MerNation

[Tom Cardwell]

Here is my MerNation tail review after owning it for 5 months.

This is actually my second tail, my first tail will be made later by FinFolk after meeting them at NC Merfest 2015.
After contacting FinFolk in early January I started looking around at other tailmakers and completed tails. I ran across SeaVixen's tail and knew if I wanted a backup tailmaker then MerNation would be it. Here is SeaVixen's review http://mernetwork.com/index/showthre...ce-and-review! . Then Mernation on January 28th dropped this beauty on their facebook page https://www.facebook.com/TheMerNatio...type=3&theater . At that point I knew I needed this tail, a pink tail for breast cancer awareness in memory of my grandmother who passed 12 yrs ago. FinFolk got back to me 2 days later saying it would be almost a year till they could make my 1st tail so I pulled the trigger and bought the MerNation tail in the interim.

Communication was awesome, many times replies with 8-24 hours.
Paid for my tail on February 13th, 2015.
Made my duct tape dummy and mailed it off and received February 19th.


Cost: Around $3,500
Upgraded to a competitor monofin like this one.Its a beast.

Added dorsal fin, pectoral fins, hip fins, and ankle fins.

March 10th it began, here are the progress pics:







On the last day of winter, March 22nd, my family and I drove down from Charlotte, NC to Tampa, FL to pickup my MerNation tail. (My wife was in a huge rush to get food and get to the beach I didn't get any meeting pics)

Here is the 1st pic of my new tail at Clearwater Beach, Florida.




A pic hanging out with Mermaid Shannon at the YWCA in Charlotte on April 27th.



Myrtle Beach, SC, at Ocean Lakes Campground Pool, May 15th 2015 with my kids.




Here is a video by Merman Dan of my tail on August 5th at the Greensboro Aquatic Center.
https://video-dfw1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hv...35&oe=55DBD862

My tail weighs 30 lbs, its a beast. It fits perfectly.

Wear and tear: I've scooted on my dorsal fin too many times and put a hole in it. I got a tube of sil-poxy and if was fixed in 20 minutes, no problem!



So much chlorine in the pools that its eating at the clearcoat on a few scales, not a big deal. Its rough when you walk into the local indoor pool and the chlorine is so strong in the air it burns.




Then kids stepping on my tail caused a few of these wounds...grrrrr




I swim about once a week in my tail then put it up in my rack to dry.




Its an awesome tail, gotten a lot of complements from breast cancer survivors and plan to take it with me on the breast cancer awareness walks in October.

I would highly recommend MerNation to any friend. They are a solid and steady tail maker, don't think they want to be like the top in demand tail makers who "oh and ah" everyone then are saddled with a full year turnaround. Great Job guys!