island floats

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"Island" floats are those that are big enough for two or more people but not simply air mattresses. A lot of them are round, and multiple rings is a common configuration. I don't like the multiple ring ones, because they are very sturdy. I like stressing inflatables. You can get multiple people on the same ring to stress it, but more irregular shapes are better for my purposes.

I own a lot of watermelon-themed floats from several manufacturers. I like the ones with radial segments separated by baffles, and I prefer the ones that are all one chamber. The segments bulge when you load the float unevenly, and you can feel the weight of other people on the float with you.

Some of these designs have an outer ring, and whether that ring is a separate chamber or just a baffle forming a ring, the purpose is the same. It keeps the weight from all transferring to the outer wall of the float. The ones without the outer ring tend to split seams on the outer edge.

Swimline makes a 61-inch watermelon float with 12 radial segments and an outer ring that is not a true separate chamber. The whole float, including the center, is one chamber. This is my favorite large float. The segments bulge nicely under load, and you can feel the weight of other people on the float with you. I use this float as a base on which I pop other inflatables, and I've had multiple heavy people on this float with me.

The similar Intex float has an outer ring that is a separate chamber. It seems sturdier and is less interesting to me.

"US Pool Supply" has a 12-segment radial design that does not have an outer ring. I like stressing floats, and this one feels more stressed under load than the Swimline, but I haven't used it enough to know how much less durable it is.

Then there is the nine-segment Pool Central float that is smaller at about 49 inches. Fewer segments means each of the baffles takes more of the weight, and this one doesn't have an outer ring, either. This one is exciting, but I don't have many of them so I've been careful with them.

I also have some chinese knockoffs, and some lemon slice variants from the same manufacturers.

[heaviest]

Re: island floats

One float I was really excited to order was the Swimline monarch butterfly. From the photos is had lots of puffiness, an irregular shape that was likely to take a load on the baffles unevenly, which is very exciting, and the wings were one chamber, so you'd feel the weight of someone on the float with you. But this one turned out to be a hard, canvas-y material. I've really liked Swimline floats, but not this one. I've had two large people on this float with me and it didn't feel like it was about to explode. I saved it for when I could get a fourth person, the heaviest of all of us, but I haven't used the thing a second time.

A woman I met very recently says she has the Swimline Primrose flower float that she likes, but I'm afraid it will be this canvasy material.

[heaviest]

Re: island floats

A woman I met very recently says she has the Swimline Primrose flower float

We were on it today. It's too big to fit on the concrete ledge near the pool, so we sat on it on the deck, with a third person. The third person is 330 pound girl, a friend of mine, and the new friend I'm calling Shorts Girl, is perhaps 430. I'm about 465. The float did not feel up to the task, but it held. Shorts Girl was super excited for how hard it (the float!) got. It's twice as much weight as she's had on it before.

The watermelon float will take that much weight because it is very regular shaped. No inside curves. The flower float is irregular, the baffles pull unevenly, and there are inner curves that get very tight. I was sure it wouldn't hold and the anticipation was awesome. No pops or leaks, though, and we were on it for more than half an hour.

[heaviest]

Re: island floats

I was stoked by my experience with the flower float, so I pulled out the butterfly. It was just me and Spry Girl, who outweighs me by a lot. She sat on one wing while I laid on the other. It was hard. She wasn't into just enjoying the overload, so she bounced. Popped the wing I was on. Ripped a hole around the end of one of the baffles.

[heaviest]

Re: island floats

The woman I've called Shorts Girl, perhaps 430 pounds, has an inflatable flower, translucent pink on one side and white on the other, about the size of a 47-inch swim ring, with six pedals and a center section, so seven segments, all connected, it's a single-chamber float. It might hold two people but it's really billow-y, so it'd be hard to float on it except in the center. She uses it to sit on outside the pool. She's normally sitting on the center of it with her feet pointing outward, off the float, but she also frequently slides forward so she's sitting on two of the pedals and the rest of the float billows up behind her. When she sits like this, a lot of her weight is off the float, and she's aware of that, so sometimes she sits sideways, on her hip, on two or three of the pedals, so most of her weight is on the float but half or more of it is still unloaded and billows up next to her. With only six segments around the outside of it, each segment billows quite a lot.

Anyway, she wanted me to get on it with her, but she was pretty certain it would pop. She said she's been through several of these, and they always eventually spring a leak, but she's never outright popped one. She didn't particularly want to pop it in public, but couldn't resist seeing what would happen if we both got on it. This float is surely a lot less sturdy than the larger Swimline flower island float that is larger, made of thicker vinyl, and has more baffles and more segments. Three of us sat on that one for half an hour.

