swim rings

[frankfrank]

Re: swim rings

Kind of surprised they're not made with a double inner seam, with perhaps an inch of double-material reinforcing the inner part. Some people use these in deep(ish) water, even some people who are only mediocre-at-best dealing safely with water over their head.

Seems like, to me, it's actually a bad idea they make something that might pop while the user is in deeper water. They do have warnings on them, but still...

[meidolooner]

Re: swim rings

Yeah, indeed. The inner seam looks so fragile on them. I have left two I popped so I can try and repair & reinforce it. I wonder how these swim rings would feel, inflated as tight as other inflatables can get.

I should look into how to reinforce seams. Imagine a swim ring where the outer seam popped and not the inner

But yeah, on the bright side, the simplicity is what makes these so cheap, and the sudden pops are quite exciting.

[meidolooner]

Re: swim rings

the sudden pops are quite exciting.

Sudden pops at home I meant, not in deep water.

[Danniballoon]

Re: swim rings

I got hold of a double swim ring that had been discarded near a beach. Someone had burst it with a knife. A lot of people do that nowadays with inflatables, rather than mess about deflating them and packing them for the trip home. It had 2 long rips at one end and one of the pillows was slashed. I managed to repair it with a vinyl repair kit. However it was deflating a bit and I eventually traced it to a small hole.. possibly a reason why it was discarded. Anyway, once repaired it was perfect. Maybe not the neatest job, but as long as it holds air and I can boink it, that's all that matters. There's something about repairing abandoned inflatables that I just love. Being able to ride them after someone has popped them really does it for me.... and yes, this one was a lovely ride ;-)

[heaviest]

Re: swim rings

Nice find. Does it have a weight rating on the warning label? Probably 350 pounds or 160 Kg?

[Danniballoon]

Re: swim rings

Nice find. Does it have a weight rating on the warning label? Probably 350 pounds or 160 Kg?

2x 80 Kg

[Big Thud Joe]

Re: swim rings

Maybe I've been lucky, but I feel that the problems you guys are having with rings springing leaks is to do with the harder stiffer plastic that doesn't have the give/take to stretch.

When at the shop, I'll always open stuff for checking it out, glossy isn't the only criteria that I go for, when feeling the PVC, I feel a certain kind of "chewing gummy" kind of feel, and if that's the case, back in the box, grab a whole heap, go and pay for them, out of the shop, and going home A S A P.

But of late, though I've found some glossy PVC inflatables, in this case rings, when pulling them out of the packet, the plastic is still rather stiff, and I would feel that over inflating these would spring a leak straight away.

All of the rings I've bought so far, I've got a good three to four months use out of them, though I don't sit on them like others, I do inflate them absolutely rock hard for clawing my fingers in. Spring is about to start, so about to get a heap of really nice warm but NOT HUMID weather, so this personally will be the best time of the year for blowing rings up for clawing, and especially throwing them around my naked chest/back/torso and shooting as hard as one can.

I'll finally have a chance to try out those 42 inch gay pride rainbow rings I bought half a dozen of last year. These are a little bigger, so they'll fit around my torso more comfortably then the 36 inch aussie flag rings I inflated the previous summer.

[heaviest]

Re: swim rings

I'm not really into inflation, I just find it a chore to do it and meh to watch it. But I watched a woman inflate a 36-inch tube trying to get the outer seam tight, and when she couldn't do it she had a friend try it. They didn't get it, but they did overinflate the thing a good bit. Have to admit I liked watching that.

Then she got on it in the pool, and had someone hand her her sunglasses and phone so she could do some pool selfies. I pictured the thing popping...but it didn't.

A 36 inch tube will hold a normal size woman just fine, but it is a bit small for adults. I like to see adults on them. I think I've seen a capacity of 170 pounds (75 Kg) on 36 inch rings. I've found it takes about 350 pounds to sink them.

