Waterway Glide LD (long distance) monofin review

[TRITON]

OK....we've seen many monofins in reviews and heard a lot of opinions about various monofins ...
I'm planning to buy a new monofin that I want to use for DYN,CWT and I was convinced that Waterway Glide Medium stiffnes was the right choice for me...untill now.As I understood from this thread the best style for W.glide is one stroke and a long glide and etc.And also I see that many of you aren't so satisfied with the glide model.So I would like to hear some opinions on what monofin to buy that is good for CWT and DYN.I have normal legs in terms of strenght so I supose that medium stiffnes is the right choice whatever fin I buy.Here's the mono that i'm using now.It's custom made and I bought it from some guy in Ukraine.

 

[ADR]

Hi Triton,

While kick-glide and kick-kick-glide are valid monofin techniques for apnea, they are not the only way. Don't forget that the first man hit the 200m mark in the AIDA record book was Peter P (Mr monofin) and he has a more classical/traditional stye.

A Waterway Model 2 is a great multipupose fin for freediving. It is only really once you start to get specific about a fin for dynamic versus a fin for CW that the more expensive options really come into their own.

Andy

 

[SnuFPunK]

just to make things clear, is this what your on about ?

 

[Kars]

Yes SnufPunk, that's what I mean with folding. Great picture.
When 'm down in deep waters, and very negative I hate it when folding happens in my first strokes upward as I try to get a decent speed upwards.

Also after the turn in the pool, same thing. This I why I prefere medium stiffness. When folding occurs to me it's feeling as a great loss of thrust; the 'towel dragging feeling' I nicknamed it.

Again great picture!

Kars

 

[ADR]

Great picture and I've added to it to explain what I think are the problems.

Black line:- as the fin loads the tips flex up creating a V fold in the fin. The tips can now only apply a force at an angle to the direction of travel and this is inefficient(see arrows). My fin is a lot worse than yours in terms of the amount of fold and as the fold increases so does the force off the axis of travel.

....but it gets worse

Green line: - As the fold increases so does the rigidity along the axis of the green line. You can check this yourself with a piece of paper to see what I mean. This means my fin does not bend much at all along the green line and the wonderful tapering in the blade layers becomes irrelevant as the fin is straight along this line rather than a nice progressive bend.

....but there is more

Brown line: - The fin is at this point fully loaded and must bend somewhere so it bends at the footpocket junction instead and then is dead straight without flex along the green line with the tips folding up along the black line...

 

[Mullins]

Yup, that is truly crap. I was a bit concerned about the folding of my leaderfins mono, but that is only a few degrees. You have to wonder why waterway were not aware that their fins were doing this.

 

[SnuFPunK]

hmm,

Well that picture was taken on the first time i tried the monofin out, during the first dive I've done with it.

I must say that after working with it over a period of many weeks, this problam doesnt exist anymore, I belive it has more to do with the way I was moving in the water that particular time.

I dive regularly to depths between 20 - 40 meters, and am very pleased of the way the mono reacts in the water, both at shallower and deeper depths.

I didnt have a chance to try it any deeper so far, I will try and reach (and hopefully pass) 50 meters with it this weekend during some freediving activity with safety divers.

~ Snuf.

 

[Kars]

No need to worry so much, with some adaptation of technique it's possible to stay within the limit's of the fin. The LD just isn't made for sprints or in other words when too much force is applied.

The advantage of a folding action is that the fin centers well, and allows for easyer straid forward swimming, without worrying of a sliding de fin (to the left or right) when doing dynamics.

Like the famous Dutch football player and coach Johan Cruyff use to say: "Every advantage has a disadvantage."

Love, Peace and Water,

Kars

 

[laminar]

Are the manufacturers really making LD fins with freedivers in mind? I would guess that they are not. I think the technique for LD finswimming on the surface is much, much more about core strength and less about suddenly accelerating with a heavy load.

Surface finswimming requires a softer fin that will follow and anchor the swimmer's body dolphin, rather than a medium or stiff fin that requires a more active snap of the legs to flex it and provide lift propulsion.

For those of you using an LD for freediving in the ocean, you should be as light as possible and work on your undulation stretngth in the core. The LD would be more suited also to Dynamics without a wetsuit and lots of ballast.

Another challenge in comparing monofins is in us all having different technique. Most people tend to err on the side of leg kicking their monos. Andy, do you think my comments are valid based on your experience with the fins and fins like it?

IMHO.

Pete

 

[PoseidonSv]

Good point from the videos i have seen of many good freedivers they do not use proper kicking techniques originating from the hip and trying to kick with legs straight.

My LG Glide is a amazing when not doing to deep kicks and when using a motion only coming from the hip.

