Here is a small review for my starfins hyper. It is a custom made hyper for me and here are my thoughts of it.
I have tried a number of monofins and owned a 30-degree angle waterway glide.
So first, the fit.
I sent pictures of my feet and some measured data and yes, this monofin fits very well. Even though it is new I wore it one hour in pool. After that, my feet weren’t too sore and I was able to walk without too many problems. So I would give full points for fit.
Next, the blade.
As I said earlier, Alexandr must be some sort of wizard because there is definitely some magic in this department. The blade is stiffish, I would say medium or medium plus. At least it is way stiffer than leader hyper medium and WW #2. But the stiffness is not the thing by which I would evaluate this thing. I am a pretty well built guy, I weigh over 90kg and I have enough power to use a bit stiffer monofins too but the real catch is how the blade works.
The blade has a slow rebound unlike any other monofin I have tried before. The WW glide had a snappy response and I always felt that it would propel me no matter what technique I use. Starfins is a totally different beast all together. This fin makes you use proper form while diving because fast kicking just doesn't work. The style is nice round movements, sort of whale like style. This way I even have good grip on the water for the up kick too. I just love the blade on this one, it makes swimming easy and efficient.
It also really moves me forward. With Glide I used kick and glide with kick-kick-glide style. It took me three sets to get 25m and the time was 25-30 seconds. With this the natural way seems to be kick-kick-kick-glide. Now I only need two sets of these and 20-25 seconds per 25m. When I get my technique down, I bet that I can drop the third kick from my set and glide more.
Now to the gliding in water-part.
This is in fact my second Starfins hyper. The blade was the same on both and the only difference being blade angle. The first one had about 18-20 degrees angle and while it was very easy and logical to swim with, it just didn't glide. My ankles are not that flexible. The second one has about 25 degrees of angle and this seems to be a happy medium for me. The 30-degree WW was and still is very good but a very big angle makes the monofin seem numb and hard to manoeuvre. This 25 degree one is a tiny bit more difficult to swim with but I glide in the water with it and this seems to be working with me. On CWT the whole angle thing is not that important but in DYN it plays a big role. What I try to say here is that my ankles and me feel comfortable in this one.
Quality is also there so no problems in that department.
I like this monofin a lot. It feels precise and really propels me well. Also my friends who have tried it liked it very much. It is a very very very nice monofin for free diving. Alexandra takes the guesswork out of the ordering process. He is really good in making comfortable monofins and the blades a just awesome. And a really huge positive factor is that if something goes wrong, he will do everything he can to help you.
Dino
Truthfully most of the long dives are not much below 6-8 c - after that the fish all go away.
