 per hour, nearly twice as fast as Olympic Gold Medal swimmer Michael Phelps at his speediest.)
SWIM FIN INSPIRED BY DOLPHINS: Lunocet users have already hit about eight miles (13 kilometers) per hour, nearly twice as fast as Olympic Gold Medal swimmer Michael Phelps at his speediest.
Image: COURTESY OF LOMERANGER
-
The Best Science Writing Online 2012
Showcasing more than fifty of the most provocative, original, and significant online essays from 2011, The Best Science Writing Online 2012 will change the way...
Read More »
The human body does many things well, but swimming isn't one of them. We're embarrassingly inefficient in the water, able to convert just 3 or 4 percent of our energy into forward motion. (Even with swim fins, we're only 10 to 15 percent more efficient.) But a new, dolphin-inspired fin promises to fuel the biggest change in human-powered swimming in decades, putting beyond-Olympian speeds within reach of just about anyone.
Culminating decades of research, engineer and inventor Ted Ciamillo, an inventor and engineer in Athens, Ga., who made his name (and fortune) building high-performance bicycle brakes, created what he has dubbed the Lunocet, a 2.5-pound (1.1-kilogram) monofin made of carbon fiber and fiberglass that attaches to an aluminum foot plate at a precise 30-degree angle. With almost three times the surface area of conventional swim fins, the semiflexible Lunocet provides plenty of propulsion. The key to the 42-inch- (one-meter-) wide fin's speed: its shape and angle, both of which are modeled with scientific precision on a dolphin's tail.
These sprinters of the sea can swim up to 33 miles (53 kilometers) per hour and turn up to 80 percent of their energy into thrust.
"The mechanism functions like a wing to generate a lift force," which is directed forward and turned into thrust, says Frank Fish, a marine biologist at West Chester University of Pennsylvania. "This propulsive mechanism is extremely efficient compared to conventional rigid marine propellers." Fish, a specialist in the swimming morphology of marine mammals, provided Ciamillo with data from CAT scans of dolphins' tails that he used to design his fins, which went on the market last year for $1,800 each.
Lunocet users have already hit about eight miles (13 kilometers) per hour, nearly twice as fast as Olympic Gold Medal swimmer Michael Phelps at his speediest.
Using the Lunocet, some swimmers are close to being able to breach completely out of the water, like whales. Ciamillo envisions a new high-speed, free-diving community of swimmers united around "hydrotouring": long-distance swimming expeditions using Lunocets to cover dozens of miles a day, with participants carrying streamlined, waterproof packs containing only a global positioning system (GPS), satellite phone, and enough food and water for a few nights on shore.
See what we're tweeting about
25 Comments
Add CommentIsn't going to patent? The inventor is a fool.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWow! I abso luv everything about this product, except for the quite steep price! As a scuba diver, this would give me more bottom time, and a more efficient way of doing the various stages of my dive. Aren't the best ideas so simple that you smack your own forehead and say 'Woosh!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOk, let's do the math:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisfree-diving community of swimmers "hydrotouring"
+
eight miles (13 kilometers) per hour
=
$1800 worth of shark bait
I saw a video where the Lunocet fin was demoed. As amazing as it is, it seems to require an incredible amount of core strength to undulate the body and thus efficiently use the device. Not to mention the ability to hold your breath while you work, swimming underwater. If the Lunocet is commercially produced, it will be for a select set of users.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhat the hell? I have to make a comment before I can sign in to read the comments??
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHydro-tourism? Free diving is going crazy. Mere hyperventillation used to be considered dangerous, but now divers breath pure oxygen for five minutes to saturate their tissues before diving for fifteen minutes at a time! No doubt they will soon implant electrodes in their brains to fight off panic. I am nostalgic for the ancient Greek sponge divers who only had themselves to rely on. Free-diving used to be amateur, that is literally free!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPatents are A. expensive, B, time consuming, and C, not worth the paper they're not printed on, unless you're a large enough company to afford the million hours of legal wrangling it takes to chase after them and beat your imitators in court. For a small scale manufacturer, especially one who's seen been in the bike industry, patents are just plain a waste of time & money. You just build it, capitalize big early, and then hope your future revisions keep you ahead of your competition. That's as good as it gets these days.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI don't think the intention was to make deep sea diving available to couch potatoes. If a person can't undulate their body, or hold their breath, they're not ready to swim in the ocean, assisted or not.
Skin-diving is getting too technical. Ancient Greek sponge-divers are to be admired for their feats. Modern sports are bedevilled by performance-enhancing drugs. Skin-divers now breath pure oxygen to saturate their tissues so as to stay under longer. No doubt some will demand electrode implants in their brains to fight off panic... Let's hope these fins will be useable by amateurs in a safe way.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThats me in the photograph, which was taken by my dive buddy. Myself and several expert freedivers, including a current world record holder in several disciplines, tested this fin in the Bahamas. The review has been published at www.deeperblue.net
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe Photographer is Jason Lome.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMy Website is www.michiganfreediving.com
Considering that humans are only attacked by sharks because they mistake us for other more fatty sea mammals... this isn't such a good idea. I think you'll be much more likely to be attacked by a shark with this getup.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAlso, I would suggest combining the two systems mentioned and using a computer simulation and a blind watchmaker algorithm to optimize the shapes and sizes of the "fins" for the human body instead of modeling directly after a dolphin. Obviously, we move differently and this may not be the most efficient design for us to use.
