POD Training Fins. Is a new training swim fin or flipper. It features some radical design innovations aimed at alleviating strain and stress load on the swimmer’s ankle and generally improving the training experience and performance of the swimmer.

Inspiration
A redundancy package was the inspiration for the creation of the POD Fins. Four years ago, Shane was made redundant from Network Ten after 13 years and ploughed his redundancy money into his ideas and passion for swimming. The swim fin was the product of his first innovation.He patented a technique to line the inside of the fin’s foot pocket with soft rubber to make it more soft and comfortable.

A representative from a large rubber manufacturing company in Malaysia saw the product in an Australian surf shop and was suitably impressed. A business relationship ensued and the Malaysian firm alerted Shane to the fact that training swim fins had a massive market in the USA and many other countries and would he be interested in designing a new one.

Shane enlisted the help of his best friend graphic designer Anthony, and together they spent two years developing the POD Training Fins.

How does it work?
POD Fins is a new training swim fin whose main design innovation, shifting the widest part of the fin from the front to the middle of the foot, takes the strain of the swimmer’s ankle. At the same time, the surface area of the whole POD Training Fin remains the same as a traditional swim fin.

As already mentioned, the rationale behind this shift is that the widest part of fin is the part which produces stress and strain on the swimmer’s ankle. By moving the widest part to the middle of the fin, the stress on the ankle is reduced by up to 56 percent and 25 percent to the knee.

When the swimmer trains with POD Training Fins, the load, which the ankle bears when traditional fins are used, is transferred to (and shared by) the whole back of the leg (including ankle, calf and thigh). This means the swimmer wearing POD Training Fins turns a negative into a positive. The excess strain on the ankle becomes a shared, complete workout and strengthening exercise for the muscles in the leg.

Another radical design innovation is the different shape and alignment of the inner and outer side blades. The inner blades are concave up while the outer blades are concave down which, according to the inventors, work better with the natural rocking motion of the swimmer.

The inventors also claim a ribbed section in the inner heel of the POD Training Fins creates a more comfortable fin for the swimmer and, more importantly, one which doesn’t slip while swimming.

Check them out on ABC TV's New Inventor's program: www.abc.net.au/newinventors/txt/s1504736.htm
See how they topped the Viewer's Poll: www.abc.net.au/newinventors/vote/results/

Shane Vassallo
POD Design Pty. Ltd.
P. +61 2 8338 0101
F. +61 2 8338 0102
M. +61 412 89 2000
www.podfins.com.au
www.podhandboards.com