WINNERS! – The big Australian swimwear road test competition! Not to mention results from your voting.

Our last issue featured the famous board-short versus aussie cossie road test. We asked you for your comments about the story and the images and offered gifts for the most entertaining votes/comments. We also promised to get back to your with the results from your voting. Here is what you said and think!

Thanks for all the comments and entries

The competition is done and dusted! All votes tallied, comments read and adjudicated and prize-winners determined. Thank you, so much, for everyone who offered their opinions. There were so many clever responses from such a clever bunch of people. It’s always great to hear from Doug… fearless leader of Coastalwatch, Surfer HQ and Surfing World! The opinion of someone so close to the centre of surf and beach culture is not to be sneezed at! It was also great to have the contribution of the mighty Bear… another whose contribution to surf culture and surf business (surf media and design and manufacturing of surf craft) over the years is way more than substantial. Sue and Michelle made interesting comments from completely different points of view. They kept me laughing. I do think that Sue is giving the men in her life too little credit. They would look fine down at Coogee in a pair of sluggos! Bruce’s reverence for some of our surf heroes put a lump in my throat… though I, personally, will not be taking Mick’s lead as a fashion advisor any time soon. Phil nearly won a prize for the nice things he said about my orange cossies. Unfortunately for him, I was not the judge, so shameless sucking up was, in the end, pointless.

The prize winners

Our impartial judge for the “comments” competition was Georgina (Themistoclea – for those unfamiliar with the classics, Themistoclea was Pythagoras’ morality coach) Mudge. Gina chose the following as our award winners.

1.      Rosie Rose – Rosie’s prize? A pair of Skullcandy Supreme Sound Chops.

2.      Elisha – Elisha will receive a pair of the finest in Australian swimwear a pair of aussieBums Luxe.

3.      Tim Wilcox (this might seem dodgy given that Wilcox is a past contributor… but rest assured, readers, that Themistoclea had no idea of Wilcox’s exalted writer status) – Tim will also be receiving a pair of aussieBums… the classic cossie WJK Loose 2.5.

4.      Paola – Paola’s description of boardie wearers as “hobbit-legs” men wins her a pair of Skullcandy Supreme Sound Hesh earphones! Pao is one of the best female surfers anywhere and she is a great judge of legs!

5.      Hari – Hari walks away with a pair of Skullcandy 50/50 ear buds.

Thanks to Skullcandy and aussieBums for adding a bit of spicy fun to this story by offering a fine selection of prizes for some of our creative readers

So who won the vote? Was it boardies or cossies?

You may remember from the story that cossies won the road test conducted by our models. But who won the popular vote? When you saw the pictures of handsome young Andy and less handsome old Socrates wearing both boardies and cossies which did you guys vote for as best, smartest, grooviest, sexiest?

Well, you won’t believe this. It was a draw! A complete and absolute dead heat! The readers have spoken and they reckon that boardies and cossies are pretty much line ball. It was hardly a definitive outcome. The vote numbers were not huge but, even so, we got enough votes to show that both forms of swimwear have their supporters. Thank you all for your votes!

A final word

Despite the people at the extremes who complain that a bloke should “never wear budgie-smugglers” or just as foolishly, a fella “looks like a complete goose in boardies” the truth is probably half way between the two points of view. There is a time and place for both and blokes can look pretty damned good in either under the right circumstances. It’s just a shame that so many people continue to hold such prejudicial views against one or the other.