What part of "Permeable" do you not understand?

I did not have any worries about swimsuits this year; at least, not until one of my swimmers asked if I had seen his LZR Pro. This was at our last practice before we hit the road for the Missouri High School boys meet. Watch what he wanted to show me.

Please note-- this suit has the FINA barcode. This suit is approved without question. I looked for the wording of the actual FINA rule and couldn't find it, but on the Missouri HS Activities site it says "As was discussed in the online rules reviews this year, officials can be assured that suits with the FINA barcode are legal under NFHS suit rules. The similarities between the rule sets, including a mandate for ‘textile material’ in both make this an easy way to confirm legality."

It also says "material shall be woven/knit textile, permeable (100% to air and water.)"

So, I guess I don't know what the testing process is to earn FINA approval... but I am pretty sure that it can't be a real rigorous process. It doesn't pass my test, and mine is pretty darn unscientific. "Does water pass through the fabric? NO? FAIL."

Doesn't it seem like a suit wouldn't be able to be used as a canteen if the fabric was even a little bit permeable? If I wore that suit as underwear, I wouldn't need to take bathroom breaks. I could just empty the leg at the end of the day. Know what I'm saying?

Luckily, Austin only wasted $190 and one race on this piece of junk. It was certainly not a performance enhancer. It served as a ridiculously expensive set of brakes.

Mark Schubert's Leave of Absence

My favorite part of the McCaffreyCap on SwimmingWorld.TV is the awesome photoshop pictures Garrett has made of USA National Team Head Coach Mark Schubert. The mysterious leave of absence really hasn't gotten enough of that kind of attention. So, of course, on the bus the other day I decided I was gonna play around with a couple of iphone apps to see what I could come up with in my speculation of how Mark might be spending his down time:

Maybe he has been working out to finally get his modeling career off the ground:

He could totally fit in with the cast of Glee as a substitute teacher. I think they are doing Grease 2 that week. I think he is playing Eugene. Can't you see him being a love interest for Sue Sylvester?





I heard his Motley Crue cover band finally got a gig.





Come on, you know you wanna party with that guy!




Not as good as Garrett's hot tub time machine pic, but still not too bad for getting all this done on my phone while I was waiting to get 3G service back so I could finish watching Dead Snow on my Netflix app. If you have any pics or ideas, send them to me and I will post. Enjoy.

Dead Snow Trailer
Uploaded by dreadcentral. - Check out other Film & TV videos.

2nd Annual Pink Speedo Night

I haven't had time to report on this year's pink speedo night at our home meet on October 26th. Last year was a surprise for our diving coach, but this year all fall sports at our school made a BCA effort and raised over $4400 for the cause!

This year we had pink caps donated for the team to wear and had a successful raffle. Our team mom's made posters to honor the family members who have fought the fight against breast cancer personally. There were several survivors in the crowd, and the crowd was much larger than it would have been for a normal quad. It was a heck of an event and we are very proud.

Don't forget, it is not too late to vote for our pink pic from last year to go on the Jones Soda label. Let me know if your team or school did something pink this fall. It means a lot to those who need the support!

A Moment of Silence for Fran Crippen

Did you participate in the worldwide tribute on Saturday? If so, how?

Thor Movie Teaser!

Yay!

Death Race 2010

I was recently sent a link to an awesome article in Outside Magazine about Peak Racing's Death Race.

No, not that Death Race, silly!


This one. The real deal.





...and here is the link to another good article from '09 in the New York Times. I love the whole concept. I wrote about it last year when one of the founders, former Missouri State distance record holder Andy Weimberg tried to get me to sign up. Andy is the kind of guy who considers the triple Ironman to be a warm-up.

Go ahead. Read about it. It's the closest you'll ever get to finishing it.

The Captain America Movie!

Hey, I know all y'all are as excited as I am about the fact that the Captain America movie is going to be released on my birthday next summer. I am really just posting this here so that I have an excuse to brag. Rather than post pictures of the authentic Captain America shield hanging at my house, or my four Captain America t-shirts, or the boxer shorts, or even the tattoo on my back...


I am just gonna post a few pics I pulled from the web, and an awesome preview of the video game that is gonna accompany the release of the movie. I once had a man come up to me and start a conversation about my Captain America t-shirt at a local Relay for Life event. He told me that when he was in WWII he loved the comics and he even mentioned the cover above where Cap is punching Hitler in the face. I wanted to hug the guy.

More Captain America: Super Soldier Videos

I get pretty worried every time a comic movie is released. They have screwed up so many over the years... but this time, I think that Marvel taking control of the movies based on their characters has at least given the best brains in the industry a chance to give their input. I am pumped for this, especially since we all know it is going to lead up to tie-ins galore and the formation of the original Avengers for the big screen. Most people don't realize that the modern day Cap is actually the same guy from the comics in the 40's, so this movie being set in World War II is going to help the non-comic geeks to understand him from an important perspective. He was a hero from our greatest generation trying to get along in modern America. It provides a great contrast to showcase just how different our world is from the world of our grandparents.

This is a fanboy's dream come true.