Underwater wing

donegaldan · 03 September 2013, 02:15

Not that Irish waters are the warmest in the world,
But we do have some of the best visibility.

Just wondering has anyone here played around with towed underwater wings / snorkel wings
One company has some nice videos http://www.subwing.com/

Never seen it talked about or for sale, possible just too cold here.
And yes, I know mostly we are all keen on staying in the boat, least not being towed 10m behind it at slow speeds,
But if anyone has any experience of these, be interested to hear how they worked out for ya...

Video looks pretty good, but then, so do all sales videos

Thanks
D

ncp · 03 September 2013, 03:38

I don't know how expensive those are but it looks like something that's easily made it home, or just put a pair of swim fins/flippers on your feet and use a water ski rope...it works the same!

Bigtalljv · 03 September 2013, 04:16

Ive used ones that were made of plywood. It's not something that needs to be real fancy.

donegaldan · 03 September 2013, 09:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bigtalljv

Ive used ones that were made of plywood. It's not something that needs to be real fancy.

Thinking along the same lines, at 425 dollars, they are pretty expensive for what appears to be a couple hours in a woodwork shop.
Not taking away from the product, but tempted to have a go making something for next year.
I know there is an ever increasing list of people who would love to tow me behind a rib in the water

Any idea of how long the person stayed in the water using the device ?
and how enjoyable / worth while it was
big consideration here is how quickly I could induce severe hypothermia !

willk · 03 September 2013, 11:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by donegaldan

I know there is an ever increasing list of people who would love to tow me behind a rib in the water

Any idea of how long the person stayed in the water using the device ?
and how enjoyable / worth while it was

It sounds like good fun - why put it off for a year? I have a sheet of marine ply in the shed and a jigsaw on standby. I'm sure I could find a (list) of people prepared to tow you behind a RIB, maybe even head first...

Nick Hearne · 03 September 2013, 11:34

In our waters you are going to get cold very quickly if you do not have a dry suit!
Also I would say you would do better doing a drift dive with snorkel kit rather than this. 2 minute wonder comes to mind!

m chappelow · 03 September 2013, 12:28

I made one about 1974 from a sheet of plywood

Could only do about 2 knots before mask was shoved into me face & only wearing home made 4 mm wet suit got cold really quick owing to flush through .
Did work though so with modern suits & smaller profile face masks should be much better than back then .

donegaldan · 03 September 2013, 15:53

Sounds like a test is in order....
Might take up the offer of marine ply and while im working on it,
Willk can finish his Jigsaw :-) gotta get some fun if he is gonna tow me in these waters !

Appreciate the snorkling aspect, but more looking to achieve the flying sensation.

M_chappelow, thanks for the detail on speeds and suit.
Might try for some thicker 7mm or poss some 14 two piece semi drys that are knocking about. Keen to see how it alters buoyancy...
Might even strap on the go pro and see how this mad idea works out.....

To the drawing board so !

I feel i could be at the cold end of the string for the beta testing tho ;-)

Nick Hearne · 03 September 2013, 16:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by donegaldan

Appreciate the snorkling aspect, but more looking to achieve the flying sensation.

;-)

With the right tide running that is just what a drift dive is like, flying!

m chappelow · 03 September 2013, 17:16

Seem to remember the regulator free flowing too a lot with the force of the water pushing the front of the diaphragm though it was a ,, Greens ,, demand valve cheapest you could buy in those days £21. Lol
the board i used was what we also used as a diy bow dodger on a zodiac inflatable that we could stand or sit on which dropped ontop of the boats fabric one we fixed some large plastic horn type clears so we could initially wrap the anchor line around but for a tow board they made good hand holds ,
Most of the water flushing through the suit came through the wrists or down through the chin but with some gloves & a tighter hood you could eliminate most of that ,
. Ill try dig some old photos out if I can find any .
You also need some good viz as its easy to crash into something unless your in deep water .

jyasaki · 03 September 2013, 17:46

Stoo in Canada had a post a while back talking about using something similar to search out dive sites. On the North American forum, probably a couple, three years ago (might have been more.)

jky

HughN · 03 September 2013, 18:27

At last, a use for all the plastic hydroplanes that get fitted then removed from engines...

willk · 03 September 2013, 18:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by HughN

At last, a use for all the plastic hydroplanes that get fitted then removed from engines...

I have a set I can lend him. In my defense, they were on the engine when I bought it... they look like this:

so if he wears them, he'll kinda look this this:

donegaldan · 04 September 2013, 00:08

Lol, yea. Buzz light year meets Atlantic Ocean.

Will have a look for the Canadian post,
Also sounds like so additional hostage tape around the wrist and neck seals may help,
Granted I've been told I have some neck on me...

Any dimensions would be appreciated, apart from ballpark guesses,
If anyone had rough estimates of how big the old ones were, would be a great starting point for this .... Errr.... DIY disaster

No scratch that, underwater adventure

Thanks so far for the comments- the useful ones...
Not so sure buzz light year and a set of fins are... But hey... Concepts are concepts!

willk · 04 September 2013, 10:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by donegaldan

Thanks so far for the comments- the useful ones...

...oh anytime!

bedajim · 04 September 2013, 10:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by donegaldan

Lol, yea. Buzz light year meets Atlantic Ocean.

Will have a look for the Canadian post,
Also sounds like so additional hostage tape around the wrist and neck seals may help,
Granted I've been told I have some neck on me...

Any dimensions would be appreciated, apart from ballpark guesses,
If anyone had rough estimates of how big the old ones were, would be a great starting point for this .... Errr.... DIY disaster

No scratch that, underwater adventure

Thanks so far for the comments- the useful ones...
Not so sure buzz light year and a set of fins are... But hey... Concepts are concepts!

Can you not get a ball park size from the bloke using it on their website
" arms straight out from the shoulder ish" two widths of his hands to the inside of each wing and four to the tips as a start ?

donegaldan · 04 September 2013, 16:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by bedajim

Can you not get a ball park size from the bloke using it on their website

Probably, But was happy had anyone wanted to offer dimensions had the bought or built one

Cuts our the Alpha and Beta models, and possibly some mild hypothermia from the testing

Not like there is not gonna be enough hypothermia !