 

[ADR]

2nd kick off the wall....can it really be any worse than this...big bend at the footpockets, dead straight to the trailing edge with tips folding like crazy

 

[SnuFPunK]

... I can make it do that as well, I bet i can make alot of different types of monos do that

The point is moving in a way it wont do that.. and thats absolutly possible.

What im trying to say is that this mono might not be suitable for you, but that doesnt make it a poor mono, it only makes you a freediver who needs a different kind of mono.

~ Snuf.

 

[BennyB]

Andy do you think the footpockets are situated too far away from the blade? I'm wondering that about my new fin at the moment, it seems to be past that optimum point of power transfer.

I gave my fin a real workout on Thursday night and noticed that my ankles were very sore the next day. I've had that a bit with other fins but not to this extent, makes me think that given that I suspect the footpockets are a little too far back it could be adding pressure to the ankles.

Cheers,
Ben

 

[ADR]

snuf,

I am confident there are some real design problems on this one, no fin should bend like this. I have had 5 people try it now and it is always the same. Any mono can be over powered but this one responds differently than any other mono I have seen over powered.....it loses all of it's taper flex. If you have the 2004 Cyprus DVD then check out DSV leaving the surface and you will see his Waterway LD model two getting a serious overpowering. It responds very differently and does not fail completely like this does......very different. I'm not even kicking hard. My other Waterway modified fin which is softer and my dive buddies Hyperfin which is softer do not bend like this.

Benny - could be that for where the pockets are located they are not supported well enough. This one flexes at the toes based on the loading points and the V bend. It is more a problem with the charateristics set up by the V bend on this fin. I say this because the same footpockets mounted in the same place on the model 2 blade does not have this problem. From the best I can tell at the moment it is a result of the blade shape more than anything as the 'shoulders' have been cut down which effectively loads the tips a lot more without support. Send a pick and I can tell you from the flex points

 

[Kars]

I've just downloaded the BMP you added, deinterleased it with PSP7, and it looks increddible, I would almost quess it was a over the top photoshop job.

Looks like the transfer of power from the feet to the blade is much to inefficient; the footpoket gives to much way.

Good discussion, I hope Finbuilders are paying attention to this thread.

Maybe Eric is breaking through with his F1 and starts to recover from his -many- investments and is thinking of a new challange? Or some other bloke from down under uses his talent to build the ultimate Freedivers' fin?

To all much inspiration!

Kars

 

[ADR]

Hi Kars,

Can you post the version you have as i would love to see it.

thx

 

[jome]

I had the privildge of seeing a water way glide fin last weekend in action and what can I say, it's a very good fin.

This particular specimen was not bending anywhere near that much and the operator was pounding it pretty hard.

At least for dynamic, I really don't see much big flaws with the fin. There may be some russian fins that are better, but finding one that is perfect can be notoriously hard.

 

[Kars]

Hi Andy,

I've just uploaded it to my webspace:

Deinterlaced it, upped the clairity a bit, and Jpged (10% compression) it.

Kars

 

[laminar]

Wow! Yuck.

Maybe it's just that particular fin. You should send the image to Waterway and see what they say.

Pete

 

[ADR]

Hi Pete,

Here is my email to Bogdan after the first session with the fin and his reply.

Dear Andy
Glide-fin is another type of fins and work absolutely different in the
water.
Try to swim more and test it with time.
You will see that fin is faster.
If you don't need speed you will need easy movement.
Glide-fin has softer pockets and all blade is not as important as foot
pockets part. All work is inside of the pockets.
Blade what we use for Glide-fin has also 70cm in width and 61cm in length.
We use the same 1,6mm blade as for Model 1 monofin, but pockets rubber part
Gives you "view as it's stiffer"
You have to spend 50% of the kick down and 50% for the kick up.
I'll wait your comments after some period or more tests.
We shipped near 200pcs in 2 years. Finswimmers will not pay second time for
the slow fin. But we have new and new orders, because friends wants the same
Glide-fin.
Best wishes
BogdanWaterway
mailto:lyashuk@waterway.kiev.ua
WaterWay company
cell:+38 067 5013686

-----Original Message-----
From: Andy.Ross
Sent: Monday, August 28, 2006 11:44 PM
To: BogdanWaterway
Subject: Re: Emailing: P101045.JPG

Hi Bogdan,

Nice photo and I hope to visit Paris one day. Unfortunately it is a very
long way from this part of the world.

The parcel arrived and I have tried the glide fin for the first time. The
footpockets fit well and the angled fin works very well for my kick and
glide dynamic approach. I am surprised by how stiff the fin is for an LD.
It is much stiffer and smaller in size than my model 1 LD fin. It also
bends up at the tips when i kick rather than evenly across the blade which
is not what i expected.

regards

Andy