April Fools’ Day is an international day of pranks and foolishness. According to Wikipedia, it is observed in the USA, UK, Australia, South Africa, France, Ireland, Italy, South Korea, Japan, Russia, The Netherlands, Brazil, and yes even Canada. Because it’s an international phenomenon, and because social media has greatly expedited the distribution of news stories, I can’t help but take an “oh yeah right!” approach to reading online headlines.

I just hope that no ‘real’ news happens today – like the discovery of a comet headed towards Earth – can you imagine trying to report that? “No, we know it’s April Fools’ Day, but we really really mean it!”

With that in mind, here are today’s top stories!

Amy Winehouse to race new Ultra distance UK triathlon this summer (everymantri.com) – “I’ve traded all of my cigarettes for running shoes,” Winehouse said referring to her battle with addiction…”that is after I smoke this last one,” she added.

Superhero suit to change face of swimming (thewaterisopen.blogspot.com) – blueseventy’s director of genetic research, April Hoodwink, commented, “Already estimations indicate that the new law, and resulting suits, would see the old 2009 world records become obsolete within days.”

Rage-Virus infection at the Santa Fernanda indoor pool! – CDC has subjects quarantined! (scaq.blogspot.com) – “You are to get an r-virus immunization and watch the movie [28 Days Later] for details as to to protect yourself.”

TYR Launches New Tracer O-Line (collegeswimming.com) – “TYR worked extensively with the Northwestern University Mollecular-Nano-Spandex Research Center along with manufacturers in the adult entertainment industry to create a suit that completely eliminates straps or seams. This gives the O-Series suits less resistance than any other commercially-available suit.”

Last night, I got an email with a big announcement from Rob Aquatics. This summer, Rob Dumouchel will be taking his blog and his enthusiasm for open water swimming on tour across this great nation. Can Masters swimmers go on tour? Rob says why not!

You can read more about Rob’s big announcement on his blog, where he talks about turning the vision into reality.

With the support of blueseventy as a corporate sponsor, Rob’s busy summer kicks off with the USMS 1 Mile Open Water Championships at Lake Norman in Charlotte, NC on May 29th, and will wrap up with a September 11th swim at Big Shoulders (5k) in Chicago, IL.

I saw that the17thman has a post that looks like a preview of what blueseventy is calling their Carbon RZR goggle. I started writing comments on his post, but after paragraph #2 I decided to just create my own post to serve as my response.

The “RZR”? I’m getting sick of the SMS-themed brand names. Short isn’t always sweet. Maybe I’ll take some merchandise on the road and sell LZR’s and RZR’s out of the back of my TrailBLZR. Ok I don’t really mind it that much, I just wanted to say “TrailBLZR”.

The wrap-around gasket looks pretty revolutionary. It looks like it would definitely redirect water to flow up and over the goggle rather than pushing through it. This is the kind of thing I predicted would happen with a lack of restrictions placed on goggles and caps. Suits have been getting all the attention, without some new restrictions I’m predicting egg shaped dome caps and goggles that ‘smooth over’ the entire concave eye socket.

The texture of the gaskets on these goggles is also interesting. They have a series of perpendicular lines that look like they are meant to interrupt laminar flow rather than preserve it. I would imagine that this has an intended purpose similar to golf ball dimples, where the dimples actually creates a turbulent boundary layer.

If you want to get technical:

“The transition to a turbulent boundary layer, adds energy to the flow allowing it to remain attached to the surface of the sphere further aft. Since separation is delayed, the resulting wake is much narrower. This thin wake reduces the low-pressure region on the rear face and reduces the difference in pressure between the front and back of the sphere. This smaller difference in pressure creates a smaller drag force.” (source)

The same principles apply to the old TYR Aquashift that had turbulent ‘trip wires’ that caused turbulent flow to surround the suit, delaying flow separation.

Then again, maybe it’s just a cool pattern in the gasket. Whether or not these perpendicular hash marks are intended to decrease drag by increasing turbulent flow surrounding the goggles, I think goggles still have a lot of tinkering room left in their design.

Update: In the time it took me to write this, Joel has posted more photos of the blueseventy Carbon RZR goggle.

12/16/09 latest update from Joel, these goggles will retail for around $100!? What? Read more from the17thman. Apparently the Carbon Fiber Polymer is incredibly light and strong? The new release has less to do with the shape and texture than it does with the material itself.