[heaviest]

Re: swim rings

Two 36" Intex tire tubes at the pool yesterday. A woman of about 170 pounds is sitting in one poolside, a woman of about 400 pounds is finding it's too small for her in the pool. She has the most luck laying belly down on it, as sitting on it she sinks it and can't balance. But she was expecting it'd float her and it doesn't really, so she tosses it poolside. She joins her friend and sits next to the ring. After a time she fluffs it, noting it is soft, and adds air. She tried again to float on her belly, gives it more effort this time, but joins her friend again.

A couple minutes later she rolls onto her hip, pulls the ring under her and rolls onto it. Her friend cowers from the impending explosion as half her friend's ring bulges next to her. The heavy woman rolls back off it, grabs it, hits her friend with it, puts it back down and rolls onto it again. Her friend gets up, moves a short distance away, and sits back down, laughing her ass off.

Heavy woman, still loading the thing unevenly rather than sitting in the middle of it, rocks back and forth, and bounces a little, and then a lot. But it doesn't pop, so she just sits, flattening half the ring while the other side bulges. She stayed there a few minutes and got up, and the ring was very soft. She discarded it against the fence, while her friend took hers, but later abandoned it, too.

They left both rings, and nobody else took them, so I have them. One has a small leak. I'm trying for the first time to stop an inner seam leak with vinyl cement. I've reinforced the whole seam. I'll find out tomorrow if it holds. That tube is only 1/2 inch bigger on one side than the other, and maybe 1/4 inch bigger all around that the other ring, so hardly any permanent stretch.

I've also patched an intex clear-top ring. I'll reinforce it's whole seam, too, if the patch holds. That hole was bigger than the tire ring, though.

Before I do another ring with print on it, I'll figure out how to remove the paint around the seam. It kinda made a mess with the vinyl cement.

[heaviest]

Re: swim rings

I had my Intex pillow-back ring chairs at the pool yesterday, one for me and one for my partner. Maybe the last day of the season. I couldn't resist sitting on the leading edge of my chair to stress it more, but I spent most of the time on it not trying to pop it.

[heaviest]

Re: swim rings

Quick visit to the pool today. I found the women who had left the tire tubes yesterday. I said I had taken them and they didn't care, thought they both had holes in them, but I left them a 47 inch ring, which they were happy to receive because it floats the heavy woman no problem. She pointed out someone else in her party who was bigger than she was and asked if I thought it'd float her, and I told her it would. She gave an exaggerated look at the other woman, back to me, back to the woman, back to me, expecting me to change my answer. I told her the thing would float me, so her...no problem. Unfortunately that other woman wasn't dressed for the pool, so we didn't get to test it.

I later saw the thee of them, and a fourth woman, on two floats on the grass. The heaviest of them was alone on a strawberry float. Gigantic legs and behind, definitely over 500 pounds. The other big woman, and her chubby friend, and the fourth woman, heavy but not compared to her friends, were on a big, round island float. Nobody was sitting on the tube I gave them, and they made room for me on the big float, so that's where I sat. When my partner joined us, the heaviest woman sat up and made room on the strawberry float. Only that fourth woman gawked as we sat on their inflatables.

The island float easily held the four of us. Multiple rings, and it might have been stressed if I had sat on the same ring the big woman was on, but I resisted the urge to scoot onto that ring. The strawberry float, though...oh, my! It was barely big enough for my partner and the woman with the gigantic arse. But it held.

[Luckygirl]

Re: swim rings

I absolutely love swim rings! I like how they are so snuggly around my waist and hips. i enjoy inflating them a lot, preferably by mouth. There's something about inflating tight and riding on them till they're flat. I adore the feel and touch of soft vinyl between my thighs. I hope to find someone who loves inflatables like i do. Because sharing playtime with a partner is twice as fun!

[heaviest]

Re: swim rings

690 pound "spry girl" sent me a video of an inflatable avocado. Very large. Kinda swim-ring like. It's alongated, and has a hole through the large end. Nice and thick, this one is. I'm excited just loooking at the thing. Looks very fully inflated, which is nice to see from a casual popper.

