In February of 1868, a San Francisco photographer, Halvor Olsen was
granted the first U.S. patent for fins, which were identified as "Fin Sandals for the
feet." There is little record of the diving activities of this man or if anyone else had
seriously used his fins. The standard of the day was to use tape to tape the toes
together for added propulsion.
A French Naval Officer, Commander Louis DeCorlieu began research on the
Law of Cubes which states "The discontinuity of impulsion destroys the yielding
power of a propulsion device." After continuing experiments that Started in 1928,
he finally, in 1932 obtained the desired results with an elastic rubber fin. The
elasticity of the fin reduced the discontinuity of propulsion as much as practically
possible. In 1933, DeCorlieu was granted his first European patent for fins calling
them, "Swimming Propellers." In November 1937 he was granted a U.S. patent.
The first swim fin that came out in the U.S. marketplace was the Owen
Churchill fin just before WWII. Owen Churchill was a yachtsman from California. He
found the natives in Tahiti swimming with crude fins made out of leaves. Upon
returning to the U.S. in 1939 Owen Churchill found the DeCorlieu's patent and
made an agreement with DeCorlieu to exclusively manufacture fins in the U.S.
1940 was really the first production year with 946 pairs sold. Three years later, the
orders for the fins were 50,000 pair of fins per order. He must have sold millions of
them. They were used all over the place. Concurrently Owen Churchill received
design patents and improvement patents on his own designs.
1955 came the "Duck Feet" fins. Arthur H. Brown had a mask with a purge
button, a snorkel and the "Duck Feet" fin. That's all his company sold. Two ridges
in the fin. It was manufactured from pure gum rubber. It was a good fin. Many
compounds were tried but the original gum rubber fins had to be reintroduced.
Scubapro came out with a fin that they imported from George Beuchat of
France, with Jet-Stream holes in them. From the Jet-Fins came the evolution of
modern diving fins. Next year Dacor and U.S. Divers came out with similar fins.
One of them claimed it had venturi slots in them. Well there is no venturi effect,
but they sold a great many of them. All were good fins but really no appreciable
speed difference generated by these fins. Some people may have the right idea
when they say that if the fin is light and easy to carry in the dive bag, it is a good
fin.
U.S. Divers introduced the Caravelle Fin. The most monumental failure in the
history of fins. They were the Edsel of the diving world. Caravelle Fins were years
ahead of the norm in materials and design, and definitely ahead of technology, but
was a huge commercial failure. The Caravelles had rubber foot pockets with plastic
blades.
Another monumental failure was in 1977, when Ralph Shamlian combined a
diving fin with a ski boot. The intent was to prevent the diver from involving his
ankle. Instead all trust would be exerted from and controlled by the larger thigh
muscle. Although well advertised, these fins were met with limited success and
were soon retired, undoubtedly because of their radical departure from the norm
and exorbitant retail price.
Hand fins were tried at one time as an aid to swimming and are still being
used by disabled persons. Commander Louis DeCorlieu developed these to be used
with his foot fins. Generally the hands add less to the propulsion. So just like you
all have learned, keep the hands close to the body. They produce more drag
otherwise.
