| History of finswimming
It is in 1935 that the French commander De Corlieu develops, at
exclusively military ends, the rubber fins. He was
inspired by the observation of Polynesian fishermen who used sheets of palm tree to
improve their progression
under water. The fins improve the propulsion in such a manner they quickly become an
accessory impossible to
circumvent of deep-sea diving.
The first competitions appeared, already, before the second world
war. In the Fifties, is set up the C.M.A.S.
(World Confederation Of the Subaquatic Activities) which chapeaute and coordinates the
various national
federations. In 1967, the first official championships of Europe finally could be held in
Locarno in Switzerland.
At the time, to improve the performances of the traditional
rubber fins, the swimmers used there rivet steel blades.
At the beginning of the Seventies, one sees appearing the first fins made out of glass
fibre, used for the first time by
the Soviets with the championship of Barcelona (Spain). This new material was quickly
adopted by all the
swimmers and competitiors who appreciate its lightness, its flexibility and its
nervousness.
But the most outstanding evolution has been the arrival of the
monofin. It completely transformed the image of the
finswimming. Hitherto, the swimmers copied, by adapting it, the traditional technique of
the crawl. With the arrival
of the monofin, a very new technique of stroke was born, rather imitating the undulations
of the dolphin in water.
Appeared in 1972, with the championship from Europe in Moscow, this new technique very
quickly supplants the
traditional Bi-palms in the majority of the competitions because it opens unhoped-for
chronometric horizons for
the swimmers who reach speeds about 12KM/H. Elégante, it completes to transform the
finswimming into true
sport of slips .
At the world championship in Berlin, in August 1986, 28 countries
are present, representing 4 continents. This
same year, the C.M.A.S. was recognized by the C.I.O (Olympic International Committee) for
the discipline of
finswimming. It was still invited to make a demonstration on 7 last June with BARI with
the Mediterranean
Games. Today, it is a sport in full expansion which is addressed to everybody.
Source: WWW pages of Flippers
Team Locarno - Swiss finswimming club
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