Freediving fins in the mid-1960's

[shawpitts]

Hello all, here's an odd question - I'm hoping there might be someone out there who can help.

I'm working on a novel where the main character is a recreational (and spearfishing) freediver in the mid-1960's. He's given the "longest, sweetest fins he's ever seen." I'd like to describe these fins more specifically, but realize the fins of today are probably a lot different than those of over 50 years ago. I'd like to be authentic.

I've tried watching old video clips to get an idea, but they always seem to focus on speared fish rather than fins - and it's difficult to see (with everything black) exactly what the fins would actually look like off the feet (open heel, closed heel, etc.). It doesn't look like the fins were all that long, compared to those of today.

Might anyone have an old pair around who could take a couple of pictures for me as reference? Or have any pictures around? If not, might any of you know what length "the longest" freediving fins could have been at that time?

Thanks much,
Cindy

 

[scubadada]

Ask Dan Volker, @Pebbles Photo

 

[shawpitts]

Will do, thanks!

 

[lowwall]

I think you might be a little bit early for long freediving fins. But take a look at the posts from
@David Wilson . Maybe he'll show up to give you a definitive answer or you can PM him.

For example: Basic gear from mid-twentieth-century Italy: Mares and Pirelli

and

Basic gear from mid-twentieth-century Italy: Cressi

 

[shawpitts]

Thanks for the helpful replies - I was afraid I was too early for the long fins, but through the links you provided have discovered a different angle (through the Cressi Rodine fins of the '60s) that works quite nicely.

Really appreciate everyone's help!

 

[David Wilson]

An intriguing question that I'll do my best to answer. I'll stick for the moment to the commercially available mid-1960s models of long fins I know. What I post here will have already appeared in other SB threads.

I'll begin with the distinctive and groundbreaking "Gigant" (Bulgarian: Гигант. English: Giant) from the People's Republic of Bulgaria.

The Gigant fin

At http://zamoreto.com/удължените-плавници-българската-сл/ there is an online article full of interesting information about Gigant fins. Here is my very rough translation of the relevant portion of the article from the original Bulgarian text:

In 1959, DOSO (Voluntary Defence Assistance Organisation) in Burgas collaborated with the “Black Peak” company in Sofia to produce “Champion” and “Dolphin” fins. These fins featured during the first nationwide finswimming, underwater apnea and underwater orienteering competitions in 1960. In 1961 the Bulgarian national team consisting of Radan Nedialkov and Kanev Milen from Sofia, Kiril Lyaskov from Varna and Georgi Manolov from Burgas successfully participated in international underwater orienteering competitions in Alushta in Crimea (then USSR territory).

It is a little-known fact that we Bulgarians have given elongated fins a “fashionable” tone within Europe. One of Bulgaria’s underwater sports pioneers, the talented artist Alexander Denkov, took charge and designed a template for a “Giant” fin. Cast in clay and dental plaster, the fin featured a foot pocket based on the shape of the foot pockets of Cressi sub swim fins in Italy. The fin also came with an elongated blade. The DOSO diving equipment workshop in Burgas made the first pairs of “Giant” fins during the winter of 1962. They had an unusual shape for the time, their length being 63 cm. They were well received by scuba divers and particularly well by athletes.

Too soon, “Giant” fins became known as the fastest finishers in international competitions and they were in high demand. In 1963, the Central Committee of DOSO decided to transfer production of diving equipment from Burgas to Ruse, where the former naval arsenal used to operate a boat workshop now occupied by DOSO. The new unit was therefore renamed the “DOSO Diving and Boat Workshop”. So far so good, but sadly two of the trucks carrying machinery and equipment from Burgas to Ruse caught fire while crossing the Balkan Mountains. The “Giant” fin template melted. Alexander Denkov had to make a new one.

After these complex twists and turns at the end of 1963 and during the first half of 1964, therefore, Bulgaria began to produce elongated fins. They were much sought after by divers and athletes from all the socialist countries and five years on, by September 1968, they became a hit across Europe. When they went abroad, athletes in the national team brought two or three pairs with them to sell or exchange for compasses from Czechoslovakia or KI-11 or 13 compasses from Russia (USSR).

At the first European Underwater Sports Championship on Lake Maggiore in 1967, the Soviet team came equipped with Bulgarian “Giant” fins. This detail was mentioned in the Soviet magazine Спортсмен подводник (Underwater Sportsman) — “пришли длинные ласты” (long fins have arrived) — but there was no mention of where these fins came from, nor was there any indication that they were Bulgarian “Giant” fins. The Soviet team won the first European title. The Bulgarian team also performed successfully.

