My name is Jeff Watson and I am a competitive and recreational freediver that dives primarily in cold, fresh water, but likes to enjoy all that there is to offer in terms of apnea and things aquatic.  I vacation in beautiful, clear, warm Caribbean waters that are full of life and also enjoy snorkeling them with my wife.

For training and fun, I play Underwater Hockey, Underwater Rugby and also sustainably spearfish for fresh, delicious meals that you simply can not buy in a restaurant or grocery store.

Before freediving, I used to race cars of all sorts and in all conditions (tarmac, autocross, go-karts, ice-racing with studded tires, etc.) and was used to being able to feel what the car was doing and optimizing the car setup for the best possible performance.

When I got into freediving, it was plainly obvious to me that a monofin was the tool of choice due to its efficiency in propulsion, the way it spreads the muscular / lactic load out across the core and legs and not just the quads like bi-fins and also because it was the tool that all of the world records were being set with.

I had read about some early design iterations (2000 - 2012) of the Lunocet but at the time it was apparent that it was not yet ready for high-performance freediving.

When I saw the 2014 Lunocet Classic, I was intrigued by the organic design and materials (an aluminium core with moulded rubber flukes) and contacted the manufacturer / inventor with hopes to review it and provide any feedback that I might have, in an attempt to help shape and customize my own dream fin.  

Those characteristics are:

• Performance (acceleration / thrust and low drag)
• Comfort (as a conventional fibreglass blade monofin can be tolerated for about :20 mins before you want to chop your feet off)
• Portability (as conventional monofins are bulky)
• Durability (as conventional monofins are delicate and fragile!).

My thinking was simply, if he can create this object from chunks of aluminum, rubber pellets and fasteners, then he could create any shape that we could imagine.

2014 Lunocet Classic:

My initial impressions were that the design was very novel and the cycling shoe concept was ingenious and super-comfortable, but the thrust / acceleration required for freediving simply was not there and the design needed some changes.

I provided my feedback to the inventor and the 2014 Lunocet Pro was created.  See picture below to compare it with the 2014 Classic.  The surface area was hugely increased, but this added significant weight and also put additional strain on the centre spring which it could not adequately handle.

The 2015 Lunocet Pro was then created to address some of the geometry of the flukes that was not as optimized as we would have liked and the centre spring / "peduncle" was beefed up and a second joint / vertebrae was added to the design and the 2015 Lunocet Pro was born!  This was in my opinion the first Lunocet that was truly up to the task of freediving and was now my fin of choice. 

I had no intention of getting involved in the commercial sale, marketing or distribution of the fins and really just wanted to help contribute to the design of my perfect / ideal fin.  As it turns out, I have a marketing, customer service and technology background and the inventor / manufacturer has strengths that lie elsewhere (in the engineering, CAD / CAM and product design areas) and as such, a perfect fit emerged for the sale of Lunocet monofins from Nov. 2014 onwards!

Check out a map of our customers from all over the world that are swimming with the Lunocet!

Jeff Watson

Chief Fin Officer

Aquatic Tendencies Inc.