Korean Competition swimsuit patterns - Who will be the new number one?

First, I have to commend the Koreans for not being so boring with their swimwear designs and for taking chances.

Though some of these suits are quite "horsey" or a bit "loud" to my cultural tastes, these silkscreen designs technically rival in execution those t-shirt designs by Christian Audigier, Affliction, or whatever trendy t-shirt you see selling on Melrose or Ventura Blvd. these days.

Executing ornate silkscreen apparel designs such as you see to the right, and to make it symmetrical so that it lines up nicely from one edge of the pattern to the other is really hard to do and these companies are apparently very good at it.

The average suit is made of "80/20" as they say in the garment industry. I recently just learned what that means; It is slang for 80%-nylon, 20%-Lycra and it is really cheap to purchase.

The retail price for 80/20 is $8.00 a square meter. It's probably $3.00 a square meter or less if you buy in bulk. (Does somebody know the exact bulk rate?)

This Nylon/Lycra fabric will be the "standard issue" material for competition swimsuits in 2010. In some cases a swimsuit company may treat their jammers or briefs with Teflon but Teflon breaks down in chlorine and the only suits that will benefit from this value added treatment will be the ladies swimsuits since they obviously utilize more surface material then the men.

With the same fabric as a de facto standard, will any suit be faster than any other? I say no! Consequently, I suspect it will price point, the artwork and durability of the suits that will determine who the new leaders will be. Therefore, when it comes to price point, access to Asian garment districts in Cambodia and Vietnam, and the courage to take chances with a silkscreen printer, who is to say that the Koreans are not in the game now?

I think the industry has been turned upside down and shaken violently by FINA and their silly tech-suit regulations. I think there is no swimsuit leader in competitive swimming at the moment. Perhaps that is why Nike is back in the swimsuit business because the market has been sent back in time to 1980?

Ironically enough, it is Speedo that got hurt the most by this upheaval for several reasons: They have no presence in the triathlon world which means no tech-suit offering, wetsuit offering, and other gear. They have lost there technological foothold as well since a mandated pattern and fabric specification has been determined for all by FINA. They are paying a fortune for world class athletes to help them sell swimsuits that cost $30-to-$75 each versus $150-to-$550 for a tech-suit.

The featured suit above and to the right comes from a company called Silverspin who sells their product through Aqus.kr: [Link]

The USMS sends me an ominous letter foreshadowing the end of tech-suits!

Essentially it says: Please come to our meets and wear tech-suits. Please buy tech-suits from our sponsors; but just so you know, in less than 11-weeks from now you probably won't be able to wear tech-suits at USMS sanctioned events...

From the USMS:

Dear Tony ,

The FINA Masters Committee has recommended that the FINA Bureau, meeting in mid-January, approve its recommendation that Masters swimmers be governed by the same swimsuit rules as the elite pool swimmers. If the Bureau approves the committee's recommendation, it is anticipated it would go into effect after the Bureau meeting. If this recommendation becomes policy with the FINA Bureau, USMS will implement it for our sanctioned swim meets.

For the time being and until the FINA Bureau issues its policy for Masters, the June 1, 2009 ruling that allowed technical suits in USMS swim meets is still in effect. If you choose to compete in a USA Swimming sanctioned meet, you must follow USA Swimming rules. If you would like more information on purchasing technical suits, you may contact your swimsuit dealer or any of the following:

bluesevety, TYR, Speedo, Finis

After reading this letter two more times through, I decided to go for a bike ride at my local bike path.

Dara Torres pimping pistachios!

I am probably the last person to see this, huh?

'Universal Sports' has a swim gallery of the 2009 Kona Ironman!

Here is a direct link to the photo gallery: [Link]

The 2009 Kona Ironman swim start!

When I competed in this race, there were less than 1,000 who showed up, Yesterday there were 1,700. I have never see a race start this intimidating.

Craig Alexander repeats as Kona Ironman but Andy Potts (TYR Sayonara), John Flanagan (TYR Sayonara) and Pete Jacobs (bueseventy) won the swim!

