Swimline gummy bear

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  • heaviest
    Senior Member
    • Jun 2018
    • 501

    Swimline gummy bear

    Woman with a Swimline gummy bear float at the pool. Purple, translucent. A little more than five feet long, one chamber. The head is really large and has no inner baffle, and gets pretty bulgy. The woman was perhaps 280 pounds and it floated her no problem, but it did fold and wrinkle a bit in the middle, so she had it not tightly enough inflated to support her weight.

    The woman I was with, "shorts girl", complimented her on it and they had a conversation about it. The woman said she tended to slide forward in the thing, shorts girl suggested more inflation, they tried that, it didn't work but it did reduce the fold in the middle.

    She offered shorts girl a chance to try it out, and I could tell she was sizing her up, thinking she might be too heavy, and when shorts girl climbed the stairs enough that her hips were out of the water, the other woman got a funny look on her face.

    It was super unstable and folded in the middle, the center of it under water and the head bulging up behind her. Shorts girl fell off it a couple times, added more air, and even once she got floating, she had trouble not sliding off the front of it, or rolling over. Made lots of skin on vinyl noises, which from her face the owner thought meant it was going to pop. Shorts Girl floated on it for a while before returning it to its owner, overinflated.

    The head of that thing takes the air that is displaced from under you, and the seam at the top is where it's going to pop. I felt how hard it got with shorts girl on it, but resisted the urge to really test it.

    Found a great price on this float so I ordered a couple.
  • heaviest
    Senior Member
    • Jun 2018
    • 501

    #2
    Re: Swimline gummy bear

    I've had lots of time to play with this now. I only outweigh Shorts Girl by forty-ish pounds these days, so its no surprise it floats me. It may even be more stable with me because I'm narrower than she is. Still pretty unstable, though.

    There's no keeping it from folding a bit in the center with that much weight on it, and I can't see the huge head behind me, so it's actually less fun to ride than it is to watch someone else ride it.

    We tried to get Spry Girl on it. She outweighs me by almost three hundred pounds. It's fun to watch her try, and I tried to help her float on it. No way. Rolls right over, or scoots out behind her. She also tried to hug it face down on it. Lots of fun to watch.

    The head of it sticks up out of the water and bulges. It's so big! The bigger the un-baffled, unloaded chamber is, the more it suffers from expansion from air displaced from the loaded parts, and this thing's head chamber is large. In the hot sun with a heavy person on this float I can really see the head exploding, but my tiny pool is pretty shaded from the sun.

    Spry Girl also sat on it outside the pool. Yeah, that feels like it's going to explode. This one is a lot of fun in the pool, though, so I'm going to try not to pop it outside the pool.

    Shorts Girl hasn't been in my pool. I'm going to take this float with me to the public pool. Tall Girl is heavier and stronger, so I look forward to getting her on it!

    Comment

    • heaviest
      Senior Member
      • Jun 2018
      • 501

      #3
      Re: Swimline gummy bear

      Oh, yeah. Now that I've been able to inspect it closely, there are actually three places where this thing gets really tight. The top of the head, of course, but also the shoulders, where the head meets the body, on the inside curves, and the baffle between head and body is pulled really tight and the pillow is hard near the shoulders. It's a crapshoot where it's going to blow, but my bet is still the top of the head.

      Comment

      • heaviest
        Senior Member
        • Jun 2018
        • 501

        #4
        Re: Swimline gummy bear

        I have no trouble getting my butt far enough back on the thing that my shoulders and head are on the pillow, and the thing still folds forward of its upper arms. It looks like the vinyl has developed a permanent pucker and crease here. It looks like it's been wonderfully stressed.

        Spry Girl has tried to hook her armpits over the thing's upper arms, as leverage, and she's tried to wrap her legs around the outside of its lower legs. This is as close as she's come to floating on the thing, and it sinks too much and she's too wide to see how badly its folding in the middle, but from glimpses as it shoots out from under her, it's folding pretty badly. Those fold and pucker marks are probably her doing!

        I've tried to hold her steady on it, but it and her are just too big around to hold onto. Need a second person to help me.

        I want to swim under it with goggles to see if any of it is flattened under someone heavy where it folds. If it is, that'd be a lot of air displaced into the head.

