you wanna put that thing where?

You know who I’m talking about. He drives a green VW Polo, black Arnette sunnies glued to forehead and despite working in some finance position spends more time on the ‘book than on the books. About the car, there’s a really big white canoe thing permanently on the roof (is it bolted on?) with the ubiquitous ‘Men’s Health’ stickers. They’re out there in their hundreds (with maybe different yet similar cars and sunnies) and there’s more coming.

In a bizarre twist, they actually like using these things in the sou’easter. Maybe it has something to do with downwind races being the best ones, but the season runs from October to April. Of course most of the derision is from the damn Men’s Health sticker pasted all over them. When you sing up for the series, you gotta paste one on your boat. Now having done a fair amount of events this year, I’ve had my share of goodie bags. That translates into lots of Tastic Basmati rice, magnesium tablets, Arnica samples and too many back issues of Men’s Health magazines (I’m still wondering about the appetite suppressing toothpaste I got for totalsports challenge).

(rant)Men’s Health is essentially Cosmopolitan with the requisite chromosomes swapped. Despite the size of the volume, the copy is dateless. This is basically because they say the same regurgitated stuff month in month out, and of course there’s always some way to ‘get better abs’. I don’t know how the subscribers haven’t clicked onto this yet and formed a protest of sorts. I’d actually be wary of anyone who admits willingly paying for this rubbish on a yearly basis.(/rant)

So following the tried and trusted beat ‘em/join ‘em maxim, I scoured the peninsula for a bargain ski. I even went to the trouble of making everyone enter a magazine competition for me. I figured it’s a buyer’s market in winter and had a few criteria to follow: stable+fast+cheap+good condidtion+adjustable.
Now adjustable is very important, as it helps for resale value and you can lend it out to people with different leg lengths.

I got the buyer’s market theory thing a bit wrong, and had to throw out the adjustable and tone down the stable requirements. And of course I never put looks into it (pity, that). In the end I picked one up from gumtree, go poke around and see how much it cost me if you want. Good news is she’s a Fenn, and even a Mako at that. She’s quite, um err, unique..and in need of a name. suggestions welcome