The swim times were a bit slow this year: 49:42.0. I could not swim it that fast but I could have been within 5-minutes of that time. I suspect the swim course may have been unwittingly extended and the athletes swam farther than 2.4-miles

From the Examiner:

Flanagan led Potts, churning through the water like he was fleeing a shark as Potts loped along on his tail, looking relaxed. In the last several hundred meters of the swim, Flanagan decided that he had had enough of Potts swimming on his toes and turned up the heat. Potts fell a body length behind, but ultimately caught up and passed Flanagan to collect the day's swim prime with a time of 49:42. Two minutes later the follow pair emerged and their identities were revealed: Pete Jacobs from Australia and the 20-year-old dark horse Philip Graves who some have compared to a male Chrissie Wellington.

[Link]

For a larger version of the video here is the YouTube [Link]

The Ironman is tomorrow - to celebrate I found a photo of me wearing one of the first tri-suits!

This photo was taken when Julie Moss, Scott Tinley, Mark Allen were racing. In other words I found it bubbling up in the tar at the famous La Brea Tar Pitts in West L.A.. I think I even raced Ahelee that day as well and I believe she rode a pink bicycle. If it was her and you have to know, she handed me my ass.

This particular race took place in Long Beach along the Belmont Shores and we all cheated and got to draft in a glorious peloton like they do in the Tour de France. It was epic.

I am also wearing one of the first "tri-suits" and look at those real "neato," Saucony shoes. I loved those shoes.

Here s a link to a site TYR put up so you can follow race online:

Tracer Sayonara™ Swimskin Online Giveaway This Weekend

Huntington Beach – TYR prepares for the 2009 Ironman World Championships this Saturday, October 10th with the launch of an exclusive online site, www.tyr.com/kona, with pre-race and race day coverage.

The site features biographies, a photo gallery, and live video blogging of TYR’s sponsored triathletes including two-time defending world champion Chrissie Wellington, Ironman 70.3 world champion Andy Potts, and Eagleman Ironman 70.3 champion TJ Tollakson.

In addition, viewers have the opportunity to win a Tracer Sayonara, an elite swimskin made with Titanium alloy to be worn by the top competitors at Kona Ironman World Championships.

Visit www.tyr.com/kona for complete details.

Now pay attention and see which tech suit is first out of the water: blueseventy, TYR, and maybe we will see a Jaked?

The US Olympic Committee CEO, Stephanie Streeter, is being forced to resign!

This is how we do business in America: Show me the money or I will show you the door.

As you know the Chicago Olympic games were vetoed by the IOC and subsequently both our President and First Lady were summarily embarrassed after having Chicago rejected during the first round.

Chicago hosting the 2016 Games summarily meant international prestige for both our President and his home town but instead both President Obama and the city of Chicago "came home" looking weaker than when they left.

The governing bodies did not like that.

The other major factor includes NBC paying 2-billion dollars for the Olympic games and this loss just messed with their return on that investment.

The governing bodies did not like that either and neither did NBC.

Compound the loss of revenue with the political embarrassment and you get yourself a a bunch of NGB types forming a posse!

From the Chron:

NBC Universal Sports and Olympics Chairman Dick Ebersol, whose company purchased the rights to the next two Olympics for a record $2 billion, made the first public call for a leadership change hours after Chicago became the second straight U.S. city to finish fourth in the international race for a Summer Games. The International Olympic Committee awarded the 2016 Games to Rio de Janeiro. New York lost its bid for the 2012 Games, which went to London, four years ago.

Ebersol and others have said the USOC's failure to connect with the international sports community and the perceived arrogance of its leadership doomed Chicago's bid. In March, the USOC's board ousted the popular and, from a sporting perspective, successful chief executive Jim Scherr, replacing him with Streeter, who went from a volunteer position on the board to earning a $560,000 salary.

Now the punchline,

[Ebersol] also said candidates for the CEO's job could include Steve Penny, CEO of USA Gymnastics, and Chuck Wielgus, CEO of USA Swimming.

[Link]

When a network CEO who paid "2-billion large" for the Olympics calls for who should run the USOC, that is a red flag that money is taking precedence over the sport.

So, let me throw in my name to head the USOC: Skip Gilbert of USA Triathlon. Gilbert has experience with three sports, has grown the USAT to 122,000 members and is not beholden to a specific manufacturer like USA Swimming is.

The 'Telegraph': "Black kids can't swim because black parents can't swim."

