Monofins

We ordered some monofins a while back from WaterWay, a company in Kiev, Ukraine. They arrived today.


We each got a pair. Here are Oliver's:

And here are mine:
Mine are slightly softer (and so lighter in color) since I don't regularly swim with fins, and it takes a while to build up strength in your feet and ankles to handle the pressure the water exerts on the fin. I have some footcramping to look forward to for my first few weeks using the monofins...

Water Way makes the monofins by hand, and you can see the layers of material that go into the fin. Here is the top surface, nice and smooth:

And here is the bottom surface, showing the different layers and structure of the fin:

We also got snorkels. They are frontal snorkels so that you are more streamlined when swimming.

Since finswimming isn't well known in the U.S., and since the equipment is pretty crazy looking, I'm pretty sure we will secure the position of #1 freaks at our pool.
(oh, if you've never seen finswimming before, you can look at this video . Try to ignore the german techno music. And no, I don't expect I'll ever look that good...but it gives you an idea anyways.)