EQUIPMENT


Floating On Thunder Road: Drag Boats On Fire

Posted by Jonathan in EQUIPMENT on 03-06-10    No Comments


With college basketball not really compelling yet, and not much else on, I gotta say, for shear sports tech love these days it’s tough to beat drag boats.  This weekend, The Speed Channel ran the finals of the Lucas Oil Drag Boat Racing series. There was some decent coverage of the so-called Top Fuel Hydro drag boats, which raced earlier this year at the Firebird Raceway in Chandler, Arizona,

No doubt, these are some serious pieces of hardware: Top Fuel Hydros are 19 feet long, 93 inches wide, and weigh about 3,200 lbs. with driver and fuel. Props turn at a simply insane 28,000 rpm. 3,000 is really fast for most normal power boats. And features a legit General Dynamics F-16 cockpit windshield to stand the strain, water spray and pure speed.

These suckers can get up near 260 MPH. On the water. Wooh!

The cool part is these boats are un-restricted racers, with no wind tunnel testing or advanced R&D budgets. So basically if a racer wants to put a 6,000 HP engine in one of these bad boys, and see what happens they can. Never mind that Top Fuels regularly get airborne, flip over, catch on fire or otherwise fall apart. You wanna go fast. You go fast. What happens is up to you.

And that is what racing, and sports really, is  all about. Got to LOVE that.




Super Padded Batting Gloves Means More Batters Taking More Free Bases

Posted by Jonathan in EQUIPMENT on 03-05-10    No Comments


Here’s a major rules snafu in the waiting for Major League Baseball: A batting glove that claims to reduce the impact of a 100 MPH fireball down to a 40 MPH batting practice ball.

A company called ProTeX announced today that it is shipping a full line of custom right or left handed batting gloves that offer unheard of levels of protection to batter’s hands and wrists. Though the company’s products appear to be just padded versions of the classic batting glove, some pretty darn slick technology is built in. Called Advanced Impact Composites, the yellow areas on the left are a mix of rigid polymers and flexible pads which absorb the impact of the ball, similar to say, how motorcycle jackets and logging pants work.

Now, clearly many at-bats remain to see if these gloves can protect batters. But if the ProTex gloves can help a major league hitter even a little bit, batters will fear pitches less, crowd the plate bit more, and be more aggressive at the plate.

And at just $80, not only the major leagues, but the little leagues are going to find out how effective the ProTeX is.




Making Kim Yu Na High Tech: What’s Slick With Figure Skating Costumes

Posted by Jonathan in EQUIPMENT on 02-27-10    No Comments


Can we please stop dissing Olympic skater’s costumes?

I am not sure where this one got going; but right around week two of the five ring sports fest, our media elite loves to tear into what skaters wear as they skate. Sure, what Johnny Weir, Evan Lysecheck, and Rachael Flatt wore in their respective programs can be sort of  goofy.  But these athletes are not stupid.  Costumes are a critical part of the skater’s trade. They must support programs, butts and fragile egos.

To pull all this off, it turns out skating costume are fairly complex, technologically sophisticated garments.

First of all, the prospective skate clothing designer has to engineer an outfit that stretches. That requires the use of a patterns that expand. Which  is way far from easy. Just check out what Specialty Sportswear has in terms of patterns that give. And this is for a basic skating costume. Imagine how sophisticated the design needs to be for an Olympic level skater.

Next, these patterns have to be executed from of a blizzard of advanced synthetic fibers, beads and other techno chatchkas.. Here are metallic blended fabrics that give a halographic three dimensionality to skating clothes. And here is a custom bead and ink maker from Canada. This is pretty complex stuff.

And like any sports ecosystem, there are plenty of  gadgets:

  • Here is the IceLight boot warmer that fits over skate boots to keep feet warm.
  • You can get protective pants from the Inside Edge.
  • Skate boot tape to keep your skates looking slick from Sk8tape.
  • Here is the Sport Mate skate sharpening tool, which looks pretty neat.
  • Yet more protective pads from Skating Safe and Tommy Pad.

Let’s be honest here? Is any of this really that much dumber than a speed skating suit? Or what the bobsled teams wear? Or the half pipe boarders?

No, not really.




Be Your Own Bode: Meet Randonee Racing

Posted by Jonathan in EQUIPMENT on 02-22-10    No Comments


If there is ever an organization that does a bad job of promoting new winter sports — and the technologies developed to pursue them — it has got to be the International Olympic Committee. Based on the buzz I got from my Pond Hockey post, it turns out there is a whole flock of cool winter spots that just can’t find IOC love. Case in point: Randonee Racing.

Basically a mountain marathon race, Randonee Racing combines the endurance of cross-country skiing, the technical proficiency of Alpine climbing, and the agility, grace and power of downhill skiing. Contestants line up, a la a marathon race, in a massive grouped start. As many as 1,000 can compete. Each racer holds his or her skis and then runs in specially designed boots for something on the order of 10 kilometers. Competitors then jump into their skis using special free-heel bindings, similar to cross country skis but a whole lot stronger. And then racers climb, skate or  skin up something close to 1,000 vertical meters: A  summit of a nearby 14,000 peak is a usual goal. Racers lock down the heals of their boots, using specially designed bindings that can stand high-speed punishment. And then they blast back down what they just skied up: 40 miles an hour is average. 60 MPH is touched at peak speeds. It’s REALLY cool.

Randonee Racing, or ski mountaineering, is popular around the climbing and skiing world. World-class athletes come not only from Europe and North America, but South America, Russia, Asia and India. Bringing this marvelous sport to the Olympics would open the games to more countries and a new breed of high-quality athlete.

And think how cool the TV would be. Watch maniac racers at the top of a fabulous peak dropping in one after another to race home at top speeds. Pretty awesome.




Forget Team USA Taking Canada On The Olympic Ice: Try Pond Hockey For Some Real Action

Posted by Jonathan in EQUIPMENT on 02-21-10    No Comments


For this blogger, the U.S. ice hockey win over Canada just points out how pointless the NHL has become. How startling:  Sydney Crosby, Chris Drury and Marty Brodeur busting their butts for a full three periods. Instead of coasting for 40 minutes a game, like most pro hockey players do.

And just think. How cool would it have been if the USA/Canada game had been played outside on a real live frozen lake?

Welcome to the fast-growing world of Pond Hockey. Pond Hockey is a simplified version of normal hockey with fewer players, no goalie, no boards, fewer refs — and no fighting, checking or slapshots. Think beach volleyball to gym volleyball. That’s Pond Hockey to normal hockey.

And hockey purists be warned. You make a mistake dissing this sport.

Robbed of its thuggishness and professional wrestling vibe, Pond Hockey turns normal hockey into a high-scoring, finesse game that’s fun to watch. And even more fun to play. Pond Hockey has spawned several tournaments, including a North American Championship. It even has its own line of equipment: lower goals, mini boundary boards and smaller, easier-to- skate-with sticks.

Sounds like a great event for the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia.