The controversy over high-tech swimsuits reached its tipping point a few months ago when officials finally decided to ban them as of 2010. But the damage has been done and swimming as a sport has been tainted forever.
Who hasn’t accidentally left a phone, camera or MP3 player in a swimsuit pocket and gone swimming? It’s a harrowing experience, but there’s hope: Dunking the gadget in rice is a somewhat surprising yet very effective drying method.
It looks like swimmers will have to go back to good old fashioned performance-enhancing drugs after FINA’s announcement that record-setting bodysuits will be banned from competition starting in 2010.
It won’t be long before summer is here, so prepare yourself for some poolside partying with the Aqua Sounders wireless speaker and mood lighting ball.
Apparently the military has been working with West Florida’s Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC) for several years trying to develop an underwater exoskeleton that would improve a soldier’s speed and endurance underwater. Much like early pioneers of flight, IHMC has looked to nature to provide answers. So far, the project known as Performance Improving Self Contained Exoskeleton for Swimming (“PISCES”) has investigated how dolphins, sea turtles and penguins move through the water. Not surprisingly, the results have been…a little odd.
Hammacher Schlemmer’s Digital Camera Swim Mask integrates an underwater digital camera into a swim mask–two things that have belonged together ever since Man decided that Woman should wear little to no clothing when they’re in the water. The on-board 5-megapixel camera goes down to 15 feet and can take up to 30 pictures in its 16MB memory. You can expand that with a microSD card (no size limitation specified) in order to record more than 52 seconds of video as well. There’s an LED inside the mask that tells you which mode you’re in, but the whole thing requires two AAA batteries to operate. It’s only US$99, and can be used in snorkeling or just at the pool. You can bet your arse we’re testing one soon. [Hammacher]
Boy that Michael Phelps is fast. No one can argue it, he can dominate in almost any style of swim and possesses one of the best dolphin kicks in the world. That is, one of the best kicks aside from some random guy using the Lunocet monofin. Because while Phelps is able to swim at an inhuman 8 kilometres per hour, the average swimmer using the carbon fibre Lunocet will routinely hit about 12.9kph. Is it too late for us to book our tickets to Beijing?
One of the more popular theories behind Michael Phelps zooming past records with every stroke–besides his US$500 LZR super suit and daily regimen of 12,000 calories composed mostly of mermaid babies–is that the Olympic pool itself is turning swimmers into Aquamen, but you know, not totally lame. But the pool’s designer, John Bilmon says, it’s really just because the Water Cube is really pretty and inspiring. They actually left out the two changes that would’ve granted swimmers superhuman speed.
Speedo’s controversial LZR Racer swimsuit spawned its first copycat this week, a prototype from Arena International that pushes the definition of tight-fitting fabric. With a green light for the LZR from swimming’s official body, and the Summer Olympics looming large on the horizon, I think it’s safe to say that the swimsuit arms race has officially begun.
