College Speedos

[MuscleSpeedo]

I watched some college swimming and diving yesterday and thought it was great to see some male swimmers wearing speedos. I thought they had all been replaced with jammers.

I took some pix of both swimming and diving. I know the quality of these pictures sucks, but what do you expect when you're taking pictures off TV (especially when it's not even HD to start with...haha).

https://drive.google.com/drive/folde...UE?usp=sharing

[NE_OH_thonger]

My experience as a viewer is that brief suits are de rigueur in diving and water polo. For swimming, the jammer type technical suits tend to be preferred for major meets, though briefs can be found at lower level meets.

[MuscleSpeedo]

Originally Posted by NE_OH_thonger

My experience as a viewer is that brief suits are de rigueur in diving and water polo. For swimming, the jammer type technical suits tend to be preferred for major meets, though briefs can be found at lower level meets.

Yea, I've noticed the same thing. I was glad to see that there are still some swimming events that include speedos.

[SwimTeamSpeedo]

It is interesting. Back in my day of swimming, the accepted theory was that in meets you wore the smallest and tightest suits, which led to the famed paper suits. The theory was that material created resistance so the less of it you wore, your body's own skin was far more slippery and thus faster. Our suits were barely legal, and hardly covered the more endowed guys. In practice we wore suits with wider sides and put drag suits over them. Today, with the new and advanced materials, the longer suits are far more slick than our own skin, which has literally reversed the thinking. Now, swimmers wear their briefs in practice and lower meets, but when speed is on the line, out come the technical suits. As much as I loved my "skimpy" swimsuits that barely covered me, if I were on a college team now I would be doing the same thing as the swimers today. In sports, it is all about advantage.

[tightjeans]

Those pics are actually pretty good for being taken off a TV.

[Schoolspeedo]

Yes I remember college speedos when the slim light fabric came out and most guys wore them. Very revealing when wet..

[MuscleSpeedo]

Originally Posted by tightjeans

Those pics are actually pretty good for being taken off a TV.

It helps when you have a 135" screen....haha.

My favorite experience/memory of speedos was actually when I was in tech school after basic training in the Air Force in 1987. We were on a base in Biloxi, MS during the summer. We had class from 6 am to noon.

After lunch there was a 2 or 3 hour 'study period' when all the guys took a nap, LOL. After that we'd fall-out for PT which was always cancelled due to extreme heat. So all the guys went to the pool. Everyone wore speedos.

I remember one day, there was one particular guy who would lay out in a pair of nylon short shorts (which were the standard at the time), then he would pull them off to reveal a speedo with a MASSIVE bulge just before he got in the pool. When he got out of the pool, the shorts went back on. He was obviously self-conscious.

It didn't look like he had an erection. Just that he was extremely thick when flaccid. But that's a memory that is burned into my brain...haha.

[nespeedoguy]

Speedo memories are always fun. I recall first times seeing swimmers in suits wanted to be like them. Sure be nice when it’s speedo season again stay warm!

[California Dolphin]

Originally Posted by SwimTeamSpeedo

It is interesting. Back in my day of swimming, the accepted theory was that in meets you wore the smallest and tightest suits, which led to the famed paper suits. The theory was that material created resistance so the less of it you wore, your body's own skin was far more slippery and thus faster. Our suits were barely legal, and hardly covered the more endowed guys. In practice we wore suits with wider sides and put drag suits over them. Today, with the new and advanced materials, the longer suits are far more slick than our own skin, which has literally reversed the thinking. Now, swimmers wear their briefs in practice and lower meets, but when speed is on the line, out come the technical suits. As much as I loved my "skimpy" swimsuits that barely covered me, if I were on a college team now I would be doing the same thing as the swimers today. In sports, it is all about advantage.

I've posted some videos where some swimmers were wearing jammers and others were in speedo briefs. I can't see any difference in speed.

Furthermore, most drag is caused by the shape and form of the object and not by surface. I'm into science and engineering and I'd like to see the physics behind the claims that jammers are faster. Also, why aren't women wearing those supposedly faster suits?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJcWQ3jBGIU

Otherwise, I'm sticking with the theory that jammers are just glorified "leg veils"because men wearing speedos in public is a social taboo.

[nacnimaj]

Surface and shape are both important and surface properties (like hydrophobicity) in particular can have a huge influence on the nature of the boundary layer between two materials. A simple journal search produces hundreds of articles on the subject. In a sport where the margin between competitors needs to be measured to the 100th of a second, even small benefits have an impact.