The on-going monfin saga

In October 2007 I ordered a Leaderfins hyper pro to replace my old Specialfins dolphin carbon, that had never really worked for me as it was really too hard despite being a soft blade. In early December they promised it was in the post and I was hoping to receive it before Christmas. In early February it arrived but the date on the postal reciept was just days before Christmas. The corner was broken off. I asked for a replacement as it was poorly packaged. It also had a fingerprint on it that looked like a blood stain. In early April the replacement arrived but nothing was done to remedy the packaging problem and fin #2 was worse off than fin #1 with a good 2cm crack perpendicular to the blade end in the centre. We sent the fin back with the expectation of a replacement. They said that they had someone else to take this fin and were making me a replacement. On Thursday fin #3 arrived. It was sent air frieght to avoid sitting in transit too long. It was packaged better, although I don't think they get the concept of bubble wrap and the fact that cling film really has no impact resistance whatsoever. It was not broken but was fin #2 in disguise. They did a few things to try to make it look different. They removed the sticker and replaced it with a different one. I estimate that they cut about 5cm off the bottom of the fin. It looks absolutely miniscule. They stuck rails on the edges, top and bottom (they needed to put them on the bottom too as they extend well past the end of the fin blade). The cut goes halfway through the wave pattern of the fibreglass so I'm not convinced that the laminations will stay together. The footpockets are longer than the fin blade. They also waited the usual three months to send it. I've heard that shorter fins might be good if you're someone who swims fast with hard kicks - doesn't sound like me at all. My advice would be to boycott leaderfins. Maybe try these new Triton guys - they seem to be giving good service and have figured out how to package them safely. If I'm really lucky a year after ordering I might get a complete monofin - then I can start the search for a constant weight fin... I just want to be able to dive in equipment I can trust and by being sent fins like this it shows that the manufacturer really doesn't care too much about quality.