MONOfin

[Freedive WI]

Fred,
I have a Waterway's monofin from Canada. It is the exact same fin as the FINIS, but it comes from Canada and not the US which makes it 1/3 the price!!. They are both made in Russia I believe.

It is a fun toy and I have been in the water with Eric Fattah when he was using his to do warm up dives to 220'+. After watching him and noting that all of the world record constant ballast dives are being done with them I went and bought one last summer. It gives you great speed to get back to the surface from depth.

It does have it's drawbacks though. They are almost worthless for spearfishing. They cramp your feet and I find that I can't wear mine for more than 20 minutes at a time. Since I like to be in the water for 3-6 hours at a crack when I go freedivng this just doesn't cut it.

Sebak has a new mono out with full foot pockets on it, but it hasn't gotten very good reviews from the big boys. It is comfortable, but they seem to think that a good pair of C4's will work better if you dolphin kick with them compared to that mono.

They also are not that good for surface swimming. I had to rescue some bubble-blower out on one of the wrecks this past summer with mine on and I was totally spent after pushing him back to the boat. My bi-fins would have been slower, but easier on my legs. They also stink for scuba diving.

Since you can get a waterway monifin for less than the price of a goofy pair of "split fins" I would go for it. They are a fun toy to play with.

I recently picked up a new pair of C4 (40's) this winter after selling off some of my stage bottles (for trimix diving) and have only been able to use them in the lake once in January. I am hoping to use them a lot this summer. At that point I will be able to see if they work as well as a mono. they are certainly much more comfortable.

I would stay away form the mono's on the DIVEINN site as I don't know that much about them and the Waterway fins are cheaper. World records have been set on the Waterway fins- 300' so far!

Jon