Re: How much faster can a person swim when he is wearing flippers?

I don't think I have a full answer to that question. I have found no sites on 
the WWW that list world records in swimming with fins. There are some sites that 
discuss freediving, but that is not a speed event but rather a breathholding and 
depth diving event. All swimming records focussed on swimming without aids. The 
one timed swimming "event" I found was the US Navy SEALS training requirements. 
The third phase of the BUDS training has a requirement that SEALS swim 2 miles 
in the open ocean in 70 minutes. Assuming that some of them can do it in 60 
minutes, that would give you a long distance, fin-aided swim speed of 2 miles 
per hour.

David Winsemius, MD