Swimming in heavy tails?

[thatotakugalaxy]

Recently, I found an absolutely BEAUTIFUL tail that I love! I plan on saving up for it, but I’ve read the reviews and watched a few vids of people swimming around it in and saying it’s heavy like sillicone due to the fluke and the accessories on the tail like fins and such.

Does anyone have any tips for learning to swim in such a heavy tail? The reviews said to swim in the shallow end until you get the hang of it, but that was it.

According to another person, it weighed about 11 pounds.


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[Slim]

Most silicone tails are weightless swimming in the water. It's just way more harder to get into and out vs a fabric which you are used of. Definitely practice in shallow water until you are most used of it.

[Princess Aegean]

It'd help a lot if we knew the type of tail. A lot of fabric tails with added fins and things will cause drag, hence making them feel heavy. Swimming in a tail itself is an adjustment, so just take it slow and make sure you're doing things safely (shallow end, buddy, etc). I have no doubt that you'll adapt quickly!

[vabs]

When I started SCUBA diving, I used the same fins as the Navy. (At least that's what the marketing for these fins said.) They were big, black, dense fins that I had to pay particular attention to whenever I took them off as they would sink and be lost if I didn't have them secured properly if the boat knocked about suddenly. I did find that neoprene booties filled the space that my duck feet didn't, providing a better fit, and because of the neoprene made them lighter and easier to use. However, they still did take some strength to kick simply because, like Princess Aegean says, drag current and such. It did help me to build up my gams to the point I was impressed with them. Unfortunately, I don't yet have experience with a tail to be of any further use in this regard.

While I have read tails are customized to be second skin, I'm curious if anyone had them customized to include a pair of neoprene pants underneath. I can't imagine that being comfortable and can only guess it would make a silicone tail impossible to wiggle into. Does incorporating bits of neoprene or other buoyant object lighten the weight of the tail? Is that an option?

Alternatively, I've found when I go SCUBA diving, the first 10 - 20 feet from the surface are horribly, horribly awkward. Mostly because I go "bottom up" in that my feet suddenly won't stay under me. (horribly awkward) After that, whatever was overly buoyant in my feet normalized and (I think and hope) I looked just like the other divers. Ankle weights seemed to help. In that sense, has anyone incorporated ankle weights into their customized fin?

For reference, SCUBA gear weighs about 80 pounds (equivalent to carrying a healthy golden retriever or perhaps a child between 5 and 10 years old) before you get in the water. After you're in, it's about fit (very, very much so) and where all those hidden pockets of bubbles are that are keeping you from enjoying your dive. So, with what Slim and Aegean have offered, I hope the image of me struggling to empty my vest upside down underwater helps to alleviate your concerns.

To wit, here's a pic of me getting ready to struggle upside down at 16 years old and (after a few years ice skating in hockey skates as well) said gams hamming it up for some guys and their bike.

[Triton-Mahtlinnie]

11 pounds isn't too much for a tail. Some silicone tails weigh in the 30-50 pound range. Silicone, at least, is neutrally bouyant in water so it doesn't sink or float.

Fabric can be different. Like a neoprene tail, the thicker the neoprene is the more bouyant it is and more you'll float.

Of course, even if a tail doesn't have "weight" it still has drag. The more fins and flowy bits on the tail, the more effort you have to put into your swimming to get from Point A. to Point B.

[AniaR]

the heaviest tail I've swam in was 35lbs of silicone. But silicone floats so I still needed weight to sink!