Feeesh wrote:

> >> Dolphins don't swim in circles just because they have only one fin. :-)

And I wrote:

> >Nor do they have two legs.

to which da Feeesh replied:

> Nor do two legged swimmers who use dolphin kicks, which make one or
> two legs/fins nearly indistinguishable, direction-wise.

Ahhh, I believe I don't agree with that assertion. I feel that two
legged swimmers using the dolphin kick will, finless on one foot,
quite possibly do circles even more so than when using the
conventional up and down stroke "one finned".

Now, I haven't tried that out and I can immediately think of one
situation where this might not be the case, but if the legs are kept
parallel I believe, speaking theoretically, the dolphin kick will make
you turn relatively sharply.

One finned, and I have tried that before you can compensate for the
drift in direction, provided you have a physical target (that you can
see) to aim at. I believe (theoretically) that such compensation in
dolphin kick mode (with the feet parallel) would be quite difficult
since the legs tend to largely act in unison in that mode, never mind
what you want them to do.

We all, of course, know that in still, no current water, when swimming
in a "straight line" with no target to aim at, we WILL swim
(eventually) in a circle, in the direction away from the primary leg.
We do that on land as well. In fact I believe that we would even do it
when steering a vehicle when the primary arm would be the culprit.

I was going to make this short and sweet but then decided that the
whole question had merit, which is why I changed the subject matter.

BTW has anyone tried the monofins? Me, I'd love to but haven't come
across any here in Oz. I theorise that they might be quite relevant in
warm tropical waters with no, or very easy, penetration.

Cheers,

Christian