Cullen Jones may be our most valuable Olympian. He is the one standing next to Oprah and Michael Phelps. (Photo from Wikipedia.)

From the Telegraph. Scroll to the bottom of the page to read the synopsis:

"...In Friday morning’s Black Men Can’t Swim (Radio 4) Matt Blaize, a non-swimming actor and comedian, attempted to find the true reasons for the dearth of elite black swimmers. He interviewed one, Cullen Jones, an American who, after winning a gold medal at the Beijing Olympics last year, is a living affront to the programme’s titular myth. ..."

[...]

"... The pertinent point, Blaize concluded, wasn’t biological; it was cultural. Black parents don’t swim, so black children don’t swim either. ..."

[Link]

Year-after-year I read about horrific drownings while looking for stories for this blog. Sometimes I get so rattled, especially the stories where families lose a child or a child is rendered near brain dead, that I can't think or blog for some minutes.

I am convinced that the ability to swim should be a mandated skill before the first-or second-grade much like vaccinations are mandated when you go to enroll your child in public school.

The United States, or any country for that matter, would be unstoppable in the pool if our less advantaged populations had more aquatic opportunities.

3d illustration: "Looking out of the tube" - Wallpaper for a small laptop

Here is an abstract illustration made in 2003 called "looking out of the tube." The artwork size is 1024x768 and I made it for a small laptop background.

This was the first draft and though I wish I could find the final one, alas, it has been lost to the four "electron winds."

Karen Gaffney made it! - "...I did this swim to show people what people like me can do..."

Epic!

Imagine if you can that your IQ has been cut in half; (that is assuming that you have average to above average intelligence.) Imagine that your life expectancy will be on average 1/3-shorter than it should. Imagine that you weigh only 95-pounds, you can't use your left leg for kicking nor can you use it to even run, and finally you're about to jump into Boston Harbor in October for an open water swim to show the world that you can?

31-year-old Karen Gaffney has Down Syndrome and she just swam 5-miles in outrageous conditions. (I myself draw the line at 2.4-miles because I am no Karen Gaffney.)

From Boston.com:

"The conditions were really difficult," said Elaine Kornbau Howley, one of the open-water swimmers who paced Karen Gaffney. "She's just a really inspiring person."

The swim was a fundraiser for the Massachusetts Down Syndrome Congress, whose executive director Maureen Gallagher, said, "We want our young people with Down Syndrome to have every opportunity for a full and productive life. And we know they can."

[Link]

I was interviewed by the 'Wall Street Journal' today!

I got a phone call today from a writer with the Wall Street Journal asking me about my viewpoints on the potential tech suit ban in US Masters Swimming.

One question that came up was what will I do if a tech-suit ban takes effect at the Masters level in January? I replied that I would continue to wear my tech-suit but if I am not able to step up to the blocks and at least get a time before being DQed, I would not compete in the USMS in 2010.

I went on to say that there are open water-events I can do like the Alcatraz Sharkfest, there was the LMU fund-raiser for the womens team, that sprint triathlons had a nice ring to it, and I would even stage my own swim meet. (Something I was going to do at the USMS level through SCAQ but now that it is probably unlikely.)

If I am quoted, I will let you know when it comes out.

More London 2012 Webcams on Demand!

London Aquatics Center up close web cam: [Link]


Olympic Park looking south to north: [Link]


The Velodrome in progress: [Link]

The web-cams featured above are just a few of many at the London 2012 site. Looking in from time-to-time gives me the sense that London is not simply "phoning it it in" but rather really taking to time to create a meaningful Olympic experience and leave an infrastructure behind that is worthy.

Here is a link to their web-cam page: [Link]

A 'bird cam' captures a flock of albatrosses stalking a pod of killer whales so as to munch on the leftovers!

A "lipstick camera" along with thermal sensors and other "sci-fi stuff" was mounted on the back of an Antarctic albatross and this 'bird cam' captured a unique albatross hunting strategy never before seen.

From Wired Magazine:

Albatrosses often have to fly hundreds of miles in just a few days in order to find their prey, and scientists have long wondered how the birds navigate over a largely featureless ocean. Previous studies suggested the birds might use a combination of scent and vision to guide them, but until now, no one had been able to directly record the behavior of the foraging seabirds.

[...]

