the begining is likely to make you sloppy - and miserable.
 
What stiffness is your Starfin Fondueset? I got a #3 and I consider it a full-on sprint fin.

(stiffness should be etched into the middle of the blade, just above the trailing edge)
 
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Do the Leaderfin Hyper Pro have a stiffness stamped on the blade as well?
 
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Figures.

It was a custom made fin, individually designed for each athlete to ensure the optimum performance. After I had paid in full I asked the retailer what information he needed to get the blade, angle, stiffness and all the other parameters correct. He said: "How long is your foot"?

LOL :inlove
 

yes that's corect
this is an old picture of my monofin, before the footpocket was broken


and this is a picture after they repaired [they added an extra rubber elements on the blade]

i know that my mono is not a competitive one, but i-m happy because is far more lighter than the other types of footpokets monofins
 
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Watching these blades makes we want to test them all
 
Mullins - '4L' is what it appears to say. I can overpower it - but it seems pretty well balanced for me. It will let me swim quite slowly, but I can also sprint.
I have, for example, been able to take as long as 1'32 to do 75 yards (no weights, full lungs)

Thanks Vali - I did not think Specialfins made a hyperfin. For the question - Vali's type of fin - which the moulded pockets - would be the closest to mass produced - Leaderfins, Specialfins and Waterway all make these.

Alex at Starfins has told me he thinks his 'Simple' fins have better performance and they are around the same price. I have never tried the Waterway #1 or #2 type (aka 'simple')
 
There are roughly the following fin categories:

The "simple fin", no angle is called the 'classic'.
Fin with a small angle and wings (used for sprints), is called 'flyer'.
And the long distance, big angle and torpedo footpockets "glide", is called 'hyperfin'.

The 'scuba' footpocket fins, such as the Nemo, and Specialfins Monofin.
Monofins based on a non-bending propulsion area; 'Dolfin' and 'Lunocet', Hydrofoil fins.

I just went to the Specialfins site and I must say their hybrid pro monofin looks pretty nice. From the picture I garner it has a 15 degree footpocket angle. What I like is the light weight idea. I hope the footpockets give enough support though. Three years ago I tested one, and did like it, though I should have used a smaller footpocket fin to have better energy transfer. - I was using 5mm socks...
 
Reactions: ComputerBoy
Here's my two cents-I swam with Gara 3000 bi-fins for several months, then bought a Wings Nemo fin from Waterway (via PFI in Florida). The difference? night and day; totally completely different. The 3000's actually give pretty good speed for the effort, and the Nemo (a #2 stiffness or Medium) takes much more effort and revealed all the flaws in my form. This is even comparing a dolphin-kick style with both types. But, after working on and re-learning my form for two months, the Nemo feels about 3x as powerful and I feel I can go almost twice as fast, though in reality it is not quite that big a difference. The Nemo is just as comfortable as the Gara fins, though I'm wearing 3mm socks with them to get a good fit. The Nemo is way more fun to swim with as well. Bi-fins are far more tolerant of structural assymetry in your body-I have a slight degree of lateral curvature in my spine, and it made monofin technique a little more challenging to learn. It is an extremely well made fin, and feels incredibly sturdy for what it is. One thing that feels different to me: with the bi-fins I reach a maximum speed, a maximum amount of push, and the fins are bending a great deal and more force doesn't get me more speed just sore ankles. With the monofin, I always feel like I have another gear I can shift up to. Hard to explain, but I can be going really fast (for me) and still feel like the fin has much more potential. Nobody else in our community pool swims with a monofin, so it always attracts attention too. Makes me want to start a finswim club actually
hope that helps!
 
@Kars
Yes, I see the Speical Fins Hybrid pro: SpecialFins Monofins & fins for Freediving,Spearfishing,UW Games
Price: 359.00 EUR (430.80 EUR for EU members)

My initial thought is why so much? It cost more than the WaterWay Glide.

But this looks more comparable to the NemoWING monofin with a 12degree angle: Monofin «Feediver Nemo Wing» and the price of this is only $120 euros! 1/3rd the price

@NeuroDoc
I swam with the Cressi's also for a few months when I began then got the #3 nemo powerfins, which when put on i felt immediate improvement....never to touch thermoplastic fins again. I swear by my #3 nemos! This is why I'm considering the NemoWing or the Glide from waterway but not sure what to get
 
Neurodoc - it may interest you to know I have a blow disk at l5 s1 (2cm - the largest rupture the neurosurgeon had ever seend) I've treated it with Taiji, Yoga - and most lately and effectively - correct monofin technique.

FYI - I think the relatively shallow angle - 11 degrees on the nemo - is actually helpful for developing good form - fins like my starfins (29 degrees) or Tropol (19) are wonderful to swim with - but a bit more forgiving of poor form.
 
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@fondo....try Inversion Hanging also great for your L5 ..during the hang subtly tilt your pelvis back. Also can be done standing up straight and slightly rocking your pelvis back and up--moving only very subtly about 1 inch to get the pull of the lowest vertebrates...feeling between L5 and S1
 
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