Hi everybody,
I tried my friend's new monofin for a couple of dives and a surface swim to the shor through bad diving weather last sunday.
Since the beginning of this year I've gone from a Waterway classic MD2 Middle Distance to a HyperfinS (freediving) middle Distance. Compared to Waterway the HyperfinS feels soft, so keep that in mind when ordering. Since I got my Hyperfins appart form dynamics my deepest dive with this fin was at the ApnoeHappening in a CW dive to 50m. Though the HyperfinS' rubber is more flexible than used by Waterway it didn't give me the feeling at depth that I was moving about. In the footpockeds I use an old plastic sack to prevent blisters and tighten up the fin for a firm fit. In my quest to cut down my CW divetime, I used a 3mm suit, and just 1KG of weight in the sweet water of the Kreidensee for the dive. I practically swam the whole way down, looked up to the 'plate' two times, breaking for equalisation and watching out for the plate in the deep cool 6 c water. In all the dive took just a 1' 26", a big speed record for me. On the way up Natalia (I call my dear HyperfinS Natalia
) did perform well, dispite my my average monofin technique.
Now back to last sunday's divesession where I used both the HyperfinS and the WaterWay Custom 30deg hard rubber Medium Glide fin of my friend. After some dives up to the bottom of 33m with Natalia we switched monofins in the strong wind and swells (6-7 BF) to see how the Waterway would feel. The footpockeds were fine, albeit a bit spacious for my flat feet. The fin appeared a bit less bouyand at the surface. As I swam down I noticed it was indeed much stiffer than my Hyperfins. It felt like it needed force to start to really to work. Still my equalisation isn't fast enough to go down 2m/s, so I feel I would rather have a softer fin for going down because you'll use it in it's most effective performance range. Near the bottom at 30 I turned in the pitchblack space, it was mentally challenging to swim from 20m down because it didn't make ANY difference weather to have the eyes open or closed, I turned arround and with a medium speed I swam up. I still noticed that I still was not using the Waterway Medium within it's performance range. That day I used a 3mm Dight density smoothskin suit, 1,5KG of lead weight, a normal amount of air, no packing and was about nutral at about 15m. I also took notice that I was very little negative at depth as was my intension.
My friends fin will be best for a big person, who dives with a thick suit, carries a normal to high amount of weight and packs air. With this he'll punch through the first 15m, maintains speed until 25, and than eases out into a glide from than on, to fall like a stone to say 50, 60+ meters. Upon the turn all that weight must be put up and a few strong kicks with this Waterway 30 deg medium will probably perform great at this, without folding transferring cleanly all the divers' power to the water.
In Dynamics it will need a swimmer with strong muscles, and good lactoce tolerance to be used at a higher speed than the HyperfinS Medium. The Nutral boyancy at the surface and the near nutral at depth I find a good thing.
Personally I'm a pretty skinny person, 1,87m 73KG, and I'm venturing more into the direction of FRC diving, where I appreaciate the near nutral boyancy and forcing my body to go anearobe much earlyer. This for me cancels the need for a very stiff fin at depth as I'm just 3-5KG negative at depth. This is a big change to ealier times when I carried 4,5KG of lead down, packed to max, and whore a soft 5mm full suit.
Mayby I can teach my body to even relax naked in 18c - 6c water, instead of going into spasm like tensioning as a reaction to the cold. Enough cold water arround to train this.
I hope my experiences are helpfull for those wanting to buy a advanced mono fin.
Next week I am at the Great Nordic Deep event in Sweden, let's see how that goes.
Love, Courage and Water,
Kars
