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View Full Version : Monofin foot pocket reshaping? (Mertailor tail issue)



Winged Mermaid
09-14-2011, 03:06 PM
It has been painful for me to put my feet into the foot pockets of the monofin in my other Mertailor tail since I first received it. The monofin IS a Rapid, and I have size 6 1/2 W feet. I thought, "No wonder people were complaining about the Rapid being for narrow feet!!". I thought it would be better in the water but it's actually worse. Getting my feet into the pocket takes a very painful shove. In the water I can only keep that thing on for 10-15 mins max unless before I can't stand it, even with neoprene fin booties. Even with those it leaves marks red painful marks on my feet for a an hour or so. I didn't understand why becuase the monofin is actually too long for my small feet. So I stuck a camera inside and this is what I found..


http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc227/winged_mermaid/Me%20as%20a%20mermaid/Mertailor%20Tail/th_IMG_1364.jpg (http://s219.photobucket.com/albums/cc227/winged_mermaid/Me%20as%20a%20mermaid/Mertailor%20Tail/?action=view&current=IMG_1364.jpg)
(clickable thumbnail)


Yeah.
So now the question is- how do I fix it? My thinking is that it may have been warped in shipping. The tail was sent in a flat box near the end of June so my thought was that weight + heat warped it like this. I've had comments on my FB picture from two other Mertailor customers saying theirs was the same way.

I've thought of using a shoe stretcher, but the material is actually pretty friggin hard. MUCH harder than my Tempo foot pockets or any foot pockets I'd felt on bi-fins, that's for sure! I'd actually cut my foot on it getting it on without the neoprene booties putting it on dry once. :(

LindseyLu
09-14-2011, 05:05 PM
So it's not a soft rubber like the RAPID? I also have wide feet and my RAPID gives me foot cramps after a while... It's a bummer...:( Do you think it's possible the neoprene is tight and putting pressure on the foot pockets? I saw all the other people agreeing with your issue on your facebook post and it seems that this is a very common problem on mertailor tails. I am thinking he is not allowing for enough room in the foot pocket area when he is sewing the neoprene? I don't know if this would work, but if that area of the tail is really snug fitting anyway, you could just cut the rubber out entirely? Possibly cut out the rubber, then bolt/paste your neoprene booties to the monofin? I dunno how easy it would be to swim in, but it sounds like the tail is attached to the monofin, right? I hope you can figure something out! <3

AniaR
09-14-2011, 08:05 PM
my finnis monofin came with stretchers inside. They're just little plastic thingies but I kept them. If you dont find anything that works I'd be happy to mail it to you. Sounds like you got the wrong size monofin maybe? Especially if it happened to a few people... though it certainly doesn't look like any of mine. What an infuriating thing for you to have to deal with when all you wanna do is swim!

edit:
I know everyone hates it when I add a mertailor thing in, so I hope it's okay since this is a mertailor tail, Eric JUST posted this:
The Mertailor Eric Ducharme (https://www.facebook.com/mertailor)
If you have a problem with a tail, we would be more than happy to offer our advice or services to fix the product. After all, we are the creator of your product and know how to fix or alter most issues. This is just a thought :)

OrcaMatt
09-14-2011, 08:36 PM
my finnis monofin came with stretchers inside. They're just little plastic thingies but I kept them. Is that what those are? I figured they were just packaging and was about to throw them out (They didn't appear recyclable :/ ) since I couldn't get them back inside for storage.

Capt Nemo
09-16-2011, 11:55 AM
No it's the Finis curse! Finis needs to build a Rapid for wide feet! The inserts are to help hold the shape of the foot pocket during shipping, but that's about all they do. What looks like warping is normal, and doesn't change the size of the footpocket. Where the problem lies is in the hard polyethelene on the bottom that the rubber is molded to. It's not really made for real world feet!

Winged Mermaid
09-16-2011, 04:17 PM
I don't think this is normal. The shape of this foot pocket is not the same as the other foot pocket, even. It's similar in that it bends inward to a sharp degree, but it's not to the same degree as this the one pictured. If it were meant to be like that, wouldn't they both be the same? I can see from the pictures of Rapids that the foot pockets do go inward to a certian degree (you can see in the picture below), but not near as much as mine do.

http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc227/winged_mermaid/finis-rapid-monofin-2134-p.jpg

If it were just as much as the picture I wouldn't be having such big issues because I really don't have wide feet- in fact I can wear the "narrow" shoes sometimes (comes in handy in a the clearance section!). Also again my feet can fit in a size 5-7 shoe depending, and this is meant for a 9 and up- the foot pocket IS too tall and too long by far, but it crushes my foot anyway because of the sharpness of the inward bending. It takes a really strong 5 second shove to get my feet in (with quite a bit of pain to go with it).

So I guess the only thing I can do is try and stretch it and re shape it with shapers over time?

Winged Mermaid
08-09-2012, 06:36 PM
Update:

I gut my fluke tail, because I knew that'd be the only way I could hope to fix the foot pockets. However I was at a loss doing that. Also the blade itself got bent in the move, so I decided to replace the whole thing. When I got the new fin I was shocked at how big the difference was, showing me just how badly the monofin pockets had warped from their original shape.


http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc227/winged_mermaid/Me%20as%20a%20mermaid/Mertailor%20Tail/IMG_2971.jpg

http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc227/winged_mermaid/Me%20as%20a%20mermaid/Mertailor%20Tail/IMG_3002.jpg



This is really shocking to me, because I've heard of at least 5 other mermaids who have had the same thing with the monofins in their Mertailor tails. I don't know if it's his shipping process or what. He sends it inside a flattened box so any weight put on it, especially if shipped in hotter months, would damage the fin. Either way, I personally think this is unacceptable.

I may end up trying to rescue the previous monofin, see if I can fix it. If not, I'll probably sell it. I'm having to spend more money to mod my tail to make it swimmable. You can follow that in this thread (http://mernetwork.com/index/showthread.php?2296-How-to-gut-a-fluke).

AniaR
08-09-2012, 07:12 PM
this seriously blows my mind

Mermaid Cascada
08-09-2012, 08:20 PM
I'm sorry this happened to you and I hope it all works out :)

Capt Nemo
08-09-2012, 11:37 PM
That pocket is heat warped! Take a heat gun to it and bend them back. (just be careful so you don't melt/burn the tail!)

The yellow Rapid pockets look larger than the black. Maybe they enlarged them in the new model???

MerAnthony
08-10-2012, 07:58 AM
Capt Nemo has a great idea sence it is heat warped you will have to use heat to bring it back. An like he said that you will have to be very careful and not to burn the tail or melt it.