[sebbie]

PartLXXII

I have been writing about the connections between a guy’s interest in taking up a particular sport and the specific gear that is worn or used in order to participate in the sport, and making the case that the gear and the sport that is chosen are often connected.

Then yesterday, I ran into a rerun of a 2019 Red Bull cliff diving event held in Mostar I think. The first thing I learned was that not all cliff diving events involve diving off of cliffs. They were diving from a man-made platform perched over a bridge high over a river instead.

The other thing I noticed right away was that the male participants in the sport all seemed to be bigger and more muscular than their counterparts diving off boards and platforms in Olympic/college style diving.

And I couldn’t help but notice that every diver was wearing a brightly colored and often patterned swim brief—no jammers here for sure--but also briefs that are typically brighter and more colorful than we normally see in Olympic-style diving.

Competitive sports have to have viewers, and while viewers here might claim that they are interested only in the score on each dive, the sport would not have nearly the number of followers if these muscular divers were all wearing frumpy navy blue or black jammers. The same women who think guys wearing Speedos should be banned are still gawking at the muscular fit bods in the splashy briefs and enjoying every minute of it.

And the men who watch have other things going on. There is no doubt a gay male following of the sport with these viewers interested in seeing the hunky bods in the tiny suits. But from a straight male perspective, there are a lot of guys who watch this in part because what they see represents a fitness goal, to see exactly what happens if a guy follows a serious exercise program for a specific sport.

And for the divers themselves, part of the fun is that the guy’s paycheck in part is based on being able to dive off a high cliff or platform wearing only a tiny colorful swim brief knowing full well that there are lots of people of both sexes gawking at them and their bods. What could be more fun (erotic) than that? Everyone has to earn a living! Might as well do something you enjoy! In short, the sport would not have but a fraction of the current following and success had the diving norm been frumpy, body-hiding clothing.

The connection between clothing that semi-turns on a guy and participating in a specific sport has a long history, going back to the 5th grader who is required for the first time in his life to wear a strap in order to be able to participate in a team sport. Think of all the people playing football, from eighth graders through high school, college and the NFL who must get their bodies into snug-fitting football pants, and that many of the current football uniforms in college and the NFL seem to make a guys ‘penis and nads a very obvious bulge. Even if it is really just the outline of a hard cup, no one has ever missed the idea that this is the sport for males with really big male body parts. And part of the fun for the players is that they have to realize that some of the fans both male and female) follow the sport mainly just to see them parade in public looking this way. It’s a variation on the cliff diving thing, but works much the same way fan-wise.

NFL players take note. Part of Tom Brady’s success is certainly due to the fact that he plays the game very well, but also because fans come out to see this sweet-looking but athletic guy clad in a snug-fitting NFL uniform, with guys everywhere both gay and straight wishing that they could look as good as he does after turning 40. Brady always is well groomed, the very opposite of the NFL players who might be very good at playing football but haven’t visited a barber shop in ages or worried about how their muscular but perhaps a little too heavy body looks inside a uniform. Playing NFL football doesn’t require movie star good looks, but part of whether or not you can succeed at the highest level of the sport depends on how good you look doing it. Owners want stadium seats filled and TV viewers and having players who can attract both is a key element regardless of the final score.

I’ve thought of other sports too, like dirt bike racing and motorcycle racing where there is a piece of gear that is not a clothing item but is a key part of the sport. Do guys get aroused just thinking about getting on their competition bikes? Well, I suspect that there may be more than a little of that going on.

And, take the examples of two Winter Olympic sports namely the Luge and Speed Skating. The interesting part about these is that both sports seem to require that participants wear really really snug fitting body suits covering everything in Spandex®. A lot of the fans of both sports probably got interested simply because of the erotic components of seeing a male body clad in such snug-fitting gear, and fans of the diving at the Summer Olympics may move to the Speed Skating and Luge events in the Winter Olympics. Could the sport exist with looser-fitting, less erotic looking garb? Maybe, but it would not have the following. Did guys get into these ports in part because they “liked” the garb they would be “forced” to wear in order to participate? Well, that is an interesting question that even participants in the sport might not be willing to truthfully answer.

So, to conclude I am back on this theme that finding a sport or exercise routine that you will be able to sustain over long periods of time successfully in part depends on the gear that you will need to wear in order to participate. Part of the fun of a regular running routine may very well have to do with the possibility of being able to run through the neighborhood clad only in a short pair of paper thin nylon shorts and getting to do that every day has a certain erotic component to it that many runners might not be able to admit. If a guy’s body shape and overall fitness improves by running over longer periods of time that has an erotic component to it as well as your neighbors see your body gradually looking better and better as in my once overweight neighbor is starting to look really fit.

A lot of guys starting an exercise program have the view that they somehow must keep their bodies fully covered in loose-fitting clothing until they achieve a certain fitness/weight loss goal. As if only the really fit guys are entitled somehow to wear the body-hugging or body-revealing clothing, but this is silly as the day to switch from frumpy to body revealing keeps getting put off and the guy will never get up the nerve to do what he should have done even at the beginning.

I will buy a Speedo® and wear it at the pool but only if I can only drop 25 lbs!

To be continued…