Aphinity

Commission by Marci_McAdam.

Aphinity (born November 30) is an Avali (formerly anthro Pacific white-sided dolphin) from North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. He first came to recognize himself as furry in February of 2006. He spent a few years on Tapestries MUCK as Chuff, the anthro orca whale, prior to his introduction to Vfur, courtesy of Orka and Selkit from Furnation Worlds, who in turn lead him to Trapa and Loial Otter. He has extensive convention staff and management experience, with notable examples including chair of Howloween from Howloween 2008 to Howloween 2022, chair and founder of Vanhoover Pony Expo, executive staff in founding year of VancouFur, and previous board of directors member for both RainFurrest, and VancouFur.

Marine studies & work

Aphinity is passionate about dolphins and whales. He has previously worked as a dolphin trainer at The Dolphin Institute and has constructed a passive sonar beamforming hydrophone array for both UBC and for Vancouver Aquarium researcher Dr. Volker Deecke.

He regularly attends conferences relating to studies of wild killer whales and marine mammals in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska and was given approval to construct a passive sonar array system in the beluga whale habitat of the Vancouver Aquarium, to which he was given staff privileges. He was previously a volunteer for the Vancouver Aquarium as a Gallery Educator and is currently employed for Mascot work as Beebop beluga, the Aquarium's official mascot.

Interests

Automotive

Aphinity has a background in automotive racing and performance vehicles thanks to his father, who runs an inline six drag race car. He personally drives a 2004 Dodge SRT-4 turbo sport compact car, and occasionally races radio controlled off-road and on-road cars, having placed 3rd in the Canadian Nationals in 1/10th Scale Gas Truck before previously quitting racing in 1997.

Photography

Aphinity is an amateur photographer with a good deal of Nikon camera equipment. He is an experienced videographer and editor with past years of experience, including construction of a multimedia grad slide show for his high school graduating class, and various other amateur productions.

Computers

Aphinity is an avid computer user (including being an Apple Macintosh user) and once worked as an Apple Certified Technician at a major Apple Specialty store in Vancouver, BC. He is presently employed as a computer consultant for a North Vancouver company. He dabbles in electronics occasionally and has a diploma in Computer Systems Technology from the BC Institute of Technology with a specialty in embedded systems.

Avali

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Aphinity reached out to virtual reality platforms like VRChat where he discovered the Avali species, and decided to get more involved with creating Avali merchandise and creating his own Avali avatar. As a result, he began hosting VR portals and panels with his own equipment at VancouFur and Howloween.

Fursuits

Aphinity constructed his first fursuit thanks to tips and guidance from Trapa and help from Loial, and a head design thanks to Saros (Legend Gryphon). The suit is comprised of a molded plastic head construction with overlaying soft foam and plush fabric, 3D eyes, a separate tail that hooks through a belt loop, a separate dorsal fin that can be worn independently, and feet constructed over top of old shoes.

When the fursuit was still unfinished, he chose to wear it for Howloween 2006, his first ever furry convention. He continued to work on it, and made substantial improvements to it for his use at Further Confusion 2007, as well as RainFurrest 2007 and occasional public venues. Due to wear and damage, this fursuit is currently retired and it's final use was at RainFurrest 2009.

He expanded his performance options by acquiring a second suit, a Siberian Husky named Ioco, which was received in October of 2009 on a commission from One Fur All Studios. While Aphinity is still his main character, he has found ioco (always spelled with a lowercase "i") to be tremendously well received by others and better understood compared to Aphinity, his dolphin character.

External links

This person is a WikiFur user: Aphinity's user page Aphinity's talk page

• Aphinity on Fur Affinity
• Aphinity on LiveJournal (rarely posted to)