Lunoblog

More and more inquiries from freedivers, tri athletes and monofin swimmers: “Is the Lunocet more efficient than a traditional monofin?” We of course think that the Lunocet is not only the most beautiful man created underwater piece of equipment but also the best and fastest way to evolve in the underwater world. We understand the cravings of the Luno community for testing and further videos of the Lunosapien in action. Let it be known we are working on it. In the meantime let’s talk about our experience hoping that it will shed some light on the Lunocet performance and behavior in the water.

Hydrofoils mechanics makes the Lunocet quite different from conventional monofin. My friend and world champion freediver Martin Stepanek did try the first prototype (same hydrofoil design used in the production model). His first comment was: “wow this is very different! “To tell you the truth he was having trouble to get a feel for the fin, his monofining technique is close to perfection and yet the Lunocet felt different. As I happen to be a snowboarder who tried once a monoski I like to do the comparison. The Lunocet is the snowboard and the monofin the monoski. Similar concept but a very different technique. The Lunocet requires more knee bending and ankle flexibility to properly activate the hydrofoils. Also from my personal experience, I honestly think that the up stroke or recovery stroke is the power stroke as your feet are pushing on a really rigid material (the aluminum plate . Hence a whole new way to manage the lactic acid build up. 

Coming back from a 30 meters dive I really felt that I was pushing on a race car accelerator, I also remarked that my ankle the next day were sore. But spending four consecutive days in the water about 4  hours in the water a day going up and down and swimming around the Cenotes Azul in Mexico, my feet were fine, compared to the pain I usually get from a traditional mono footpocket. I started paying more attention to stretching my ankle and the soreness eventually faded away.

I might have told you this previously, we are puting together a pro user team composed of professional tri athletes, freedivers and monofin swimmer to get more feedback. If you feel like you have the profile to participate in the pro user Luno team, send us an email via the “contact us” form on  the website.

We are open to criticism, the constructive kind that is!

Pursue the breach!

cheers,

 

015~

 

We are getting the tail end of hurricane Fay,the thunderstorms and strong winds she left behind are creating tornados on the peach side of the country. No lagoon swimming today, time to think about all the different gear that one can use while touring the blue. We secretly dream of a LunoSuunto that would give us surface speed, depth, and heartrate (monitoring the Lunosapien vitals), a waterproof Lunohydropack (with a tiny  desalinization system) from camelback would be nice to maintain hydration. A super bright LED or Xenon headlight for nocturnal reef encounters…

I heard you,yes you there who just said “How about sharks you idiot!?” Well here is food for thoughts I have witnessed a white shark taking off when a dolphin pod showed up. It is  just a matter of organizing a pod of Lunosapiens when water bound: ”Thou shall not venture at night on reef solo” Luno 0:15.

The reef at night, or even the kelp for that matter offer a completely different experience where the palette of colors changes drastically.A cornucopia of marine life comes out , sharks, school of small squids, octopus,lobsters and the bioluminescence are well worth getting over your primal fears.

Bioluminescence is the aurora borealis of the underwater world, as soon as you get enough confidence to turn off your light the movement you create becomes color, it is just fantastic. I am looking forward to see the kind of artwork that the hydrofoils will generate with bioluminescence.  As for now I am stuck in the building but it is just a matter of time  before we head out again. 

015~

We have received a lot of emails asking of how realistic a full breach (entire body propelled out of the water) is with a Lunocet. Well I could talk about hydrofoil pitch angle, muscle mass, flexibility of the Lunosapien and even theoretical depth that one needs to attain in order to get the extra Archimedes push to reach full breach . But this is all dry theory and we are more into spending time in the water. For now we have been  enjoying “NBE” (Near Breaching Experience) while staying focused on pursuing the full breach. We are shipping out the first Lunocet units in the next 2 weeks and  are looking forward to see more video action from users soon. Also We are putting together a pro user team composed of triathletes, freedivers and monofin swimmers to pursue the breach. Not to forget that breaching is not the only aquabatic that one will  pull off with a Lunocet , get inspiration here!  I am a big fan of the bubble trail before partial breach with a Lunocet Extension (tail extension) finale. The main idea behind aquabatics is their evolution, and how Lunosapiens will create and refine the tricks. I would like to conclude by a few wise words from my freediver instructor Aharon Solomon at Freedivers:

“We have long ago surpassed the limits attainable by purely physical excellence and are now venturing into the terra incognita of our mental potential”

 015~

 

Recently, a lot of you have been asking for more videos of the Lunocet in action. Here’s what we have of the older prototype. We are inches away from having brand new, fresh content with the latest and greatest. Thanks for your patience and support!