She walks from the camera to the inflatable and sits on the couch next to it. Then pulls it toward her with her feet as she slides off the front of the couch onto the poor avocado. Makes some lunging movements to reposition herself, and the thing kinda rolls under her and makes boomy noises against her skin. She's in her underwear. She rubs her butt and legs on it to make lots of noise, but settles for sitting centered over the hole. Way too big to fit in the hole, of course.

This inflatable is actually wider than she is, though. The narrow end of the avocado sticks out between her legs, and she covers it with her legs, one at a time, but she can't fit both on it.

Rolls off it, and it looks stretched and soft. She adds air. It takes a long time. She then tries to roll onto it from the floor, but it wants to scoot out from under her. I know she could trap it better than that, but she's playing for the camera.

She then holds it by the hole as she rolls onto it belly down, and pulls herself aboard. Bounces and scoots until she's centered on it, and it makes boomy noises. She's got her hips, most of her weight, on the large end, over the tube rather than the hole, so the small end is bulging large. She rocks forward and back, and then side to side, and scoots forward. Rocks vigorously until she rolls onto her hip, now off-center over one side of the thing, though she covers the hole with her belly. It's now unevenly loaded from the side, but it doesn't bulge impressively this way. She does seem to be sunk deep into the side away from the camera. Very hot.

Sits up and rolls on to her other hip so I can see her butt. She's loading it on the side toward the camera now, and she's sunk at the hip about to the floor.

Sits up again and scoots over the tube on the large end. Continues to rock and scoot forward, making those boomy noises, until she slides off the front of it. It's soft again.

Adds air. This time she doesn't screw around rolling back onto it. Gets on the large end of the tube again, so the small end is bulging out behind her. Rocks and rubs her legs on it to make boomy noises. Leans back to pull her legs together and get her belly onto her lap, and then leans forward on the big end again.

Foom! She screams and the thing deflates. It's the center seam that's blown, of course.

[heaviest]

Re: swim rings

Finally got around to reinforcing the seams of an intex transparent-top 36 inch swim ring with vinyl cement. Inner seam three times, outer seam twice. It's a lot of work and a lot of time, so I was reluctant to load the thing unevenly, like I wanted to do, and just pop the poor thing.

So I sat with my nearly 600 pounds fairly evenly distributed, and of course it held. It's not unusual for these things to hold me for at least a while. Got confident and rocked a bit and squirmed to make boomy noises of skin on vinyl.

Got off it and of course it had stretched a lot. So I added air and got back on it. Still evenly distributed, but not at all careful, either. It still held. More squirming for boomy noises. Dared to lean quite a bit. Easy to bottom out, so it needs more air!

Added air and got back on it. Felt pretty hard. Afraid now to lean, but it continued to stretch, and softened up again. Got really rough with the squirming and made lots of boomy noises. Leaned so that my hip and thigh bottomed out and flattened a large portion of one side of the tube. Lifted myself up and sat back down on one half the tube. Flattened it again. The other side was huge!

These things feel very balloon-like when they are stretched.

Shifted my weight around, flattening it under my butt, under one hip then the other, flattening as much as I could under a thigh and hip.

Got off it and it was super soft. Reinflated it. The thing is now huge all over, and unevenly stretched. There are two big bulges and the thing isn't round any more. It's stretched on the bottom, non-transparent side so much more than on the top, in just one spot, that the tube looks twisted.

Don't want to just pop it. Want to get a couple of the girls on it, or get one of them on it with me.

[frankfrank]

Re: swim rings

^ That is wild!!!


I've found something - it's not a swim ring - WHOPPair inflatable boxing gloves. Picked them up off eBay. They seem to be put together very strongly and durably - so much that I wonder if you'd be able to inflate one of them, and put your entire weight on it, and have it not pop?



I find it possible to put my whole weight on something unstable, if there's something good to grab on to such as a door frame, or a shelf in a closet, to keep balance. Freestanding and maintaining balance on any inflatable is pretty much unthinkable.