The following year, however, when the Second European Underwater Sports Championship took place in 1968 in Alushta, the host country’s athletes surprised us. They had made elongated fins with titanium strips — longer and lighter than “Giant” fins. They were difficult to swim with and required a long period of training, but the effect was very considerable. There were also elongated fins reinforced with fibreglass. As a matter of fact, V. Dubrovsky, an Estonian underwater swimmer, (reference another “Underwater Sportsman” contribution) was the first to create such fins. “Rondine Extra” fins, which were the finest fins of the Italian company Cressi sub, and which won the Europa Cup from 1956 to 1968, were beaten.

In 1970, “Cressi Sub” officially refused to participate in competitions with their fins. “Giant” fins were also losing ground. Straight after the Second European Championships in Alushta, interestingly, the Spanish company “Nemrod”, whose president captained the Spanish national team in the Championship back in 1969, introduced elongated fins without reinforcement.

The above is an extract from Trayan Trajanov's online article "УДЪЛЖЕНИТЕ ПЛАВНИЦИ – БЪЛГАРСКАТА СЛЕДА" (Elongated fins – The Bulgarian connection), which originally appeared in the February 2009 issue of "DIVINGBG" magazine. I hope it was an instructive read, particularly to anyone interested in the history of competitive finswimming. I was impressed by the author's honesty, listing setbacks as well as triumphs, and illustrating the "do-it-yourself" ingenuity necessary in "eastern bloc" countries where hard currency was in short supply for importing sports equipment from the West. I particularly enjoyed the anecdote about the original "Gigant" fin mould being destroyed in a truck fire in the Balkan mountains and its painstaking recreation by the original artist-designer.

Here are several more images of "Gigant" fins:

and here's an illustration from the blog (http://patepis.com/?p=372) of a Bulgarian snorkeller holding what appear to be "Gigant" fins while vacationing in Croatia:

So, according to Trajanov's article, "Gigant" fins were 63 cm in length, extraordinarily long-bladed in comparison with other fins of the time. They were first manufactured in the winter of 1962 and went into mass production in early 1964. They were held in such esteem within the eastern bloc that Soviet finswimmers used them in international competitions without acknowledging their provenance.

Like most Soviet bloc fins, the "Gigant" came with a closed heel and a closed toe. It must have been a very stiff fin to use, requiring strong leg muscles, if the reinforcements provided by the thick side rails and central rib are anything to go by. The blade terminated in a convex tip.

 

[David Wilson]

So the Gigant was mass produced from 1962. The Italian-made Mares Concorde was a relative latecomer therefore with its 1968 début:

Rough translation: "CONCORDE LONG FIN (Mares). Born from competition (fin swimming and underwater technology), the long fin from Mares is 65 cm in length and has the basic characteristics of the noted OK. The concept is to carry the blade as much as possible as the extension of the leg, to have greater propulsion in both underwater and surface swimming. They require, however, an adaptation period. They are in black and blue (floating). Price not fixed."

The ad above celebrates the success of mass-produced Mares Concorde fins in the European Finswimming Cup when they were worn by a squad of Italian policemen (carabinieri) competing against strong groups of Soviet contestants using non-standard fins. Here is the Concorde page in the Mares catalogue of 1969:

The 1970s came around and the Mares Concorde with the advent of the new decade:

1970

1974

1975

We'll conclude with some auction images of actual Mares Concordes and some information about what apparently happened to the fin moulds once Mares leapt on the plastic and thermoplastic elastomer bandwagon, ditching its all-rubber fin models for ever, which was nothing short of a tragedy for diving equipment traditionalists like myself.

 

[David Wilson]

When talking about mid-twentieth-century long-bladed fins, the Cressi Rondine L is often mentioned. However, this model emerged in 1974, so perhaps a little late even with a dollop of poetic licence for your novel. Here it is anyway:

1974

Unofficial translation: "Rondine 'L', the fin used by underwater hunting champions. with elongated blade, ensures maximum performance for freediving use. A soft and comfortable compound in the shoe, more springiness and snappiness in the blade, it is manufactured in 3 fittings: 40/41, 42/43, 44/45.

So this is Cressi's response to the demand for longer fin blades to win finswimming races and to plumb greater depths. The early 1970s also saw the rise of the monofin as a race-winning accessory, although diving equipment companies chose to keep out of that market at that time.