        I've had to add air a couple times, to keep it solidly inflated. I think it's just stretching. If I spend a whole day doing this I'll want to inflate the second one and compare its proportion to a new one. It's some pretty sturdy vinyl, so it shouldn't be stretching a lot, but that head doesn't need to stretch a lot percentage-wise to take in a lot more air. Easily twelve full breaths, twice now. I hope its not leaking.

        Comment

        • heaviest
          Senior Member
          • Jun 2018
          • 501

          #5
          Re: Swimline gummy bear

          Very cool day, hardly anyone at the semi-private pool, nobody at all actually in it. Few enough people that we smuggled Spry Girl through the gate rather than making her walk through the building, which is...important for convincing her to go at all.

          Anyway, Tall Girl is here, too. I have both gummy floats inflated. One is maybe a little bloated in the head compared to the other, and definitely looks to have been stretched/folded in the middle. But it has mostly recovered from earlier.

          Spry Girl sits on an air mattress at the edge of the pool. I get on one of the gummies in the pool, while Tall Girl is trying to get accustomed to the cold, but obviously intends to get on the other gummy.

          A woman says, "Jeezus, I don't want to be anywhere near those when they pop!"

          She seems to be more amused than annoyed, and she doesn't move away, so I don't know what to make of her.

          Tall Girl, who outweighs me by 150 pounds, gets on the other gummy float. Takes multiple attempts, and she makes a lot of noise slipping off the thing and getting back on it.

          The woman laughs and says some stuff I can't make out. I'm pretty sure Tall Girl is intentionally making a lot of noise, but she's legit having trouble staying on the thing. She's wider than I am. My butt mostly flattens the center of the thing, pushing the air into the ring around it, so the thing is more stable than it would be if I was as wide as any of the girls. Tall Girl isn't nearly as wide as Spry Girl, but she's wide enough to not fit on this float. It's very unstable and she mostly sinks the body of it.

          She lands it for several seconds at a time. She's getting better at it. She's surprisingly athletic. She's as tall as I am and very strong. If she weren't so tall I might have named HER Spry Girl. If anyone her size can balance on this float, she can.

          She decides to just hug the thing, face, down. It's not the most restful position, so it's temporary, but she can balance this way for ten or twenty seconds at a time.

          Both floats seem soft, so we add air, lots of air, and I get back on and Tall Girl tries again to float butt-side down. Woman says "Jeezus!" and some other stuff. Tall Girl has settled for straddling her float. She's got the head poking out of the water behind her and the other end barely breaking the surface, and the rest of mostly submerged. But she can balance straddling the thing.

          I get off mine and help balance hers as she lays back. We get both her legs on the thing and she seems to be balanced and I let go. I can see the thing is folded badly in the center, most of it is submerged except for the head. I remember I was going to look from underneath with goggles but I forgot to bring them! I get back on my gummy.

          I encourage Spry Girl to get on my float. She outweighs Tall Girl by 130 pounds. I figure the jeezus woman's head will explode. But Spry Girl doesn't want to get on a float while jeezus woman is here. She's sitting on an air mattress but won't take it in the pool.

          The girls are shivering. Tall Girl falls off her float and it shoots out from under her. It's soft again. She wants me to inflate it for her. I do hers and mine. She takes hers over to the stairs, climbs a couple, and butt-drops onto the float. Doesn't stay on it. Does this several more times, before getting my help again. She gets steady, I get back on mine. Tall Girl falls off. I help her back on, I get back on mine. She manages to float for about three minutes before falling off. Basically, any movement she makes unsteadies the thing and she falls off. She's too big for this float.

          Girls are cold. We call it a day. I think it was well worth the very short visit, and inflating and deflating all the floats. Tall Girl probably had a good time. Spry Girl will probably be mad at me once Tall Girl leaves.

          Comment

          • heaviest
            Senior Member
            • Jun 2018
            • 501

            #6
            Re: Swimline gummy bear

            Spry Girl tells me Jeezus woman had a point. When we got on the floats the head looked like it would explode. The rest of the float goes mostly under water and the head looks like a balloon that is overinflated. Yeah, that's what I like about this float! I can't see my own, but watching the thing get very round under Tall Girl was quite a treat. It's a big float, but it looks like a toy under her. Except the head. That sticks up under her back. It gets so frickin round!