In a short but powerful blog post titled: “FINA Says What?” (found via the17thman) the blueseventy blog reported that they have received “the gigantic thumbs up mark” from FINA regarding the NeroTX swimsuit.

The NeroTX is blueseventy’s answer to the Speedo LZR Racer Elite. It’s tough to compare the two materials because the blueseventy NeroTX uses “TX fabric” while the Speedo LZR Racer Elite uses “LZR Pulse fabric”. However, it does appear that the NeroTX will have bonded seams and will also offer drag reduction and compression as performance attributes.

More information on the NeroTX is available from blueseventy at blueseventy.com/neroTX

The publication of the Speedo LZR Racer Elite retail prices has already caused quite a stir in the swimming blogosphere. In a matter of hours, I’ve heard some very strong opinions about the price for the Elite Jammer in particular.

Furthermore, the hype around these textile tech suits seems to have rekindled the tech suit mania we saw leading up to the 2009 FINA World Championships – if only for a moment. Tony at SCAQ Blog obtained photos of the alleged blueseventy NeroTX prototype, while Joel at the17thman was first to hype the Finis Male Hydrospeed 2 Jammer.

SuitWars.com seems to be laying dormant while SwimTechGeek.com is posting every important development. Personally, I love the hype! Let’s get back into this! Open the gates!

> Image bandwidth restored, sorry for the delay! Kast-A-Way Blog
> ‘blueseventy’ to release new suit January 2010 called the ‘NeroTX’ SCAQ Blog
> Poll: Who would win in a fight… Usain Bolt vs Michael Phelps Hail Mary Jane
> Iowa and Minnesota swim teams share more than a border The Daily Iowan
> Speedo Writes Off Millions on Racing Suit Apparel News
> A roof panel at an indoor poor in England falls and injures a swimmer SCAQ Blog
> Rejecting Napoleon SwimmingWorld.TV
> Matthew Mitcham finalist for NSWIS Male Athlete of the Year Hanson Media Group

The one and only Carmen Sandiego knocked over the blueseventy booth in the “Suits for all in the name of a level playing field” zone at World Championships! Not really, but B70 did have $10,000 of their merch stolen – according to a blog post from Dean Jackson, found via the17thman on Twitter.

According to the blog post, FINA had asked all brands to bring plenty of suits so that there would be no shortage, and thus no excuse for the suits causing an uneven playing field. Blueseventy went out of their way to give suits out to anyone who wanted to wear the Nero at World Championships, and had a huge amount of suits on hand in a “secured” storage area.

They just can’t catch a break! Blueseventy leaves Rome with a new ruling that bans their Nero suit from competition, a short timeline to turn out a new product for 2010, and a $10,000 loss of merchandise. I dunno what the theif has in mind for those suits, because in 5 months they’ll be hard pressed to find a buyer – even on the Carmen Sandiego-esque Italian black market that I’m picturing in my head.

I found out about SuitWars.com through the GoSwim.tv newsletter. This site is pretty minimalist on blog clutter (as you can tell I love throwing around pictures and messing with photoshop) but I guess I can respect a difference in taste. The content is definitely there, and easy to navigate.

SuitWars.com describes their site:

“Currently, there is no unbiased, clear measure of which suits are taking leaps ahead and which drag slowly behind. We aim to develop a comprehensive database of reviewed suits, allowing for leveled comparison.” (source)

This approach, similar to the blog SwimTechGeek that was launched last month, is a novel idea considering the amount of controversy surrounding technical suits for over a year now. It seems that anyone with a voice in the online swimming community has something to say about speedsuits, air trapping, FINA, fabric permeability, etc–so it’s nice to find all the tech talk information in one place.

SuitWars is anything but humble in their mission to provide cold hard facts about suit technology. In a recent Twitter update they compared SwimNews.com to tech suit opinion column. However, there are opinions to be found on SuitWars.com that have been restricted to the Commentary section.

USA Swimming, ever loyal to FINA’s rules and guidelines, is trying to keep up with the governing body’s reversal of their decision to ban certain technical suits. USA Swimming released a statement acknowledging the updated approved suit list and adopted FINA’s suit ruling, however, USA Swimming President, Tim Woods, released a statement:

“…We are highly disappointed by the FINA ruling released Monday, but in order to keep USA Swimming’s rules in compliance with those of the international governing body, we will immediately adopt the revised list of approved swimsuits…” (source)

Disappointment aside, this news means that it is now completely legal to wear your blueseventy Nero in USA Swimming sanctioned events – including World Team Trials.