Monofin-less fluke?

[Onyx Jewel Catfish]

Has anyone ever tried just making a floppy fluke with just foot pockets? I know it would have less propulsion but has it been tried?

[Mer-Crazy]

Mike Van Dal used to... but I believe people reported it being uncomfortable and he is now using monofins.... not sure if that's his standard practice now or just on request though.

[Princess Kae-Leah]

My Fin Fun tail originally came without a monofin

[Onyx Jewel Catfish]

I am not sure how to word exactly what I mean so here is my idea... Make a cast of my feet in resin and basically shape the silicone fluke halves over my "feet" with drainage tubing as the veins built right in.

[Onyx Jewel Catfish]

I was thinking it would make it so there is zero worry about proper fit and no straps

[Mermaid Kate Silverfin]

I find that my tail pulls down a lot if I don't have the straps over my ankles, just from the weight and drag of the fluke. Plus I find it near impossible to hold my fluke in the air. Just something else to think about!

[Mer-Crazy]

Personally I enjoy the extra wiggle room in my foot pockets because it allows me to wear my booties and stop blisters. I can see issues because feet are wider at the front than at the back, so it'll be difficult to get them to slip in, the 'heel' section would probably act as your 'straps' and with a skin tight fit there may be issues pulling it back up over the heels maybe. What type of tail is this for? Because that will obviously affect how difficult the thing is to get on.

[Mermaid Wesley]

Its something i have wanted to try, maybe later

[Onyx Jewel Catfish]

Ms. Silverfin what monofin is in your tail and is it stiff or floppy? My hydra is kinda heavy in my opinion, which would make extra weight to the fluke and add drag, which is what gave me this idea to maybe make the fluke without the monofin.

[Mer-Crazy]

Ms. Silverfin what monofin is in your tail and is it stiff or floppy? My hydra is kinda heavy in my opinion, which would make extra weight to the fluke and add drag, which is what gave me this idea to maybe make the fluke without the monofin.

Flukes without monofins are ALWAYS heavier than those without in similar sized flukes. It might be a bit hard to ask people who have owned a MVD tail because the only one I can think of is Melissa and she isn't on the network as far as I know. But you can ask people who have had tails with larger monofins compared to those who have had smaller. Lets use Merbella and the foil vs competitor argument simply because it's the only one I know enough to say anything about with confidence.

The foil is the smallest fin finis offers, designed for complete beginners as a training fin I believe. The competitor is the largest, designed for trained professionals and free divers. Merbellas offers either option for your fluke, but uses the competitor by default. Raina is the only one I can name for certain who's had both and she can tell you that the fluke with the foil is heavier. Many mers who have opted for the foil in their flukes will tell you how heavy it makes their tails, that a lot of them can't lift it out of the water because it's too heavy. You hear a lot less of these complaints from people with competitors simply because silicone is heavier than fiberglass. So the less monofin you have, the more silicone you'll need and the heavier it will be.

[Mermaid Kate Silverfin]

My monofin is a hydra, and they are comparatively light, even compared to my new fiberglass one. I cast my fluke relatively thin, all up I think it weighed about 3.5kg with the hydra in.

[Onyx Jewel Catfish]

Mer Crazy That kinda makes sense, however, if silicone is neutrally bouyant, in the water it would be lighter than that of plastics of fiberglass that is not at all bouyant. I know I spelled that wrong. I don't have and experience with fiberglass but when I was younger my grandpa had gotten me a foil second hand and it was lighter than my hydra but it still sank.

[Mer-Crazy]

It's hard to say, but I feel like the drag caused by the floppiness of the fluke would make it feel heavier than a stiff one with a monofin. If weight is your concern, in water honestly you'd never be able to feel the difference I think. What you would feel the difference is in the drag. If that's what you're worried about a floppy fluke with no monofin will definitely feel more draggy because there's no push, so you won't move through the water as effortlessly. If I could I'd message Raina and ask her, since she would be able to tell you first hand. I can only speculate

[Theobromine]

The main concern here is that if you have a floppy silicone fluke with no monofin, you'll get no propulsion and that will be a safety issue. At the VERY least, if you decide to try it, get the stiffest/harders (highest shore hardness) silicone you can, and do not use the dragonskin 10 (10 refers to the shore A hardness, which is very soft in this case).