            Comment

            • craggy2012
              Senior Member
              • Jan 2012
              • 824

              #7
              Re: Swimline gummy bear

              I’ve often wanted one of these Gummibear poolfloats, they look kind of interesting especially if err deliberately heat stretched! I may get one if they’re still available here in the UK. Now we’re into September most online retailers stop selling, or importing them now until the warmer weather returns once more.

              Comment

              • heaviest
                Senior Member
                • Jun 2018
                • 501

                #8
                Re: Swimline gummy bear

                I'd buy more of them while they are available if I had money to burn.

                Comment

                • heaviest
                  Senior Member
                  • Jun 2018
                  • 501

                  #9
                  Re: Swimline gummy bear

                  The shoulders of the one Tall Girl was on are stretched and puffy looking, and the pucker around where it was folded looks really stretched. The head of that one is taller in the center, and the inner round at the left shoulder is less round and more puckered, like the cheek and shoulder are both puffed up and they now overlap. I have to push my fingers between the shoulders and cheeks to reach the baffle between the head and body, and it's worse on the left side.

                  I know if you fold an inflatable while it is inflated the volume goes down and the pressure goes up. Looks like she stretched the hell out of this one. I look forward to getting her on it again when it is warmer.

                  The one I was on isn't holding air. Dammit. A quick go around the main seam and I can't find it.

                  To find the leak, I've overinflated that gummy, and the head is still smaller than the one Tall Girl was on.
                  Last edited by heaviest; 06-09-2022, 22:01.

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                  • heaviest
                    Senior Member
                    • Jun 2018
                    • 501

                    #10
                    Re: Swimline gummy bear

                    You know the way a balloon stretches when you twist it making balloon animals and then let it un-twist? There's like a crease where you twisted it and it's stretched on both sides, and it like puckers there? That's what the bears look like below their arms, and the one Tall Girl was on looks like that on the inner round of the left shoulder.

                    Comment

                    • heaviest
                      Senior Member
                      • Jun 2018
                      • 501

                      #11
                      Re: Swimline gummy bear

                      Competition? lol Spry Girl wanted to try again to float on the thing in our tiny pool, and of course I wanted to see that. So she straddled it the way Tall Girl had. Sat way far back on it and just let it fold in half under her. Got so she could float with her legs sticking out the sides. Head of the thing sunk way more than any of us had, but on the other hand the feet of it stuck up out of the water between her legs.

                      Then we worked on getting her legs up on the thing. That meant she had to lean back, which was actually pretty easy, because its chin was in her butt crack, so she just leaned back on the pillow. And this caused it to roll over, over and over.

                      When it shot out from under her, there was this hissing sound, as the flattened seat of the thing would fill with air from the pressure from the head. Air travels from/to the seat through holes in the baffles, and only so much air can move through those things, so it was slow to re-inflate. It looked to me like after she'd been straddling the thing, the seat was completely flattened, which means all that air went somewhere else!

                      She couldn't get leverage to lift her legs onto the thing without leaning back, but when she did so it got really unstable and rolled over. I tried stabilizing her by grabbing her ankles, but that just made her lose her balance on her butt and slide off.

                      Her solution was to sit sideways on it, off the step, and while I provided something (me!) to lean her back against, she pulled one leg onto the float, turning bit by bit until she was laying on it with one leg on it and one leg off. She sits way far back on it to do this so her entire calf was on the float. The best we could do with the other leg, though, was dangle in the water, because as soon as she tried to lift it, she'd flip over.

                      After one of these spills we decided to add air. Lots and lots of air. Had to re-learn how to lift a leg onto it, because now it was hard to do that again. But we got her to the point of one leg on it and one leg off it again, before she got tired and we resolved to work on this again some other day.

                      I think with another person helping we could get her on it, but she's going to have the same problem Tall Girl did. It'll just keep rolling over. She wants to do at least as well as Tall Girl, though, and has the float to practice with!

                      Comment

                      • heaviest
                        Senior Member
                        • Jun 2018
                        • 501

                        #12
                        Re: Swimline gummy bear

                        It's been several hours and the gummy that Tall Girl was on has mostly recovered. I didn't think to measure the head when new, and I'm sure there is some permanent stretch, but it seems to have mostly recovered. The shoulder, though, is still puckered, in addition to the hip puckers which are also permanent.

