HI Trux,
I don't know what happend, but I made a lengthy post about my preferences and monofin idea's and suddenly the page changed, and gone was the messageboard??
Anyway I made the following post, which I've emailed them. I hope they and you appreciate my input
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Dear Manufacturer Tropol,
First I want to express my gratitude of your venture into starting building high quality monofins, especially taking into account the whishes of a growing group of freedivers who you understand have different requierments and whishes.
On the forum on the website
www.deeperblue.com there numerous topics concerning monofins. There are many practical discoussions and experiments done amoungst freedivers to improve and find the best or a better fin.
Like the following tread:
http://forums.deeperblue.com/monofins/75538-waterway-glide-vs-leaderfins-hyper-5.html#post732769
1#
I happen to be a happy owner of a Hyperfins.ru monofin, this one is made with a 30 degree angle. Indeed it allows me to GLIDE further with speed.
In dynamic this feature allows:
Strait legs and more distance while gliding,
More efficient stroke, containing an good upstroke too.
Easyer learning the monofin stroke.
Diving Deep, 30 degrees helps in the following ways:
Better stroke = more speed = deeper dive and less narcosis for the deep guys.
30 degrees helps to increase the GLIDESPEED tremendously!
Exemple, when a diver is going down to say 60 meters, of that 30m or more will be falling down. A big speeddifference thanks to an improved hydrodynamics while staying in a relaxed posture.
I consider my ankels to be resonalbly flexible (more than most freediver's) and have tried many monofins, with various angles, from 0, 12, 15, and 30 degrees. The fin with 30 degree remains -by far- my favourite.
Off cause there are many other points that make up a good fin:
My ideal monofin has:
Responsive blade,
30 degree footangle,
Has close fitting, evenly load spreading, right and left foot specific, not so flexible footpockets.
No boyancy change at depth, nutral boyancy, maybe a bit boyand (for dynamic).
Durable quality.
Not too much mass.
Consistant quality. - so you can order the same fin a few year later and have the same fin stiffness etc. Also I I try a fin and like it and order the same, I know I'll get the same fin.
As for looks,
Blade and rubber colours following the wetsuit manufactures' colours: Black, silver, blue, gold, green, red etc.
About pricing:
I now recomment beginners to buy a -cheap- Waterway Classic fin costing arroud E130,-
When they know and love the monofin, I recomment a 'professional' andronov/hyperfin model WITH a 30 degree angle, costing now about E400,- A 'big' price jump.
At the moment my whish would be to be able to recomment a simple beginners model, costing arround E180,- without wings, open heels, but with a 30 degree footpocket.
The Top E 350,- model would have all the advanced features, like footspecific footpockets, wings, colours, heels, more bladestifness choices, etc.
Since there are no fins in between the 150 and the 400 pricerange, your Beginners E180 model with 30 degree blade-angle could be VERY succesfull!
2#
About your second question: the construction of the footpocked.
I like the round and ergonomic appearance.
I don't mind the hollows when the are filled up with some lightweight non-compresseble foam.
Having the blade starting half way seems right and nice in line with the legs and body.
For me a good footpocked has the following key features:
- close fit with not flexible rubber for a efficient energy transfer.
- foot specific (left right shaped to avoid a painfull Big toe)
- riged heals, for clean power transfer to the blade and offloading the footsole muscles.
- soft (thiner) rubber edge (1-1,5cm) on top of the foot for easy acces and comfirtable fit.
(simiral to Mares Plana avanti closed heals fins, and Cressi Garra 2000HF fins)
- A patch of hard neoprene inside the footpocked (like the WW Classic) to provide a good workload spreading to a wider variety of different foot shapes (flat/high arching etc.)
- holes at the end to let the air escape when putting on the fin.
- low overall mass, means less enertia energy is used moving the fin.
Well thanks for your inquiery, I'm looking forward to your new products your kind and helpfull chech freedivers carry arround for anybody to try!
Love, Courage and Water,
Kars
PS1, Perhabs it's better to post all the questions at once, since it's easier to awser them al in one go.
PS2, I also tried your fin for a few laps in Sweden, my observations are here:
http://forums.deeperblue.com/734866-post4.html
PS3, I tried to post this on your messageboard but it didn't work?
