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Finswimming is a sport in which, like in cycling or skating or kayaking, a special union between man and simple implements creates new parameters of performance and efficiency. 
Swimming with a monofin is the absolute fastest a human being can move through the water: speeds of up to 7.5mph (12.2 kph) are possible, and 13 minute miles over long distances! The speed, grace and sheer force of a finswimmer immediately impress any diver who sees it. This might be the future of all underwater swimming: fast, powerful, and with the full-body propulsion of a marine mammal.
Finswimming was first developed in the late sixties by Russians in Siberia (possibly the same bunch who invented baseball and radio). They bolted the foot pockets from regular fins onto metal blades fashioned after dolphin and whale tails and found it a successful experiment. As finswimming swept into Europe and Australia, Russians continued to dominate international records and meets up until quite recently, when the lead has shifted to the Chinese. Records in international finswimming meets are much faster than regular free-style times, and in open water, finswimmers leave divers with traditional fins in their wakes. Finswimming is growing in popularity all over the world: it was included as an event in the 1997 Mediterranean Games and has been officially nominated (though not yet 
accepted by the IOC) as an event in the 2004 Athens Games. Monofins, once available exclusively in Europe and Australia can now be purchased by American swimmers and there are American, as well as international governing bodies.
In open water freediving, the potential of monofins is enormous. Finners use special snorkles that come up in front of the nose and mask, then back over the head. Why? Because the speed is so great that side-mounted snorkles get torn off. A lot of free divers who debate the stiffness and power of expensive fins suddenly find their experience voided by monofins. A good finner can go deeper, move faster, and have more bottom time than anybody with two fins. Of course, you have to learn how to use them. Which means training a whole different set of muscles. Which has a lot to do with the speed and efficiency of monofins: they use bigger muscle groups for their power. But to get a good with them as dual fins can take some time and practice. The whippy movement of the dolphin kick is almost impossible while wearing tanks, but many freedivers and underwater hockey players use it frequently and would find little problem in switching to the heady rush of a monofin.
Another nice aspect of monofinning is pointed out by Terry Maas in the finswimming chapter of his book and website, in which he tells about swimming with dolphins, who seem to accept humans using monfins, inviting them to join in their dolphin games. Certainly a finswimmer stands a better chance of keeping up with dolphins, but there also seems to be something about the familiar movement and configuration that makes finswimmers more acceptable to cetaceans.
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