I told her that, evenly loaded with both of us on it, her smaller float might not be under any more stress than it is with her unevenly loading it by sitting on half or less of it by herself. I've discovered this about swim rings, and I was pretty certain it would work with her flower float.

So, we tested it. We sat together, kinda carefully, and it held us both, for the few minutes we were on it. We first sat covering all segments, but then we uncovered two of the pedals and let them bulge. That really felt like it would blow, and we chickened out and got off of it. She continued to use it by herself. She later told me, though, that it's now leaking.

I told her to save it and I'll fix it with vinyl cement, and she was unaware there was any way to fix a hole in the seam. I'm pretty sure that where it is leaking, on the end of one of the baffles between two of the pedals, I could fix it with vinyl cement alone, but that by stuffing a piece of vinyl between the pedals I could patch it even more securely. It'll be the first time I try that. And we'll test it with our combined weight.

[heaviest]

Re: island floats

Shorts Girl's other large float is a pink flower that looks to have four rings to it, but it's all one chamber. About 60 inches across. Five pedals but they aren't separated by baffles. The baffles instead form irregular concentric rings. It's got a printed design on one side and it's plain pink on the back side, with the fill valve on the outer ring on the back. Two normal size people could float on this thing, and it's plenty big enough for two large people to lay on it outside the pool. I've been on it in the pool, and so has she of course, and we tried to get on it together but didn't manage. With patience and privacy, I'm pretty sure we could float together on it.

I'm pretty sure this design is sturdier than her Swimline big flower, with simpler, more evenly stressed baffles, but the material itself is less sturdy. We did not have a third person to sit on it with us, so the Swimline has been tested under more weight.

She says she has more flower floats. Girl has a type.

[heaviest]

Re: island floats

Next up, another pink flower, this one by Swimline. Seems a little larger than the blue one, and not as puffy. A little more irregular in the baffles. Easily holds the two of us on the deck, about 900 pounds. Just the two of us today. She says she has another pink flower float that is large for one person but probably wouldn't fit us both, and she has a red rose float that sounds like the intex.

For tubes, she brought a ring, about 30 inches, with pedals, making it about 45 inches, but the hole isn't big enough for either of us to sit in in the pool. Didn't stop us from trying.

I told her about using a float as a chaise lounge cushion and she tried it with the flower float. It's so much bigger than the chair that is draws a lot of attention, particularly with the noise it makes. She tried it but didn't stay on it.

[heaviest]

Re: island floats

Intex sea shell island float. Never given it much thought because it has a separate pillow chamber and there are no awesome photos of it, but the guy I cleverly call "big guy" and his partner have one. He has no interest in inflatables outside the pool, or so he says, but maybe that is changing. His float is bulging to the sides of the pillow, and has pucker marks next to the bulges. He does like to overinflate.

The thing is easily big enough for both of them outside the pool. It'd probably float one of them pretty well in the pool.

I now have two photos of them on it. One, they are sitting facing each other, the other they are laying on it. The main chamber wraps around the pillow. The wrap around portion is probably not large enough to take a lot of displaced air and expand a lot, but the portions to the side of the pillow do bulge. Of course I'd like to see a third person on it, or try it for myself. He has said he'll bring it if it survives. It won't lol.

[heaviest]

Re: island floats

The Intex sea shell island float was cheap, so I own a couple now. It's hard to make room for it indoors, but it's worth making the effort. It's wide where it needs to be for Spry Girl. The two of us weigh less than Big Guy and his partner, so it's no surprise it holds us.

I could have fun keeping it under pressure for a long time, but that does nothing for Spry Girl. She's impatient. I'll probably put these away until summer and try them in the pool.

[heaviest]

Re: island floats

So, mermaid girl is at a convention, in mermaid costume, taking photos with people on a larger sea shell float. I catch a photo of it in the attendees’ reports, and I seek out more, and find several. It appears to be a float I have. More interestingly, reports are that she’s been a bit brusk with some of the people posing with her, suggesting they may be a bit large to be on her float more than one at a time. Reports are that she just about lost her cool when two people I’d guess weigh 400 and 250 pounds sat with her. So, 700 pound Gym Girl and I made the 90 minute drive, and I brought one of my sea shell floats to give her, whether we popped her float or not.

