Randy Lord, an amputee who lost a leg below the knee in a work-related accident, decided to create the Amp Fins because he never saw amputees like himself swimming in the ocean.
More than two years ago, he set out to change that by working with his wife Lori out of their Danforth home to develop special fins.
“We are headed to a rehabilitation clinic next week to meet with 100 amputees and demonstrate our product,” Randy Lord said Tuesday. “There really has been a great response. We already have between 200 and 300 people on a waiting list who want a pair of Amp Fins.”
Swimmers can wear the Amp Fins all day long without suffering any side effects, he said.
The swim fin fits directly onto the amputated limb.
The fins can be used to help amputees exercise, build muscles and tone.
Several amputees, include Donna O’Brien, a double amputee who lost her limbs in the late 1970s, have helped the Lords test their prototypes along the way.
During a session at the University of Maine at Presque Isle pool in January, O’Brien swam for nearly two hours.
“I love them,” she said. “These are great.”
Amputees using these fins will have an advantage over able-bodied swimmers using fins, the Lords said.
The couple explained that when able-bodied swimmers use fins, the ankle is the “weak point” of the kick. According to Randy Lord, on the backstroke of the kick an able-bodied swimmer loses 80 percent of his or her power because the ankle cannot handle the strain of remaining straight. With the Amp Fins attached directly to an amputated limb or limbs, amputees are able to produce 100 percent power in both directions of the kick, propelling them with greater speed and efficiency than able-bodied swimmers, he said.
G+G Products LLC of Kennebunk was instrumental in the creation of the prototype molds and will be manufacturing the molds and fins going forward, according to Lord.
The fins will then go to Cory LaPlante, an above-knee amputee and certified prosthetist at Northern Prosthetics & Orthotics in Presque Isle, for pre-fabrication.
“Everything is made in Maine,” Randy Lord said. “And it is going to stay that way until the numbers get too large for us to keep doing it.”
Lord held a public trial run in January at the University of Maine at Presque Isle pool, where a number of area amputees attended to test out the Amp Fins. They gave high marks to the product, praising the Amp Fins for their comfortable fit, sleek design, and the lack of chafing they caused their skin.
Randy Lord said that Amp Fins would be great for amputees who like to swim but have done so while wearing their prosthetic. Putting a normal prosthetic in seawater, he said, is like immersing “between $8,000 and $15,000 worth of money in a saltwater environment. It deteriorates it.”
The price for the Amp Fins, including the prosthetist fees and fittings, will be just under $1,000. Lord said he is happy that the patent has been secured from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and that the product will soon be available.
“It has been a long process, but I’m very happy that these will soon be out there and available,” he said.
For more information, contact Amp Fin LLC at the company’s website: www.ampfins.com/