Two words, Shark Bait.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI suppose it's completely unthinkable that anyone would use this in a body of water that doesn't contain sharks.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNo freediver breathes pure oxygen. It becomes toxic below about 8 meters - this has been known since ww2 when oxygen rebreathers were devoped. Pure O2 is only used for exhibition static breathholds - NEVER in competition for for any sort of depth. The use of pure O2 has no place in freediving. It would, quite simply, be suicidal.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisCurrent freediving methodology is more sophisticated that in ancient times - we understand, for example, that hyperventillating is physiologically counter-productive and dangerous. Divers are now frequently approaching 100 meters and more in depth - repeated dives in this range require some accomodation to avoid DCS - usually a return to about 8 meters after recovery for a couple of minutes.
The most advanced freedivers now use only fluid goggles or no equipment at all in the no fins constant ballast discipline. At most we use fins and mask - usually monofins - which, incidentally, were heavily researched and developed by the Russian Military DECADES ago. To this day the best monofins come from former Soviet republics.
In any case - Freediving remains a very simple and pure discipline. Seriously practices by a relatively few individuals.
jsfike.... Shark bait?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisUh-uh. Sharks are scared stiff of dolphins! That is a natural fact and a scientific study proved. As the outfit is very similar to dolphins I would have to say that the swimmer with the dolphin fins would be the safest in the water.
Why back in my day we had to swim in the snow, uphill, both ways...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe thrust of a monofin is limited by the push off the body of the swimmer provides. If this is enlarged with minimal loss of streamline you can even go faster, or use your strength more efficiently. That's what my WaterWing does. Also manouvrability improves to an extent that it gives you infinite options. I have tested and developed the WaterWing swimming with the friendly wild dolphins Fungi and Dusty in Ireland since 1992. Read all about it on www.janploeg.nl
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI ordered a lunocet monofin and never received it after multiple promises/excuses from Ted Ciamillo. I ended up having to dispute the charge with my credit card company after a classic "your check is in the mail" final promise that a refund was coming. BTW, the check never arrived but thankfully my credit card company was very supportive of my dispute. Bottomline.... BEWARE!!!!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI ordered a lunocet monofin and never received it after multiple promises/excuses from Ted Ciamillo. I ended up having to dispute the charge with my credit card company after a classic "your check is in the mail" final promise that a refund was coming. BTW, the check never arrived but thankfully my credit card company was very supportive of my dispute. Bottomline.... BEWARE!!!!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI ordered a lunocet monofin and never received it after multiple promises/excuses from Ted Ciamillo. I ended up having to dispute the charge with my credit card company after a classic "your check is in the mail" final promise that a refund was coming. BTW, the check never arrived but thankfully my credit card company was very supportive of my dispute. Bottomline.... BEWARE!!!!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWho checked out the claim that "Lunocet users have already hit about eight miles (13 kilometers) per hour, nearly twice as fast as Olympic Gold Medal swimmer Michael Phelps at his speediest" ?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe person shown in the article is a world class free diver, Christopher Morey, who reviewed the fins. He has all the core muscle capabilities and diving/swimming know-how to objectively test these fins.
In Deeper Blue, he wrote, "I seemed to be cruising along at a good clip and the fin was completely quiet in the water. However I was getting tired fast, and my dive buddy had no problem keeping up with his C4 30s on the surface. At depth I was hard pressed to catch him when he was cruising casually.
By contrast, with my hyperfin I can both outdistance and outlast him.
I swam about a mile, mostly underwater. It was cold and rough. I did a little sub-surfing on the way in and the Luno's high oscillation rate worked out nicely in the shallows. Needless to say, my feet were warm and comfy.
Afterward we discussed the session. Jason, my intrepid dive buddy, felt the Lunocet was doing an optimistic 2/3 of my hyperfin cruise speed. I felt it was doing it with about 50% more effort but it was too early to judge. "
Did anyone ever ask for proof of the speed that was claimed for the Lunocet or try testing them before publishing the results?
Other fins on the market such as Mor-Fins, www.mor-fin.com, make far fewer wild claims, but have posted many positive reviews of their performance using very similar hydrofoil shaped blades. However, Mor-Fins are flexible, channel water better and have many patents covering their technology. Anyone interested in this kind of underwater propulsion would be well advised to check them out. They are a fraction of the cost too.
Who checked out the speed claim in this article? It seems very questionable at best even for very short distances.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe diver pictured in the article wrote a review about the fins for Deeper Blue, http://www.deeperblue.com/article.php/859/2, in which he made the following comments:
"The Lunocet is designed to enable a human being to breach out of the water under its own power. That's it. "
"I seemed to be cruising along at a good clip and the fin was completely quiet in the water. However I was getting tired fast, and my dive buddy had no problem keeping up with his C4 30s on the surface. At depth I was hard pressed to catch him when he was cruising casually.
By contrast, with my hyperfin I can both outdistance and outlast him.
I swam about a mile, mostly underwater. It was cold and rough. I did a little sub-surfing on the way in and the Luno's high oscillation rate worked out nicely in the shallows. Needless to say, my feet were warm and comfy.
Afterward we discussed the session. Jason, my intrepid dive buddy, felt the Lunocet was doing an optimistic 2/3 of my hyperfin cruise speed. I felt it was doing it with about 50% more effort but it was too early to judge."
Christopher Morey is a very accomplished free diver with all of the skills and core muscles needed to set world records. He didn't do very well with these fins. So why didn't the person writing the article try to establish the validity of the the 8 mph speed before presenting to SA readers as a fact?
Anyone interested in using true hydrofoil shapes based on nature should visit the Mor-Fin website, www.mor-fin.com. There aren't any wild claims for performance there, but there are many outstanding reviews. The fins are available commercially and they are a small fraction of the cost. Amazing differences because they are protected with many patents too.
Is there a product on the market yet, and where could I view / try it?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs Ed McMahon said "Ho Ho Ho! Yes! " I'm glad to hear someone else express my views to the letter.
How may I purchase one?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this