The Blue Hole in Santa Rosa.
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In the Ciamillo Test Lagoon
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Our sister company Zero Gravity (cycling brakes) takes the gold in the women’s cycling time trial, thanks to  Kristin Armstrong (team USA). Sure the lunosapiens are anxious to develop the sport of aquabatics and take the gold with a Lunocet at some point in time . It inspires us to go further in Lunocet performance and development. Talking of which, back to work~~

015-

photo:Casey B. Gibson

Lately we have been rocking to the sound of BT’s “This Binary Universe”. Bryan Transeau ’s universe is composed of trance with a hint of movie score. He actually scored several movies (Go ,Fast and the Furious, and lately the entire score of Catch and Release) and  video games. Transeau’s inspiring track “Good Morning Kaia” would be the perfect track to breach to !

Here is a link to This Binary Universe and The world of BT.

015~

 

Ted Ciamillo is not the kind of person who sits at the top of Mount Kilimanjaro in contempt, rather, he is already thinking on ways to conquer Everest. From the cycling industry with the successful Zero Gravity cycling brakes to his “Hydrospeeder” ventures in the DPV world Ted is what society calls an overachiever. I’d like to call him a magician, where the fantasy world he creates (as an engineer) is somewhat closer to the truth than the truth itself.

Lunocet, as I told a customer yesterday on the phone is more than a product, it is an adventure, a key to a new world. But like in any story a key to a new world does not fall from the sky on the hero’s lap, it takes an adventure which involves failures and eventually leads to success.

The difference in between a Lunosapien and a “Lunoskeptic” is that the Lunosapien believes that the most important part of the journey is the journey itself not the beginning or the end of it. The Lunocet is a journey and we invite you to share it with us.

The day started with a fight with telecommunication corporate giant T-Mobile, who is refusing to have me cancel my cell phone contract without a $250 cancellation fee. I insisted on the fact that I had no reception whatsoever at the office, and since I use my cell phone at the office  as well as everywhere (isn’t the idea of a cell phone to be able to go mobile?) I wanted to terminate my contract. Their answer was to upgrade my phone which was judged by the T-mobile representative as “getting old…you should upgrade!” My phone happens to be a 2 year old blackberry pearl too old really?

I am not going to rant about this unfairness for too long, thank you T-mobile for setting customer service standards so low, in contrast at Ciamillo Inc. we receive tons of email about how happy our customers are about the ZERO G brakes customer service and the follow up on the Lunocet orders.

Exciting news, the enticing Lunocet appears page 70 of the September issue of Outside Magazine make sure to read the fine lines!

yours truely,

Lunosapien~

Today at lunch the entire Ciamillo team was bent over the swim step that leads to the lagoon ( our Lunocet trial ground, it is a pond but we like to call it lagoon it sounds more exotic).  The reason behind all this contortion was to look at the alligator gar fish under the swim step that was in turn watching the bass who was watching brims, all of which were monitored by both the turtles and the catfish who by the way, is looking more and more like a nurse shark these days…

We were in awe. The comments and excitement around this fantastic backyard thriving ecosystem had a childish tone: “Wow look at that one it is definitely bigger than last week!” or “Man we need more brim, I think the gar needs more food!”

The point of this story is not only to share with you a day at the Lunocet factory but also to make you understand that everything about us is unconventional, we do have board meetings on the beach by the lagoon and  if the alligator gar shows up everyone will go over to admire nature’s design and get inspired! Hence the Lunocet.

Stay tuned~~~~

 

 As the name implies, Dr. Fish is well versed in the field of marine biology and research. Frank has worked closely with Ted in the last  years to refine and apply the swimming morphology of whales and dolphins to biomimetic propulsion system . Dr Fish has been consulted during the R&D phase of the Lunocet and is also a key player in the sub propulsion for the Subhuman Project. I would recommend reading his “Limits of nature and advances of technology: What does biomimetics have to offer to aquatic robots? “ article. Also check out his online “Liquid Life Lab” We recommend the reading room with his publications but also his great cartoons, staff favorite “Putting the G into agility” because of its relevance to the Lunosapiens world!