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Mermaid Marissa
05-10-2012, 07:42 PM
I have heard not so great things about Eric's latex tails but not his silicone tails... hot or not :lol: I was just wondering because my next investment was going to be in a silicone tail (when I say next investment I mean in the distant-ish future when I'm not working as a camp counselor and most likely in college). Wondering who I should buy a tail from. I want to buy Raven's tails but if I could go down in price that would be best.

MermaidRaegan
05-10-2012, 07:51 PM
I love the LOOK of them, but I haven't heard enough about them to know. I never buy anything offline unless I've read lots of positive reviews, as well as some negative to get an idea of what sort of problems I could have.

Mermaid Marissa
05-10-2012, 07:57 PM
Same that's why I was asking about Eric. I have heard lots about his latex tail but nothing about his silicone ones

Kanti
05-10-2012, 08:07 PM
I like Eric's silicone tails and I haven't really heard much about them being bad. I also haven't heard
a lot about them being good since not a lot of people here really have one.

I think you'll be alright if you decide to get a silicone one. I doubt he'd do it badly since silicone is 100%
molds anyway. The only thing I would recommend is that you ask him about the monofin installed in the
fluke. I've seen a video in which one of his silicone tails has a broken monofin inside it, but to me, it'd seem
like that was a customer fault since most monofins should hold up just fine.

Silicone stretches very nicely and if he uses dragonskin like he claims, it's really tough stuff. He also
paints his silicone tails very nicely!

All in all, I think it'd be a safe investment. Just talk to him a bit before you decide to order one and ask him
how the process works out and stuff. Tell him to give you an estimate of how long it's going to take in relation
to how many other orders he has to fill. His website has a given estimate but that's often not right, especially
if he's got a lot of other customers.

Moonflower
05-11-2012, 01:37 AM
I know one mer who's tail arrived and it was... well... see-thru. I know she ended up getting her money back, but he then re-sold the tail with "creative flaws".

Kanti
05-11-2012, 02:32 AM
Eeck
At least she got her money back! That's good @_@
I'm guessing she didn't try again, huh?
I don't doubt it. I wouldn't want to wait another 5-6 weeks for another one -__-

Nemefish
05-11-2012, 04:45 AM
I like Eric's silicone tails and I haven't really heard much about them being bad. I also haven't heard
a lot about them being good since not a lot of people here really have one.

I think you'll be alright if you decide to get a silicone one. I doubt he'd do it badly since silicone is 100%
molds anyway. The only thing I would recommend is that you ask him about the monofin installed in the
fluke. I've seen a video in which one of his silicone tails has a broken monofin inside it, but to me, it'd seem
like that was a customer fault since most monofins should hold up just fine.

Silicone stretches very nicely and if he uses dragonskin like he claims, it's really tough stuff. He also
paints his silicone tails very nicely!

All in all, I think it'd be a safe investment. Just talk to him a bit before you decide to order one and ask him
how the process works out and stuff. Tell him to give you an estimate of how long it's going to take in relation
to how many other orders he has to fill. His website has a given estimate but that's often not right, especially
if he's got a lot of other customers.

yea i saw a video where the fluke was broken in half
here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=zgAJCWzhwp0

as you can see the mermaid with the golden tail has a broken fluke :(

Merman Chris
05-11-2012, 11:15 AM
I know a few people who have silicone mertailor tails and think they are quite great. If I was inclined to drop that kind of money on a tail and I wanted that kind of tail, I would go with Eric, no doubt.

Coradion
05-11-2012, 12:58 PM
If you're willing to spend that much money on a tail just make one yourself. I've seen some of Eric's tails and played with them, but I do not own one. Here's what I and others who have used the same tails have found.


Pros: They look really good, they are swimmable, they stick to your skin well so there's no gapping.

Cons: They don't stand up to heavy use, in this case that's a 10-30 minute dive every day. They're really heavy, monofins tend to break but it seems that's mostly with really strong swimmers. Wear and tear results in stretched out holes but that's to be expected, they can be pretty hard to get on and off. Price is kind of high.


If you're going to spend that much money on a tail I really think you should make it yourself. That way you know it's fitted to you and conforms to your body and your needs, it also keeps your options from being limited.

OrcaMatt
05-11-2012, 01:54 PM
Cons, continued: Full cast silicone isn't for beginners or the faint of heart. It's a big project that requires time, space, a large up-front materials investment, and a diverse skill set you probably don't just have if you have to think about it. If your first attempt fails and you're determined to try again, you'll probably end up spending more than you would have for a professionally-made one.

Kanti
05-11-2012, 04:51 PM
If you're willing to spend that much money on a tail just make one yourself. I've seen some of Eric's tails and played with them, but I do not own one. Here's what I and others who have used the same tails have found.


Pros: They look really good, they are swimmable, they stick to your skin well so there's no gapping.

Cons: They don't stand up to heavy use, in this case that's a 10-30 minute dive every day. They're really heavy, monofins tend to break but it seems that's mostly with really strong swimmers. Wear and tear results in stretched out holes but that's to be expected, they can be pretty hard to get on and off. Price is kind of high.


If you're going to spend that much money on a tail I really think you should make it yourself. That way you know it's fitted to you and conforms to your body and your needs, it also keeps your options from being limited.

I agree with this.
If you make one yourself, you don't have to pay nearly as much and if anything does happen to
go wrong, you have the knowledge to fix it yourself. You're also there so you can fit it perfectly
to yourself and watch things like weight, monofins, etc.


Cons, continued: Full cast silicone isn't for beginners or the faint of heart. It's a big project that requires time, space, a large up-front materials investment, and a diverse skill set you probably don't just have if you have to think about it. If your first attempt fails and you're determined to try again, you'll probably end up spending more than you would have for a professionally-made one.

This is a very valid point, if you don't do enough research before making a tail you might make a
really bad mistake.
Unfortunately a lot of the people on here don't really share info on how to make silicone tails, but
Smooth-on actually holds classes, seminars, and you can email and call their tech support to ask
questions.
I got a pamphlet for a class thing they're doing over the summer, it's $150 or something around there
but it'd be a great opportunity to talk to them and ask them everything you'd ever want about their
products and the best way to go about doing stuff.
I was heavily considering going to the class. If I do I'll certainly write out an explanation of everything
I've learned.

Spindrift
05-11-2012, 06:56 PM
I got a pamphlet for a class thing they're doing over the summer, it's $150 or something around there
but it'd be a great opportunity to talk to them and ask them everything you'd ever want about their
products and the best way to go about doing stuff.
I was heavily considering going to the class. If I do I'll certainly write out an explanation of everything
I've learned.


What? I got quoted $450 for the two day class at their headquarters in Pennsylvania.

Kanti
05-11-2012, 07:18 PM
What? I got quoted $450 for the two day class at their headquarters in Pennsylvania.

Yes jk about that part
it's $450 per class. I just checked up on it xD
A LOT more expensive than I remember haha

Oceana
05-20-2012, 11:47 PM
I would advise against it, based upon my own experiences.

AniaR
05-21-2012, 11:35 AM
It' s been my experience, that if you want to know the true positive and negatives in this particular situation, the best thing you should do is try and find the FB pages of people with the tails and PM them. Or if you can find their other accounts on places like twitter, tumblr, DA etc. People are posting here less and less for obvious reasons I think. But they'll be more than happy to discuss their experiences with people 1:1