Dolphin-Inspired Man-Made Fin Works Swimmingly (swim twice as fast as Michael Phelps!)

My screenname "finny" came from "finfreak," and that name comes because I am a monofin freak, and the lunocet is the latest evolution of the monofin. NO offenense to you, but believe me when I tell you that this video is a super-duper CRAPPY exhibit, and if you read the comments on the lunocet website, you'll see that folks who know swimming beg again and again of the company: Why don't you get some real swimmers to demo the thing??

I'd love to try a lunocet. You can haul ass with a monofin if you know how to do it, and the guy in this video most emphatically DOES NOT KNOW HOW TO DO IT. Not even close. He is totally inept, and why lunocet has so many very, very, extremely inept swimmers on their video demos is beyond me.

Top speed with a monofin the last I looked, which was a few years ago, was about 7 knots. The ability to swim 50 meters -- that's a l-o-n-g way!!! -- in about 14 seconds. I can't go that fast by a long shot, but then again, I'm not a competitior. But I'll tell you again -- one can really haul serious ass with a monofin. They are a blast.

Go to www.finisinc.com -- that's a website you can check out (won't try to link it because I'm too lazy).

See my post 21. That's a monofin. The main maker is Finis, and it makes three main kinds of fins. There's the "Shooter" fin, which is good for training butterfly stroke. There's the "Trainer" fin, which is a narrow but long fin and very good for strengthening the core; I have one of those. Then there is the lovely, incredible, fabulous Competitor fin, the big wide fiberglass beauty which, it sounds to me, is like the one you were looking at. I have one of those, as well.

Two other kinds of monofins from Finis are much less expensive and a really the best way for novices to learn the fun of them. The Tempo and the Rapid. I am going to buy a Rapid as soon as I can -- my other two fins are carbon fiber and fiberglass -- one can really only use them in large pools (or the ocean), the deeper the better. The little Rapid and Tempo are soft plastic and won't threaten to slice another swimmer's leg's off in a shared lane! (been there, done that!!!)

Understand that in true monofinning, for best results your arms should be streamlined above your heads, elbow locked -- second choice is to put your arms at your sides. If you attempt to use your arms as you would in a butterfly stroke, you will only slow yourself down unless you are using the Shooter fin, which was designed to help swimmers learn the rhythm of the full butterfly stroke.

I am a finfreak of sad proportions! Been pretending I'm a dolphin (I even have a broach cetacean breath-take of my own invention as I roll through the water) with monofins and regular fins for about 15 years. I'd love to try a lunocet in a large, deep, warm, clear body of water.

Apology if I came across antagnostic toward you! I'm glad you linked the site and the video! I found it a few months ago and was dumbfounded at how such a cool invention, that fin, could be demo'd by people who clearly had zero idea how to use it. Like giving a set of golf clubs to me and asking me to demo them!

Anyhoo, sorry if I got carried away and sounded snippy in my passion for monofinning. Really, it is a blast. I highly recommend it.

... if this thing is more efficient than a rigid marine propeller, what kind of work is being done to improve marine propellers? Anybody working on propelling ships with fins instead of propellers?

I think it's that propellers can push forward (or pull backward, even) a fixed thing, like a boat hull. Fins require some kind of undulation in the thing it is propelling. In streamline monofin swimming, the fastest guys use their stomach and back muscles as much as they do their leg muscles. It's a kind of whip motion that starts with a shrug in the shoulders and ends at the tip of the fin. Perhaps the Lunocet has a whole new set of dynamics, I don't know. I'd sure love to try one.

I am really intrigued at the description in the story of the PowerSwim propulsion project, and how these guys are using their leg muscles. Calves and ankles are heavily taxed in regular fins, but other muscles have to have dominance for monofinning. I can sure see why the PowerSwim as described would be valuable, though I can't picture the contraption in my mind. I bet real streamlined super-fast monofinning could never jive with scuba diving because of the weight belt and the tanks interfering with the undulation.

The picture at the top of this post shows a guy with a regular side-mount snorkel. Monofinners use a center-mount snorkel so it doesn't drag in the water. There are tremendous amounts of torque in the speed and resistence of the water, and drag is pretty important. I see the guy wearing that snorkel and wonder ... Hmmmm.

I wish I'd seen the Discovery program on it!

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