First thing we did was seek out someone we know to weigh over 500 pounds. He’s here but unwilling to give this woman a candid camera moment. Another woman we’re sure weighs over 500 is also here, and we thought long and hard about asking her but we don’t know her well enough to ask that of her, so it’s just Gym Girl and I, and we aren’t both going to fit on the thing with her, so Gym Girl alone approaches her and turns to sit with her, and she gets up and says something to the effect of, “Jesus fucking Christ, I earn money for the con doing this and can’t have you people pop my damned shell!”

I show her what’s in my bag, the same shell float she’s using, I tell her we’ve both been on it, it’s sturdy as hell, and she’s welcome to it as backup. She admits she already has another one, apologizes, and says she’d be happy to take the photo with Gym Girl. She does, and another with Gym Girl and I, and we make room for her between us, on our hips because there’s no other way we’re fitting all three of us, and she joins us for that shot, too. Promises to be nicer to the larger patrons. We leave her my shell float.

There’s a pool. We didn’t come all this was to torture mermaid girl.

The sea shell float is rated for 400 pounds and “two or three people”. Mermaid girl is probably 180, I’m 460, Gym Girl is almost 700. Can’t lie, I’d have been thrilled if it had popped. The other disappointment is that mermaid girl wasn’t on it when Gym Girl butt dropped onto it. And I did help her down, but…700 pounds. I’m not THAT strong. It was a butt drop.

[heaviest]

Re: island floats

At the pool yesterday was an eyeglasses shaped 2-person float. It was like the 2 merged swimring kind, except that instead of sharing part of the ring between the rings, this one was two separate rings joined by the “bridge”. There was a wing on the outside of each ring, the eyeglass rim, that each contained two cup holders.

The rings of this float were a little smaller than the more familiar two-ring floats, and the product page on Amazon has the very optimistic weight limit of 450 pounds. The eyeglass float seems nowhere near as sturdy as the other kind. It is sized like two 42 inch rings (36 inch inflated) rather than the 47 inch rings these things are generally based on. And being joined by a bridge rather than merged, the center of the float flexes a lot and is probably under a lot of stress.

The thing is a single chamber, and filled with glitter.

There were lots of people at the pool that all seemed to know each other, and I watched this float get used by a lot of them. It seemed to struggle to float two chubby adults. The largest people present didn’t use the thing until I’d watched it for a couple hours, and then a guy of about 350 pounds used it. He just about sank his half, and a couple people were intrigued enough that it floated him that they called over the largest of the group, a guy of about 450 pounds. The two of them couldn’t both stay on the thing, though I don’t think they tried hard enough.

Anyway, when it was finally open, I got on it. I’m currently about 450 pounds. People were amused that I could balance on it, though I did need to partially occupy the second ring. Gym Girl once again wasn’t dressed for the pool so she didn’t join me.

I was hoping they’d leave the thing behind but I had to leave before they did. I’ve ordered two of them from Amazon.

[heaviest]

Re: island floats

The eyeglass float was left at the pool so I have that in addition to the two I ordered. The found one was overinflated a bit when we took possession, and Gym Girl and I both got on it. Doesn’t float us. It was more an exercise in balance and rough play. Didn’t pop it.

[heaviest]

Re: island floats

I was at a private pool party. A girl from my gym was there. Girl is stocky AF, both muscular and fat. I'm guessing 240 pounds. She sat on a 36 inch and a 24 inch beach ball. Popped the latter. Spent a lot of time on the 36 incher.

Anyway, at one point someone pokes me in the side and I turn around and she's carrying this two-seater float. It's an S-shaped thing with two seats facing opposite directions. The S-shape is the main floatation chamber, but the seats are inflated, too. She motions for me to join her and she takes it in the pool.

I've lost a lot of weight, but I'm still almost twice her size. Together we about sink the thing, and my end wants to pull her end under. It's basically an exercise in balance, and an excuse for her to fall into me repeatedly. But this float isn't up to the task, so we get another. Two heart-shaped rings, connected together. It's got the Bigmouth logo.

I don't fit in the hole, and she just kinda almost fits. ANd we just about sink this one, too. But we do both manage to float. She still keeps falling against me and is kinda handsy.

We also both got on a double air mattress. It was a lot easier than it was at my peak weight, and with a partner who was the size I am now, but stocky girl and I still weighed that thing down adequately! It handled 700 pounds okay, though. Still unblanaced, with handsy girl falling into me.