CAMP HANSEN, Okinawa — Size does matter, when you’re trying to make the biggest splash, according to some of the contestants of the Crazy Cannonball Contest at the Aquatics Center Monday.

“I’m small, so I won’t win,” said Lance Cpl. Shane Armstrong, 20.

The size of the splash is all about the size of the person making the splash, he explained.

Lance Cpl. William Dodson, 23, agreed.

He summed the secret up in two words: “definitely size.”

Other contestants had a different opinion.

“Technique is golden,” said Lance Cpl. Donavan Leger, 20. “You can have size, and it wouldn’t matter,” Leger said. “It’s the biggest surface area hitting the water that matters.”

Pfc. Nicole Denny, 19, agreed that, “It’s all about technique.”

However, for Denny, technique is summed up as velocity and speed, she said.

Seaman James Wall, 23, had a more scientific-sounding explanation for making a big splash: “Cavitation.”

In Wall’s explanation, cavitation is about “creating a hole in the water.”

“The bigger the cavitation, the more water rushing back in,” then the bigger the splash will be, he said.

But, when queried about their biggest splash, the contest winners didn’t know how they did it

“I couldn’t tell you,” said the winner of the men’s biggest splash, Sgt. Terrance Laborde, 24. “I just go out and jump and hope my splash is big.”

The winner of the women’s biggest splash, Cpl. Emily Oxner, was more succinct on how to make the biggest splash, “I have no idea,” Oxner said.

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