Greetings, all!
Forgive me if this has been discussed elsewhere; I tried the search function and saw a few old threads on chamois and camp towels, but all seemed to reference auto chamois rather than swimmers chamois. Some people also mentioned camping-specific towels as their preference. And then there’s the disposable wipe crowd, but that’s a different thing altogether IMO.
I have tried all three towel types (auto chamois, swimmer chamois, camp towels) and in my experience, there has been no competition: the chamois marketed for swimmers/divers are THE best in terms of absorption.
They do need to be damp to work properly, but this is not a downside at all. To the contrary, what this actually means is that a tiny piece can be used and wrung out over and over without loosing it’s drying ability. No waiting for it to dry in order for it to perform to its best ability.
They are also extremely affordable. A two pack of 26×17 inch chamois from the company Flow Swim Gear is $11 online. As others have mentioned, they are easily cut to whatever size you want. I bring a quarter of a towel for me and my dog and it’s perfect. So that quarter towel cost me less than $1.50.
Performance? I can dry my feet/legs after crossings, I can dry my whole body after swimming, I can dry my dog before getting in bed, I can wipe my tarp of rain the next morning… I could do all of these drying tasks back to back without having to wait for the towel to dry out again. Simply wring it out when it’s full and keep drying. And somehow, by some paradox of the universe, it really can get you all the way dry, even when it itself is not. You can dry your hands with it after the final wring-out. The thing that just had water dripping out of it, getting you wet, is now drying you off.
Some specs:
—14”x8”
—1.4oz, fully wrung out but damp
-5.0oz, fully saturated
You could certainly get away with a smaller piece. I carried a 7”x4” piece for one trip and it did the job, although it was a bit tedious having to wring it out twice as frequently. For me and the doggo, I decided bigger was worth the weight.
So that’s all. I know we know about chamois. I just wanted to make the point that not all chamois are created equal, and in the spirit of this forum, wanted to help other people not waste their money on initially buying the wrong gear, like I did. (I’m looking at you, $20 rainleaf camp towel.)
Cheers!
