How Olympic divers make such minimal splashes and why they use such tiny towels

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Originally published at: How Olympic divers make such minimal splashes and why they use such tiny towels | Boing Boing

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But why do they take the tiny towels into the shower with them?

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Are Chamois still made from goat skin? We used to have one for cleaning the car, as it wouldn’t scratch the finish (supposedly)…

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Sheep now but synthetic chamois is cheaper and just as good (I use it with charcoal drawing).

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I figured they’d have invented something, just haven’t used one in decades.

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Synthetic Sham Chamois? :yum:

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No shame in sham chamois

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I’d prefer to see them shivering under a giant already-damp beach towel like kids at a backyard pool.

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"The towels are portable "

Are towels that are two or four or eight times as large not portable? It’s not like they’re going into outer space and every gram counts. Someone comes along when they’re done drying off and takes away the wet towels. I’m still not understanding why they need little towels.

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A towel is about the most massively useful thing you can have in outer space.

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I don’t know, that’s kind of your opinion, man.

Also, you have not experienced Vogon poetry until you have read him in the original German.

That said, those swimmers? They should know where their towels are. And I bet they have a number of people sanitising them (and their phones, and everything else) for them as well.

This post was brought to you by the Dolmansaxlil and hardly made a splash.

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I’m not buying the towel part. My theory is that these divers spend 10 hours+ a day in the gym and they don’t want to hide all the work behind a Big Fluffy Towel.

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But zero-gravity diving is just boring.

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Connie Conehead shows how it is done…

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A small chamois is enough to wipe all the water off you but not so large that it takes a lot of wringing out. It is very easy to wring out a small wet chamois, much less so a larger one. The divers need dry chamois, often. So small meets the need.

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It floats my boat.

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Whenever I watch diving competitions I secretly wish that one of the athletes has a “what the hell” moment and goes for a spectacular Arschbombe.

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It’s funny to watch this clip out of context of the movie and the idea that the Coneheads are unusual in any way.

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I wonder if her swim cap would’ve been banned by the IOC?

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