                        The other one had a hole in the main seam in the hip area. Vinyl cement now curing. If this gummy doesn't pop it may turn into the reinforced one that we abuse to see how misshapen we can get it. Heck, I'll dedicate both of these to such a test and order two more. But I am running out of summer.

                        There have been no pool social events from either of the groups that used to do them. Bummer.

                        Comment

                        • heaviest
                          Senior Member
                          • Jun 2018
                          • 501

                          #13
                          Re: Swimline gummy bear

                          We never got back to the pool with the gummy bears, and today Spry Girl wanted to try to pop one, so I was up for that. She put it on a bench and sat on it. Tried hard to lift both feet and balance on it, and the bench made crazy cracking noises, but the bear and the bench held her.

                          She was straddling the bench and the bear, and there was about enough room between her legs for me to hook my butt onto the bear, so I did that. Felt the bench shift as she made any movement at all, and it cracked some more. Rather than break it, we moved the bear to the watermelon island float and sat on the bear there.

                          The vinyl on vinyl popping noises were awesome. Not all of our weight was on the bear, though, as her legs don't come close to fitting on it, so I sat on the bear and she sat on me. She can't get both legs up because her calves are three times as big as mine, but we got most of our combined weight on the bear. It was very unstable with two inflatables under us. Also much more of our weight was on the head of the bear than I wanted. I wanted all the weight on the body so the head would explode, but there was no way to get us both on just the body portion.

                          Anyway, we rolled and squirmed trying to get as much weight as possible on the bear, and it was exhausting trying to both balance and bounce a bit. We took a break and added air.

                          The head of the bear was already bloated from multiple sessions on it, and now it looked even more bloated. The back of it had pucker marks from where it had been pressed into the bench, and the back of the head looked very noticeably stretched more than the front.

                          Third time on it we heard a hiss and tried to stay still so we could hear it to be sure we were hearing an air leak, and then we got bouncy trying to pop it. It popped more like a foom than a boom, but it was still more satisfying than a slow leak.

                          The seam at the top of the head split about eight inches. The head deflated quickly, but it was quite a few seconds before the body of the bear deflated. Air had to travel around the baffle between the head and body, and with most of the weight on the body, it folded at the neck, against the bloating of the watermelon float, which constrained air around the baffle even more.
                          Last edited by heaviest; 12-10-2022, 22:08.

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                          • heaviest
                            Senior Member
                            • Jun 2018
                            • 501

                            #14
                            Re: Swimline gummy bear

                            The second bear I wanted to get more weight on the body and less on the head, so I tried hanging the head over the side of the water melon float. Sat on it and wasn't well supported against the back, and when Spry Girl sat on me we just spilled off the thing. Tried a couple more times and couldn't get stable.

                            Tried essentially the same thing on an 18-pocket suntanner. Bear on the air mattress, head hanging off the end, I sit and am not well supported and it is really roll-y, and Spry Girl sits and we both spill off. And again.

                            The bear is looking a little worse for the pile-ons, so we add air. Despite my reservation, we put it on the bench and she sits, straddling the bear and the bench, and it makes crazy popping noises of skin on vinyl and vinyl against the bench, and then I hook my butt onto the bear between her legs. She says she is leaning on the head of the bear, but most of her weight is on the body. She lifts both legs momentarily, and I try timing doing the same. The bench complains a lot. We do that a couple more times.

                            We get up, reinflate the bear and inspect it. It's stretched and puckered like the other one. We get back on it, and she gets pretty squirmy. I can feel the bench shifting wildly, and it's making crazy wood cracking noises and metal grinding noises. It's got a metal frame and wood wrapping the metal bench top, and the wood flexes a lot with her on it. I'm sure we are going to break it and better judgment should tell me to stop, but wanting to pop the bear I ignore the warning signs from the bench.

                            She's huffing for air, so we sit still for a bit. No hissing noises. We're contemplating adding air when the bear pops. Boom! Much more satisfying than last time, and once again the body goes flat slower than the head, but kinda quick this time.

                            The top of the head split open again, this time fully across from ear to ear.

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