1976

Unofficial translation: "The Rondine 'L' is the world's first fin to offer a 'personalised' fitting for one shoe size at a time, so you can use whatever size is a perfect fit for your foot, obtaining in the process all the benefits of comfort and balanced effort. This is the fin used by underwater hunting champions. With an extremely snappy compound in the blade and a softer one in the shoe, the model is particularly suitable for finswimming, for in-depth freediving or wherever environmental conditions require maximum power and speed. Available in eight fittings from 39 to 46. Non-floating.

So now the Rondine L not only features a longer blade for enhanced performance but also a foot pocket designed to fit a single shoe size instead of a range of three consecutive shoe sizes as other fins are wont to do.

Cressi Rondine L fins were used by professional freediver Jacques Mayol in 1975 during a scientific experiment to investigate the impact of a 316-foot dive on the human body. Here is Gaetano Cafiero's report in the March 1976 issue of Skin Diver:

And here we have images of a black pair:

Note the capital "L" on the sole and "Taglia 45 - Size 11", i.e. a single shoe size as the size marking where the normal expectation would be something along the lines of "Taglie 44-46 - Sizes 10-12", i.e. a range of three shoe sizes. Sadly, the single shoe size feature did not last long, perhaps for economic reasons.

 

[David Wilson]

We must not forget Australian-made Turnbull Giant Continental fins, introduced in 1962.

F3 Giant Continental Flippers

Catalogue description: "F3 Giant Continental Flippers. In blue only. For maximum comfort and propulsion specially designed for large fittings, wet suits, and sandshoes. Made out of a special salt water FLOATING QUALITY rubber with the famous foot comfort and paddle rigidity. A special ankle strap with a rustproof buckle is added for absolute security."

These fins were introduced in the July/August 1962 issue of Australian Skindivers Magazine:

The name "Giant" focused attention on blade length and the relative dimensions of the Continental and Giant Continental models were given for good measure at a time when fin length and width measurements were seldom published, either for reasons of commercial confidentiality or just because it did not occur to manufacturers back then that purchasers would be interested in such information.

As for timing, it is interesting that Turnbull launched their "Giant Continentals" in the same year as artist Alexander Denkov designed a template for a “Giant” fin on the other side of the world in the People's Republic of Bulgaria: the Гигант ("Gigant", Bulgarian for "Giant"). Here is a description of these Bulgarian fins more frrom an earloer Scubaboard thread: "Cast in clay and dental plaster, the fin featured a foot pocket based on the shape of the foot pockets of Cressi sub swim fins in Italy. The fin also came with an elongated blade. A diving equipment workshop in Burgas made the first pairs of “Giant” fins during the winter of 1962. They had an unusual shape for the time, their length being 63 cm. They were well received by scuba divers and particularly well by East European athletes", who went on to win many finswimming competitions with them.

Incidentally, 63 cm roughly corresponds to 24.75 inches, so the Bulgarian Giants were almost two inches longer than the Australian Giants!

Here are some more pictures of Turnbull's "Giant Continental Flippers":

Note:

• the outline of Australia on the blade showing the product's country of origin and leading to the fin's widespread recognisability;
• the additional instep strap securing this closed-heel fin on the foot at a time when fin grips were not yet widely available;
• the availability of the model in different colours, first in blue, later also in contrasting colours when production transferred to Malaysia; black otherwise predominated.

I have a pair of black Giant Continentals in my fin collection and I can vouch for their comfortable foot pockets and their powerful though narrow blades. Giant Continentals were exported to the UK during the early 1960s; I remember seeing a pair in a diving store in my home town in the North East of England around that time.

 

[David Wilson]

I'll finish for the moment with another non-European long-bladed fin that remains undated, the Brazilian-made Cobra Jumbo fin. I have several pictures in my collection:

They do resemble the Cressi Rondine L, which would place them in the late 1970s at the earliest, so perhaps a little too late for your specifications.

You will note that the long-bladed fins I have showcased are all-rubber affairs. So far as I am aware, there were no commercially available long-baded fins in the 1960s with blades made from other materials, although there might have been a few experimental models around with fibreglass, hard resin, plate metal or similar material blades in finswimming racing circles back then, particularly in the USSR, where competition was such an essential element of recreational sport for reasons of political prestige. They weren't on sale to the general public, however, and from what I've read they were extremely uncomfortable, only to be donned immediately before a race and removed immediately afterwards.

That's my lot for the moment. I'll post again if you have any follow-up questions or if I suddenly remember another pre-1975 vintage long-bladed fin!