Russian Monofins

what size are your feet?

Eric- what size are your feet? Maybe I could take one off your hands? I am a 7.5.
Jim

what features?

Eric F.,

What should we be looking for in a monofin? I mean how stiff or wide should it be for freediving and not just finswimming?
Which of the models looks to be the best for constant ballast?

Jon

Monofin Nightmare

STOP WAIT, TAKE ME OFF THAT ORDER LIST!

I just recieved email from Igor from russia and the "Wing" and "Egoist" are $600 not $50.

It must be the other company that is $50.

So I'm still interested but I'll have to save my pennies.


They also said a medium stiffness is the best for Apnea diving.



DSV

Topi has tested it

Mr Nitch used this kind of mono when doing his 181m dynamic.
You can find pictures www.freediving.at , I was not able to copy a direct link to pictures, because the pages are so complex design.

There is more pictures in our site www.saunalahti.fi/~akivioja/fdtf/pages/sebak_monofins_2.html where I put some comments. Click the pictures to zoom it.
This version is not so good looking as in Skate site, maybe this is an early proto or a clone?

Topi (Peter knows him) has tested a Skate mono about 2 weeks ago. He liked it, maybe this mono was the wing model. He had a possibility to try couple of monos, but only one was enough flexible for freediving (even Topi likes stiff fins).
The fin is unbelievably heavy, but it still floats on water, I am not sure about the shape, does it change when diving constant. There might be neoprene or something soft inside the stuffings.

As you can see from the picture I attached in my previous mail, the footpockets are full (the picture is really from up), but the pockets open from back, so you can not stand with this mono, you must keep your ankles stretched.

About the price, I have heard 600$ is close. Every fin is totally hand made from thin pieces of rubber sheet, and a tapered glassfiber blade.
It takes about a week to build one fin.

Well $600 is too rich for me in this little experiment. Eric, what size are your feet? (or is that too personal a question? ).

Hmm....$600 is too steep. But I emailed the other website and we can see what they can do. In the meantime I couldn't find a pick but here are some specifics that I copied off the website. Maybe we can do a group order of the Elite fins. Eric if you can provide any insight into sizing/stiffness we could sure use your expertise.

NAME Blade size (cm) Boots size
SKATE-Baby 57x50 S, M
SKATE-Mini 59x52 S, M, L
SKATE-Junior 62x56 M, L, XL
SKATE-Leader 65x58 M, L, XL
SKATE-Elite 67x60 M, L, XL
SKATE-Champion 68x62 M, L, XL

RECOMMENDATION
on the rigidity of blade choice
Rigidity Distance (meters)
2,5 (regular) 1500-5000
3,0 (regular) 800-1500
3,5 (stiff) 400-800
4,0 (stiff) 200-400
4,5 (stiff) 200-400
5,0 (stiff) 100-200
5,5 (stiff) 50-100

PRICE-LIST

NAME Regular Stiff
SKATE-Baby $39 -
SKATE-Mini $51 $59
SKATE-Junior $59 $69
SKATE-Leader $64 $74
SKATE-Elite $79 $89
SKATE-Champion $89 $99

RECOMMENDATION
on the type of fins choice

Bi - fins for speed swimming, freediving and spearfishing
BABY - monofins for children of 7 - 12
MINI - monofins for children of 9 - 13
JUNIOR - training monofins for novices
LEADER - training monofins for athletes and amateurs
ELITE - starting monofins for athletes and amateurs
CHAMPION - starting monofins for high class athletes

PS-Eric please don't tell me you are broke right now, you are disturbing my long running fantasy that World Champion class freedivers have a gajillion dollars and lounge around on the beach and play in the water all day.

Teppo's opinion

Teppo- I just read through your site- really nice comparison of prototypes. What is your opinion about the kind of mono we as freedivers should be considering? Thanks,
Jim

Eric's Monofin Stock

Working from memory, here is my monofin stock: (stiffness numbers in brackets refer to the stiffness of the fin on the mat-mas carbon scale)

Finis Tapered Competitor (old style footpocket) sz 10-12 (#12)
Finis Experimental Carbon (old style footpocket) sz 10-12 (#3)
Finis Carbon Competitor (broken old style footpocket) sz 10-12 (#8)
Finis Chinese Blade (new style footpocket) sz 10-12 (#9.25) <- My treasured irreplaceable fin!
Breier Brut S1 w/Brut footpocket sz 11-13 (#14)
Breier Brut S2 w/Brut footpocket sz 11-13 (#14)
Breier Brut DF1 w/Finis new-style footpocket & rails, sz 9-10 (#9.5)
Breier Brut DF2 w/Finis new-style footpocket & rails, sz 10-12 (#9.5) <- Erik Y. used this at Canadian regionals
Mat-Mas Reverse Carbon #10 Blade only
Mat-Mas Reverse Carbon #9 w/Finis new style footpocket sz 10-12
Mat-Mas Reverse Fiberglass #12* Blade only
Mat-Mas Straight Fiberglass #12* Blade only
Mat-Mas Straight Fiberglass #9* (?? did I lend this out?)
Mat-Mas Reverse Carbon #14 w/ Mat-Mas Black (soft) footpocket 42-44
Mat-Mas Reverse Carbon #18 w/ Mat-Mas green (medium) footpocket + rails 42-44
Mat-Mas Reverse Carbon #18 Blade only

I also have a 'stock' of several new-style Finis footpockets and Mat-Mas footpockets.
However, packing a monofin up to ship is such a big job and I have so little time that I'm not likely to 'ship' fins to the other side of the world for a few dollars.

Ideal stiffness for diving is #7-#14, depending on your body mass, and weight belt setup etc... I like #8-#10.

*for fiberglass Mat-Mas fins, convert to the carbon stiffness scale by subtracting 1. i.e. #9 fiberglass = #8 carbon.


Eric Fattah
BC, Canada

Eric,

I'm keeping your list of fins for the next time my wife tells me that my 3 pair are too many (and, of course, I will not point out to her that you set world records and things like that).

Scott

Re: Eric's Monofin Stock

Eric, buddy, pal... I'm in Burnaby and you're in Coquitlam (I believe) so shipping shouldn't be an issue. :t And you appear to be about the same foot size as I am (11.5). What a happy co-incidence. I'd love to try out a monofin sometime, if you're agreeable to that? Assuming that you are actually looking to deplete your stock, and I find the experience agreeable, then perhaps we can work out a deal?

opinions

I have some opinions, but they are my personal opinions. I have found that there is many people who don't agree with me.
There is also another thread http://forums.deeperblue.net/showthread.php?threadid=16669
from where you can find my comments. Last summer my problem was that it was difficult to find footpockets enough big for my feet + 5mm neoprene sock. Even I don't have very big feet (size 45 in european standards). So I bought Omer footpockets (size 46-48) and went with them to Sebak. I said to them that do a mono to these footpockets. Later I have seen that mat-mas also has enough big footpockets. Also Eric said Finis makes big footpockets as well.

Because the blade bends down in bi-fins, we decided to use this angle in the construction. This is the feature i like, and I can see Skate has started to build angled monos. The problem in my mono is that the blade starts from the toes, so it would be better to move the blade backwards about 7-10cm (nearer the heel). But the development process still continues with Sebak, next wednesday they will come to Helsinki with some new prototypes.

About the stiffness, in constant the blade must be quite stiff. In dynamic I have previously said I like more flexible blade, but I am not sure anymore, if there is an angle, even a quite stiff blade works fine in dynamic. And I have heard Sebastian Murat used quite soft mono when he did his 191m dynamic.

The very hard blades meant for speed diving sprints are too stiff even for constant.

/teppo