I also have to wonder why anyone would want such a floppy caudal fin (the proper term) in the first place...biologically speaking, the caudal fin is there for propulsion. Fishes need it to be powerful and efficient so they can catch food and also outswim predators. This is why they have the fin rays (which I often hear people around here referring to as bones or veins). If you look at real fishes swimming, you will notice that the caudal fins are somewhat flexible but in almost all cases are NOT floppy or flowy...because this causes them drag, which not only slows them down, it means they have to expend more energy to move the same distance. And I said in *almost* all cases, in case someone wanted to point out that male Betta splendens, as well as some varieties of fancy goldfish, have long flowy fins...but these fishes were bred by humans to look this way, for humans. They don't have those flowy fins in the wild. They'd get munchified. And I'm not pointing this out to sound like a jerk or anything, just an fyi to help people understand how real fish fins actually work, hopefully it will be helpful (as I've also heard so many mers say they prefer the look of flowy floppy caudal fins because they look more natural...no, they actually don't, really). (Brought to you by your friendly neighborhood zoologist mermaid who has spent her entire life watching and studying fishes).

[Mer-Crazy]

The main concern here is that if you have a floppy silicone fluke with no monofin, you'll get no propulsion and that will be a safety issue. At the VERY least, if you decide to try it, get the stiffest/harders (highest shore hardness) silicone you can, and do not use the dragonskin 10 (10 refers to the shore A hardness, which is very soft in this case).

I also have to wonder why anyone would want such a floppy caudal fin (the proper term) in the first place...biologically speaking, the caudal fin is there for propulsion. Fishes need it to be powerful and efficient so they can catch food and also outswim predators. This is why they have the fin rays (which I often hear people around here referring to as bones or veins). If you look at real fishes swimming, you will notice that the caudal fins are somewhat flexible but in almost all cases are NOT floppy or flowy...because this causes them drag, which not only slows them down, it means they have to expend more energy to move the same distance. And I said in *almost* all cases, in case someone wanted to point out that male Betta splendens, as well as some varieties of fancy goldfish, have long flowy fins...but these fishes were bred by humans to look this way, for humans. They don't have those flowy fins in the wild. They'd get munchified. And I'm not pointing this out to sound like a jerk or anything, just an fyi to help people understand how real fish fins actually work, hopefully it will be helpful (as I've also heard so many mers say they prefer the look of flowy floppy caudal fins because they look more natural...no, they actually don't, really). (Brought to you by your friendly neighborhood zoologist mermaid who has spent her entire life watching and studying fishes).

Perfectly said ^_^

[Mermaid Kate Silverfin]

Agreed, I feel a huge loss in propulsion even if my feet just slip out of the footpockets, let alone not having a monofin!
Also, I like the use of 'munchified'

[Onyx Jewel Catfish]

My local recreation center doesn't have anything that will potentially eat me either. So slow and munchified is not an issue.

[Onyx Jewel Catfish]

Thank you for the feedback everyone. I am just going to try it and hope for the best.

[Theobromine]

Heh, I didn't think you yourself would get munchified, just some things to think about in terms of realism. I was more just concerned about the tail being too hard to swim in with no propulsion, you might find yourself floundering a little (unintentional pun, why do I always make these comments when I'm tired). But yeah, if you want to try it, I would strongly recommend getting the highest shore hardness silicone you can find (the highest I have found, from Smooth-on at least, is 50 A. You can PM me if you want more details, I've been doing some research on that actually, I can send you more info).

[Onyx Jewel Catfish]

The people @ Renyalds here are very helpful also. Thanks I will post back once it is made ... Might be a while though.