Our Story

My Masters coach, Kerry O’Brien, had us do a drill called “Wag the Dog.” We placed a kickboard between our legs and rotated back and forth. I liked the idea, but the board was difficult to hold in place. That challenge stayed with me. What if a pull buoy had a fin attached?

A couple of summers ago, while teaching swim lessons, I saw an opportunity to use that idea to help young swimmers learn to connect their body movements. I went home and told my wife we should find someone to make a 3D-printed prototype.

Her answer: “Before you do that, make a sample yourself.”

So I did. With a pull buoy, a Recreonics rectangle hand paddle, a long hinge, bolts, screws, and surgical tubing, I built the first version. It wasn’t pretty, but when I took it into the water, it worked the way I had hoped.

I called my best friends, Spanish Olympian and Head Swim Coach at Virginia Tech, Sergio López. He connected me with Ian Ho, a Virginia Tech swimmer on his team who is pursuing a PHD in 3D printing. Ian took my sketches and made it real!  The first 3D printed prototype was born!  More versions than I imagined came to life over the next 10 months.  The results will speak for themselves but I explored different designs, tested them in the water, and kept making changes. It is and has been an exciting process as I explore how this training tool can help swimmers swim faster.

That curiosity has been part of my swimming life for decades.

As a 1992 U.S. Olympic swimmer, I had the opportunity to be part of the Hungarian Wave Breaststroke revolution with coach József Nagy, Mike Barrowman, and Sergio. Growing up with coaches such as Ernie Maglischo, and Nort Thornton at UC Berkeley, has shape my lifelong interest in how strokes work—and how we can improve them and go faster!

RoqFin carries that same spirit: ask questions, think beyond familiar approaches, and test ideas in the water.

Our goal is to help swimmers feel the connection between their hips, core, and shoulders, while giving coaches another tool to teach and observe rotation.

From a homemade prototype to RoqFin, the purpose has stayed the same.

Connect your core.

—Roque Santos
Founder, RoqSwim | 1992 U.S. Olympian