Paradigm Busting Fins, Paradigm Shifting Media

#ForceFinner Bob Denton built the Force Fin web site when there were only 250,000 web pages in existence. Overnight our connection with customers and the media changed. I stopped mailing 400-600 Force Fin brochures; a flood of emails followed. We seized the opportunity to educate on how to move freely underwater. We were driving a product paradigm shift by using the global paradigm shift in communication. Neither came without opposition. The dive industry opposition to the internet was so venomous that the US Attorney General intervened. With this as the background, we used the medium to break down the barriers that had preceded individual economic growth. That growth became a center of attention.

I’ve been scanning documents, clearing boxes and files, reliving our history. This week I came across a 1993 response to a “Fin Study.” It was published in NAUI’s Sources Magazine and quoted in Undercurrents. Susanne traveled with Dr. Nash (JPL) to UCLA to listen to the Professor under whose tutelage the study was conducted. Dr. Nash and Susanne disclosed its flaws, which were fallacies that then defined how we move through water. These formed the basis of the study; its conclusions were blown away.

It was one of the first chips in the industry armor that previously held back not only Force Fin growth, but that of just about any entrepreneur who attempted to market here. What followed, after a few more chips of the armor, was unprecedented industry growth.

The internet made it possible for us to “get the story out.” Both NAUI and Undercurrents initially refused to publish our rebuttal. We turned to the early scuba forum on aol. Without delay we heard from NAUI that their attorneys had suggested in no uncertain terms they publish it. This would not be the last time we were able to overcome misinformation by publishing the truth. #TRUTHABOUTDIVEFINS #FORCEFINNERSUNITE