MetaChat is an informal place for MeFites to touch base and post, discuss and
chatter about topics that may not belong on MetaFilter. Questions? Check the FAQ. Please note: This is important.
12 February 2006
ski jumping --i think it looks really easy (altho the outfits suck)
what i really want to try is the bobsled and luge and stuff. you?
I've always thought it would be cool if they had an outfit that had some kind of blades or tracks that you strap to your forearms and legs then go head-first down a luge track. That may be deadly though.
that would be cool, puke, but balancing would be really really really hard i think--unless the whole outfit was some thick teflonish stuff that just slid by itself--or plastic garbage bags. : >
I was redesigning the ski jump outfits in my mind while I watched...hah. They're loose and thick to help give them lift in the air. What would be so cool, and also aid them aerodynamically, would be capes. Heehee. Big honking capes, and batwing things that extend from their elbows to their bodies, so that when they put their arms out, the batwing things would flap and catch air. BIG air. And they should wear skirts, not pants. And as they leave the ramp and fly into the air, they should have to let out a screech, and then get judged on the screech.
Ok so. Capes, batwings, and skirts. And screeches.
I also redesign football uniforms in my mind while I watch football with my husband. The Miami Dolphins should have pastel pink and mint green uniforms, with art deco designs on the helmets.
Oh and about it being easy...yikes! I was thinking you'd have to be someone with a secret death wish to try it...they start off about 80 feet high. I'm too much of a wimp to ever consider try it. I think the cross country skiing looks fun, though grueling.
Football players in shorts - yeah! Here's another thing - I would redesign the uniforms so that they were one piece, with the padding built in. Sort of like what speed skaters wear. Two designs - short sleeves and shorts for when it's hot, and then a total speedskater look for when it's cold out - turtleneck, hood, leggings...the whole deal. Makes them more areodynamic, keeps the pads in place, makes them look hawt, gives the other team nothing to grab hold off...it's all plusses ;)
Ach, those speed skating outfits make the skaters look like space aliens, or worse, performance artists. Besides, there's only one thing a real man has business doing on an ice rink and it involves a stick and a puck, dammit.
A few years back, I was at a conference in the little town where they held the Salt Lake Olympics. As our social evening, we toured the US Olympic Ski Jumping and Luge training center. While we were there, on a Thursday evening in September, a horde of little kids were at Ski Jump Practice, skiing on plastic mats that replicate snow. It was the oddest sight; kids at sports practice. Moms and dads waiting by parked mini-vans. For all the world like soccer, little league, or what-have-you. Except they were, well, flying.
photo by splunge
photo by TheophileEscargot
photo by Kronos_to_Earth
photo by ethylene