“One surprising finding was that one of the study birds encountered a killer whale, Ornicus orca, during the course of the trip,” wrote the researchers in a paper published this week in the journal PLoS ONE. “This image showed that the killer whale broke the surface and that three other albatrosses were also apparently following the whale.”

[Link]

Apparently, Albatrosses are consciousness enough to improvise when they see an apparent or potential opportunity and by doing so saves 100's-of-miles of flight time. Amazing how an albatross that has a brain that is probably the size of a Tylenol caplet can display so much consciousness.

"YOU ARE A SEXY BEAST" the judge shouted - Natalie Coughlin storms the rhumba on Dancing with the Stars!

I just saw Dancing with the Stars (DWTS) tonight with Natalie Coughlin. I am astonished that she is just about as accomplished as any pop star today.

TV Guide did an extensive interview with her and she sounds like she is having a blast.

Coughlin and her partner, Alex Mazo, are now in second place.

From TV Guide:

TVGuide.com: I was wondering if that was maybe a habit from swimming, like, do you count strokes when you swim and now you're counting steps?

Coughlin: No, I don't really count steps. I don't know if that's a good or bad thing, but most dancers count to eight when they're learning. I just sort of do it. That just might be my learning process and I may need to change it. The rumba, it's really strange because it's like, four, one-two-three, four, one-two-three-four. Hopefully I'll get better.

TVGuide.com: And you're breathing, right? That whole intro package was weird because why would you not breathe outside of water?

Coughlin: I know! I'm breathing! It's not that I'm physically not breathing! [Laughs] Alec [Mazo, her partner] says I'm not breathing, but he just means I'm not using my breath to dictate my movement. What he wants are these long inhales and long exhales to dictate, like, a softness in your body. That's what he meant, but you have to oversimplify for a minute-long package.

[Link]

Steampunk goggles for the descriminating, anti-tech-suit, purist crowd!

For the discriminating purist who believes that tech-suits are too "shiny and fast," that jammers are too "vulgar" and give a swimmer an unfair "hydrophobic advantage," that modern goggles are not painful enough to wear and come in to many "bright, trashy colors," we bring you the Steampunk solid brass goggles (Anatoray Volunteer's widespread design No.2) from Etsy

Product description:

Frames – cut from solid brass using some powertools. Outer diameter of each frame - 52mm, inner diameter 42mm.

Lenses – cut from 4mm thick blood-red transparent perspex using some powertools.

Plates on frames – cut from 0.3mm sheet brass, using cutting machine tool with air compressor.

Flexible strap holders – made from 5mm solid brass trudges. They are VERY hard.

Oculars – cut from 2mm vedge-tanned cow leather, painted in brown.

Padding - cut from 1mm vedge-tanned leather, painted brown. The padding is handsewn to the oculars with waxed polyester shoe thread.

Straps – cut from 3mm chemical-tanned cow leather, painted in brown. The straps are long enough to fit even the most large heads, or worn over aviator caps or cylinder hats and era extremely durable.

Strap buckle and loops – made from 2.5mm brass wire. Buckle is fully handmade, the wire was hammered before forming, for additional hardness. Buckle and loops attached to the straps with tin rivets for leather, with brass covering.

Screws and Nuts – made from solid brass and steel 1\8' in diameter. Of course, they aren’t handmade, but purchased.


[Link]

Here is an update on the London 2012 pool - This webcam allows you to view the construction of the London Aquatics Center!

[Update] I originally made this post in February 2008...

Either bookmark this post and you will be able to keep up with the construction of the London Aquatics center for the 2012 Olympics or just go to the site and bookmark it.

Found this originally here at about.com who links to London2012.com.

From London2012: "...Progress on the site is well underway with construction starting in July 2008, two months ahead of schedule. During the Games the Aquatics Centre will include a 50m competition pool, a 25m competition Diving pool and a 50m warm-up pool. ..."

See renderings here for the new London Aquatics Centre.

Other venue web-cams: [Link]

Frank Deford: "Only the IOC still calls itself a movement... It's just NASCAR with accents."

Frank Deford of National Public Radio spoke these words on April 8, 2008; just four months before Beijing. It's extraordinarily strong critique of the IOC for choosing totalitarian governments to host the Olympics all the while draping themselves as a movement rather than a capitalistic endeavor.

