Tired of dog-eared damp towels hanging round my desk at work after my bike commute / shower, last week I invested in a “miracle” (Speedo) ultra-absorbent compact towel.
Couldn’t quite see how it would work, given that the advice was to store it somewhat damp, but hey, modern fabrics often amaze these days so i thought I’d give it a go.
I’ve spent the last 2 days trying to dry myself with the kind of small damp rag I’d normally polish my car up with. There is no way this thing can dry a human being out! It took so long that evaporation was the main means of drying out.
Does anyone use these? Can they actually work? I sooo hate buying crappy stuff…
Wring it out before you use it. Store them damp-ish, not soaking - then wring it out before you use it and as required when it gets saturated until you are dry. Have used them for years.
If you ever watch a swim meet, those wee towels are like diver chew toys used to dispel nervous energy. The divers will wipe their faces with them, twist them all around, maybe wipe their legs off a bit with them, dip them in the water and wring them out again afterwards… They also make a satisfactory splat when thay’re wet and you drop them to the ground from a 3 meter board of a platform tower.
Can’t say I’ve ever seen someone really use them like they would a full size towel though.
Someone else actually bought one of these. I figured if “we can put a man on the moon” why can’t someone make a super absorbant towel? Well my blue Speedo “towel” ain’t it. I could see it working for a hairless midget - but I’m big and hairy. I can dry one armpit. If I let it air dry it turns into a solid rigid sheet. Fortunately I think I lost the $17 rag.
I’d choose a towel over a chamois any day. However, I find it really useful as I commute by bike and space is at a minimum.
Also, FLA Jill in Australia we used them all the time between heats, semi’s, finals. You end up with a nice dry towel to use after your last race of the meet instead of a 7 kg wet, cold towel.
I prefer a towel too, but I carry a synthetic foam rubbery chamois in my swim, just in case I forget. I got my first from my daughter when she stopped swimming and went off to college. I recently bought a bigger one from the Kragen auto parts. It comes in a round tube with one flat side and it’s made of a kind of dense foam. The divers use the smaller SWAMMY that is carried a some pools that have year around teams. The bigger one is great. My swim bag is at home, so I can’t check the name.
I have one too, but I’m only using it when I’m at the swim meets here in Denmark… Not for drying my entire body, but after a race I use it for my face and arms, so my clothes won’t get too wet in my arms, on the way to the cubicle…