I started watching the film Ten Meter Tower. (If you watch it here there is a bonus clip of a record-breaking belly flop in Shirk Report 407). So far the film has not shown anyone hit the water. I think it may not do so. By my calculations you hit the water going about 14 m/sec = 50 km/hr = 30 MPH. Won’t that rip off a bikini?
10 meter diving is a standard Olympic sport. I have never heard of an Olympic diver whose swimsuit came off while diving.
Only if the water pressure gets under the bikini … if the person is wearing it skin tight then the “ripping” force doesn’t exist between the body and fabric … in general … search up on YouTube and I’m sure you’ll find exceptions aplenty … (or so I’ve heard) …
The film shows women wearing bikinis. I don’t think this is done in Olympic diving.
Guys … don’t forget to cup your balls with your hands … just added protection if you get my drift …
I briefly took diving lessons in the late 70’s. The rule was, ladies either wore one-pieces or, if they wore a two-piece, had to wear a t-shirt over it. Men wore the standard teeny Speedos. I never heard of anyone’s suit coming off when diving off the 10m tower.
They aren’t wearing a bikini in Olympic diving of course, but shoulder straps on standard one piece suits come off all the time. The athletes correct the wardrobe malfunction before surfacing.
By the way, I saw that documentary yesterday and thought it was very entertaining. And it was a simple, but clever idea.
Been there … done that … I was scared but I went a couple of times … feet first …
Wouldn’t forces which can rup clothing off also be way above what level of forces needed to cause injury; at which time losing your clothes would be the least of your concerns.
One effect at work is that the only people who are diving from 10 meters are very fit and very water experienced… they have tested out their swimsuits diving from lesser heights. They have ties in them to keep them tight, etc ,ec.
Of course if 400 lb Nessy were to dive in , from any height whatsoever, wearing a two piece, she would probably be denuded, with injury a function of height and the actual dive technique she managed…
But the female diver would be in a 1 piece, with shoulder straps and as they enter the water with hands stretched out past the ears, the straps can’t possibly come off, and the already small ( most females into diving or swimming wouldn’t be large boobed ) boobs are stretched out and smaller too. If the boobs are not noticably shrunk by this stretching effect, then they are too big for diving… It would be painful to dive from 10 metres for those ladies.
As for pants … as they are attached at the waist, there is less water pressure into them as the divers shoulders and chest and belly have pushed the water away. There’s perhaps a bit of a drooping at the buttocks as the crack lets water in.
But as the diver is stretching their muscles taught, which tends to firm up the bulge of the buttocks and fill in the waist too, the clothing is not likely to come off… if they were going to have issue they’d lost them while swimming too, or climbing out when wet, so by the time they are into any sort of proper diving, they’d have learnt how tight to tie their pants on…
(swimmers pants have a draw string to tie. )
Not at all, loose clothing is very prone to the forces from entering the water at speed. Even on a near perfect entry you can lose a top.
If you are wearing a very tight fitting kayak but over-rotate and land flat on your entry from the 7.5m 24.6ft platform, the kayak will rip off you (owie for the thighs) unless you are using the bubbler. If you enter cleanly, you and your boat will entirely submerge, and then you will ender (pop straight back up) entirely out of the water, boat and all.
By comparison, a big keeper hole, such as Ottawa’s Phil’s, will not only strip you of the boat, but in some circumstances will strip you of your helmet, pfd, shorts and top.
Conclusion: onesies are your best bet.
Can you elaborate on this? I learned some things today: That when learning to dive from a 10 meter platform something called a bubbler is used which makes the water less dense and slows deceleration and hence reduces force; That kayakers can live after going over staggeringly high waterfalls (189 ft.!). However, I am not finding a connection between the bubbler/kayak/platform.
One can only hope.
Climb the tower with the kayak. Climb in the kayak. Shuffle forward until you and the kayak are teetering like a teter-totter at the end of the platform. Lean forward slightly so the you and the kayak fall off the tower. Lean back onto the back deck. You and the kayak enter the water bow first, entirely submerging. You and the kayak then rocket straight up backwards entirely out of the water – this is called an ender.
If, when you teter off the platform, you lean a wee bit too forward, you and the kayak will rotate like a bicycle wheel, and continue rotating as you fall, resulting in you and the kayak landing flat upside down.
White water kayak are fitted to make it extremely difficult to be knocked out of the boat. The cockpit of a white water kayak forms tightly over your thighs. Despite this, pancaking upside down from 7.5m 24.6ft results in the kayak not submerging, but you ripping out of the cockpit upon impact, which is not at all a happy thing for your thighs, not a happy thing at all.
By using the bubbler, if you pancake your entry, you will not rip out past the thigh braces and thereby not suffer serious bruising.
The down side of the bubbler is that the ender resulting from a clean entry will not be as rapid and will not cause the entire boat to clear the water.
If your buddy on the bubbler button has a good eye, you will have hard water for clean entries, and soft water for botched entries. The leaves you having to ask yourself Clint’s question: “Do you fee lucky?”
No, you can do all this when you star in the sequel: “Ten Meter Tower II: Kayaks.”
It gets a bit ugly at 10 m – too easy to over-rotate. Of our group (instructors teaching outdoor ed uni students), only one of us was usually able to make a clean entry from the 10 m tower. I missed it once without the bubbler, and learned my lesson.
I thought you were kidding. If I understand now, people learn to kayak over waterfalls by taking a kayak up on the 10 meter platform as you described. I think that really would make a good double-feature with the movie in the OP.
I’ve gone off the 10m board, feet first, no bubbler. The scariest thing is that, looking down, the diving pool seems so small, I’m afraid I’m going to miss.
Bikini’s come off even diving from a standard (1m?) board. It’s only seriously embarrising when you loose the missing piece.