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Aqua Scale Mail

"Where's my super suit?!"
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I can't believe that this doesn't already exist.

The fabric of this wetsuit or drysuit has been ergonomically designed with scales which open wide when using one's body while swimming submerged.
Whichever style of swimming you are trying, the scale mail effect of this suit will zip your limbs and body through the water unimpeded in one direction while adding far more drag to your exertions in the other than webbed gloves and flippers alone could achieve, so a diver will conserve far more air while travelling a much greater distance.


only vaguely related ... Mummy_20Wetsuit
[normzone, Oct 02 2024]

Sky Harpoon Sky_20harpoon
A similar (if you squint...) idea for the air. Maybe swim with an umbrella & see if it works? [neutrinos_shadow, Oct 07 2024]

Inspired by this but morphed into this: https://www.dropbox...ez&st=d61hesx6&dl=0
[doctorremulac3, Oct 08 2024]

Then morphed into more like this. https://avp.fandom....e)?file=Promo07.PNG
A xenomorph ironically. The teeth would be your fingers, the back of the head on this thing's the paddle. [doctorremulac3, Oct 08 2024]


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Annotation:







       So like when you pull your arms back they open up then close when you push them forward? That’s pretty cool.
doctorremulac3, Oct 01 2024
  

       Yep. I love to scuba. I'd like to make it better. <side story>   

       I last went diving in the Phillippines. We were going WW2 wreck diving. Just as a joke, at the end of our introductory course I asked;
"Do we get to go inside the boats?", knowing that without a specified ticket that would never be allowed in North America, and the dive master says; "Yeah... if you can show me that you can control your buoyancy enough and you're not clutrophobic... we can go inside them."
  

       It was awesome!   

       <sorry for that, end of side story>   

       Tried it. Made a test model with cat food lids for flaps (scales) and a pole. Took a lot of effort to get any forward motion at all, much more than flippers. Lots of drag on the flap surfaces when not in "power" stroke. What worked was a hinged horizontal 3' wing using your legs for power. OK for SCUBA but not free diving, but it limited freedom of movement.   

       How would the body be moved to take advantage of the "scales?" Sinuous motion, like fish or flippers, seems much more efficient. Scales are used for streamlining, not power, or this would have been evolved by some organism or other.   

       But it would look great!
minoradjustments, Oct 07 2024
  

       Are you serious? That's awesome! Can you post a video?   

       How about a much simpler limited version of this that just slips over your arms? Then have them just be on the pinky side of your arm like paddles? You'd pull yourself through the water. Get the same amount of area without having to use as many parts as you would with the scales thing. (which is brilliant by the way)   

       I don't think you'd even swim with your hands, you'd basically just "punch" the water in front of you. You could put the same thing on your lower legs instead of fins and just do a stair climber motion.   

       Maybe don't even need "scales" just one big folding one way paddle on each arm and each leg. Maybe two or three but whatever got the most surface area. Maybe a half cone shaped thing.   

       How about a series of 3 or 4 "skirts" that open like Marilyn Monroe over that air vent when you pull back and close like a lady sitting down at a fine dinner when they move forward. Or is that overkill? I guess you could try different orientations to see which one worked best.   

       Hey, about about sticks you hold that have one way paddles? Basically underwater oars. You could fold them back onto your arm when just exploring. Make them expandable and collapsible, you could have them be like six feet long.
doctorremulac3, Oct 07 2024
  

       I could 3d print something but I had thought that the plastic from pop bottles would make for decent scales for the first prototype.
It wouldn't add hardly any weight to a wet-suit. I think that just the gauntlets to start with will be the way to go.
  

       Each scale will be kept from folding back on itself under pressure with a high-test fishing line tether to the suit itself.
Your every movement underwater will be amplified but you'll need to cut your strokes short or be dragging your scales in the wrong direction.
  

       Like you wouldn't want to swim with your arms dangling behind you.   

       Dude! Go for it! I think there should be a category here for Halfbakers who actually at least build prototypes of their ideas.   

       Just do a partial prototype, an arm or something, don’t need to build the whole thing.   

       Plastic pop bottles cut in half and duct tape? If there’s vs anything duct tape can’t achieve I have yet to learn about it. And how’s that for a fun day at the beach trying it out?
doctorremulac3, Oct 08 2024
  

       Honestly dude, I want to make all of the things I see in my head.   

       I've spent decades chasing the hope of creating a space and a group to make the things I see in my head a reality.   

       Wish me luck. I'ma need it.   

       Anything I've posted here I intend to be stolen.   

       ...   

       Seriously.   

       Patent it. Do a provisional patent to test out the market, see if it flies then do a utility patent. You've got one year after publishing it to do that, you’ve already established priority.   

       But make sure it works first.   

       By the way, my hand oar idea inspired by your swim scales idea has officially morphed into something completely different, it's just the existing hand paddle thing with an extended surface area that triples the amount of pull you'll get from that return stroke doing a standard swim stroke.   

       I say we both build prototypes and have a friendly race.
doctorremulac3, Oct 08 2024
  

       Dr. I am sitting at my desk doing all sorts of hand motions in the air to imagine your design (thanks) And I keep thinking it's going to give me some sort of syndrome. Will I be able to close my fist when I'm engaging the flap? Otherwise I'm doing this weird angle with my forearm and flat hand and it's worrisome.   

       For the record I did no such air swimming with the current idea. It got greenlighted in my imagination.
daseva, Oct 08 2024
  

       //I am sitting at my desk doing all sorts of hand motions in the air to imagine your design//   

       LOL! That's what I've been doing for the last few hours. People watching this would think I was practicing for a hand puppet show.   

       So just the last link on my "Arm Swim Paddles / Now Hand Swim Paddles" shows the final design and you just swim as you normally would. The difference is, when you pull back with just your hand, the area making contact with the water is just your palm. They have baseball mitt looking affairs that expand this a bit, but what I've added is a long paddle that reminds me of the alien's weird long head. When you put your hand forward for the stroke, your hand and the paddle is flat and straight causing little resistance. When you put your hand down, like you would making the puppet talk to you, your also raising that paddle increasing that water contacting area by several times.   

       Wait, let me make another drawing with the forward stroke / rearward stroke illustrated. Stand by...
doctorremulac3, Oct 08 2024
  

       Okay, think I've mucked up bro's post enough. Put a clarified drawing on my "Arm Swim Paddles / Now Hand Swim Paddles" link.
doctorremulac3, Oct 08 2024
  

       It's not like I don't do the same shit.   

       Muck away my dude.   

       Ooh, a much-improved take on my jellyfish propulsion wetsuit.
RayfordSteele, Oct 10 2024
  


 

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