Swimfins

Swimfin

Full foot fins
Other names	Fins, flippers

Swimfins, swim fins, fins or flippers are finlike accessories worn on the foot or leg and made from rubber, plastic or combinations of these materials, to aid movement through the water in water sports activities such as swimming, bodyboarding, bodysurfing, kneeboarding, riverboarding, underwater hockey, underwater rugby and various other types of underwater diving.

Swimfins help the wearer to move through water more efficiently, as human feet are too small and inappropriately shaped to provide much thrust, especially when the wearer is carrying equipment that increases hydrodynamic drag. Very long fins and monofins used by freedivers as a means of underwater propulsion do not require high frequency leg movement. This improves efficiency and helps to minimize oxygen consumption. Short, stiff-bladed fins are effective for short bursts of acceleration and maneuvering, and are useful for bodysurfing.

Early inventors, including Leonardo da Vinci and Giovanni Alfonso Borelli, toyed with the concept of swimfins.

Benjamin Franklin made a pair of early swimfins when he was a young boy living in Boston, Massachusetts near the Charles River; they were two thin pieces of wood, about the shape of an art palette, which allowed him to move faster than he usually did in the water.

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Wikipedia