4 styles in Finswimming

Ever wondered how fast dolphins can swim? The common dolphin can achieve speeds up to 6.7 metres per second. This equates to 14.93 seconds to swim 100 metres. It is fast. Interested to know how it would feel to swim at such speed? The sport that gives this opportunity is Finswimming. The fastest distance in finswimming is 50m apnea with the world record of 13.85s which is not too far off of the dolphin.

In many ways finswimming is similar to normal swimming. Finswimmers dive off the blocks and do tumble turns in their competitions.

However, there are still several differences between swimming and finswimming though, that allow higher speeds. The main one is that finswimmers use fins. Fins transfer the power of the human body into speed more efficiently, helping turn a person into more of a dolphin. There are 2 types of fins used in finswimming: monofins and bi-fins. The monofin is a single fin for both legs. Monofin swimmers use the dolphin kick which is very efficient and delivers higher speed. Bi-fins are the flippers similar to those that swimmers use during training sessions with the exception that finswimming ones are generally bigger and more powerful.

There are 4 styles in finswimming:

Apnea - 50m is swam on a single breath. Athletes use monofins and swim the pool length underwater.

Surface - 50m, 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 1500m. Athletes use monofins and snorkel for breathing. They generally swim on surface, but are allowed to stay underwater for 15m after the dive and each turn.

Bi-fins - 50m, 100m, 200m. Athletes use bi-fins and a mandatory snorkel for breathing. They use the front crawl stroke and just like surface events they are only allowed to stay underwater for 15m after the dive and turns.

Immersion - 100m, 400m, 800m. It's the most technically demanding style. Finswimmers use an air tank that is held in front in the hands during the distance. Athletes use monofins and dive off the block (with an air tank which is pretty heavy when swimming 800m!) To make the tumble turn finswimmers must surface when approaching the wall.

Interested? Give it a try and become the fastest! #finswimming #BecomeTheFastest