The torch relay was conjured up by the Nazis for the 1936 Olympics and then embedded in our dreamy Olympic consciousness by the magnificent gossamer photography of Leni Riefenstahl, Hitler's favorite movie maker. Now, three-quarters of a century later, it has come back as an unexpected curse to haunt another totalitarian government to which the International Olympic Committee has hitched its wagon. [China, who endured numerous torch relay protests.]

[...]

Only the IOC still calls itself a movement and gets away with it. Hey, it's no more than an international cartel that puts on a big show every four years. It's just NASCAR with accents. And to tell you the truth, I think the Olympics are yesterday's party. Once upon a time, before globalism and jet airplanes and cyberspace, bringing athletes together quadrennially in one place might have made sense. Today, it's an unnecessary excess. And while insular Americans might not understand this, the World Cup of soccer has become much more important to many more people in the world.

[Link]

My take: I think it would be very interesting if the IOC hosted each event like it's own "World Cup," or used the world cup as a template for how teams get to the Olympics

Above is a snapshot from an Olympic Torch gallery at the New York Times. I chose the torch as my favorite since it represented my hometown, i.e the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games. Click here to see the torches going back as far as 1936:

[Link]

Frank DeFord is quote a decorated writer. He has nearly a dozen journalistic awards and even an Emmy for his work during the Seoul Olympics. He is a best selling author who has written 15 books, served as chairman of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation for seventeen years, until 1999, and remains chairman emeritus.

His resumé is is both formidable and admirable.

What Tokyo had to offer: These architectural renderings are mind blowing!

The first photo would be the "Tatsumi International Swimming Centre" and I would have been lovin' those curves and lattice work.

The second photo is that of a solar powered Olympic stadium cut into the earth as an amphitheater.

The third photo is the proposed velodrome stadium; a venue the Japanese are very practiced at building.

The third is 'Dream Island Stadium" and I am guessing that it would be for volleyball and perhaps a venue for equestrian events.

You can see more of what could have been at WBBM News Radio 780: [Link]

2016 Olympics: It's not Chicago nor Tokyo! - It's Rio, Baby!

From Reuters:

After decades of underachievement, Latin America's largest country in recent years has finally made good on the immense promise of its abundant natural resources, vibrant democracy and vast consumer market of 190 million people.

Rio's Olympics victory may be the most spectacular sign of Brazil's surging profile under President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the country's first working-class leader who nurtured an economic boom that has lifted millions of people out of poverty and made him one of the world's most popular leaders.

Even the global economic crisis was unable to knock Brazil off its stride for long as the economy swiftly emerged from recession and returned to growth this year.

[Link]

I want to make it clear, the United States did not deserve the Olympics!

From NPR:

The IOC's last two experiences in the United States were marred by controversy: the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics were sullied by a bribery scandal and logistical problems and a bombing hit the 1996 Games in Atlanta.

[Link]

Why do cities want the games since they all end up losing money? Answer: International trade! Every city that has hosted an Olympics elevated its international profile on the world stage thereby becoming a more viable trade and export hub for their respective state.

BTW, I get a lot of mail from people telling me I don't like my country. It's ironic becasue i fly my American flag outside my house every day and I even take it in at night. I am currently quite disgusted how my country has been acting for the last decade and I want to get it fixed, unfortunately, it does not look that that is going to happen soon. Hence, my grumpiness towards a USA Olympics.

Competitive Swimmer Karen Gaffney to Complete 8-Mile Swim Next Week - She has Down Syndrome

Karen Gaffney is quite a woman who, at 31-years-of-age and living with Down Syndrome, has accomplished more in the open water than the majority of us.

From NewsBlaze:

WHY: [Karen] Gaffney has successfully mastered a string of 'firsts,' completing 16 swims across San Francisco Bay - including the popular "Escape from Alcatraz" relay triathlon. In September 2007, she successfully navigated a nine-mile swim across Lake Tahoe and became the focus of a DVD documentary, Crossing Tahoe: A Swimmer's Dream. Gaffney opted to swim Boston [Harbor] this year to also raise funds for the Massachusetts Down Syndrome Congress and its support programs leveraged by thousands of families across the Commonwealth.

[Link]

The photo comes from Patricia E Bower's site who provides news and commentary on disability issues:

[Link]