mitigating friction

The snowy weather this winter reawakened my husband’s love of skiing and he took all that fluffy cold stuff as an invitation to initiate our son to the joys of skiing.

Skiing is not a convenient sport where we live, at least not downhill skiing. The closest place in New Jersey is more than two hours away and the better skiing is in the Pocono’s or in New York. My guys decided on a night ski up at Shawnee because the cost would be reasonable for the lift tickets and equipment rental and some other reasons he mentioned, but by that time I had tuned him out because skiing is not on my list of fun things to do and whatever he wanted to do was fine with me beyond the desire that neither one of them break any bones and return in basically the same physical condition that they left in.

The one time I went skiing with him was up at Gore Mountain during one of our vacations and after an hour I hadn’t made it off the baby bunny trail. The bazillionth fall later, I decided I didn’t want to go swishing down a hill on sticks that seemed beyond my ability to control and he should go have lots of fun on the mountain and I will go inside, site by the fire and have some booze. I do not regret that decision. They served excellent booze.

So he headed off one late morning a couple of weeks ago to get back on ski’s and teach the boy how to get his groove on sticks. I’d like to note that it’s been over sixteen years since he’d been on skis and well over twenty since he raced on them. Apparently skiing is a skill much like bicycle riding, once learned is never forgotten, and my husband was thrilled to fly free down the slopes once again.

Ace apparently took to it like a duck does to water and really enjoyed himself. When they got home in the wee hours of the morning, he was exhausted, somewhat damp from his stumbles and face plants in the snow but giddy with this newfound ability. He grumbled plenty the next day from the muscle aches that came with learning a new sport and the pounding he took during his falls, but spent considerable time nagging his father about the next time they could get back on skis. Translation, I wanna go soon, Dad!

My husband likes to have fun and do all sorts of exciting things with the family. He also likes to do those things at the lowest cost possible and thinks nothing of spending hours online comparing prices, costs, packages and other bargain hunting. This is what makes him the perfect family travel agent. This bargain hunting is a hobby of his, a passion really. He is nothing if not dedicated to the cause of finding the right value for the cost. And skiing was no exception.

Every time I nudged him away from the computer to read email, or try and write a blog post, multiple internet windows were open displaying different ski equipment online shops. He had an excel spreadsheet listing the sellers, the prices, the type of skis and ski boots. This was serious shopping, a man with a purpose. When I asked him why he didn’t just rent the equipment again, he had a well thought out response based on use, time, money spent over time, rental vs. owning, blabbity blabbity blabbity. Really all he had to say was that he wanted new skis and I would have said fine. By the twentieth online store and hundredth or so different ski, my eyes would glaze over and my automated response was whatever-you- want-is-fine. One ski is very much like another in my mind and now I know how woefully wrong I was uttering that statement out loud while he was on the hunt because I now know more about ski types than I can forget.

At one point he asked me to look at this one online shop because the prices were so good, too reasonable, he was afraid it was a scam of sorts. He’s a little skittish that way and doesn’t trust the Interwebz as much as I do.

So he called the next day and spent almost an hour on the phone with some guy named Big Jon U and they discussed skis, ski boots, bindings, poles and who the hell knows what else but he was thrilled with the level of knowledge and customer service he received from this company levelninesports.com. Still somewhat skeptical he asked me to help with some research online about the company so as to not loose many hundreds of dollars after pressing the buy button. It didn’t take very long to ferret out the fact that this place had excellent deals on all sorts of ski and snowboarding equipment for all levels of skill. Their prices led many to believe that they could be a scam but every testimonial we found said they were a great place to deal with, that the equipment was top notch and their prices were not to be beat. Being based in Utah, a place as well known for skiing as Mormons, doesn’t hurt, I suppose. Our sense of security increased and my very frugal husband placed an order for two sets of new skis with mounted bindings, boots, and poles from Levelninesports.com. And he didn’t hyperventilate, overmuch, at the total charge as the same two sets were twice the price anywhere else. Imagine a new Harley for the price of a used Moped.

Hubbie & Ace tracked the shipment on UPS.com as if they were counting days til Christmas Day. Just over a week later the lot of it arrived in a couple of BIG boxes. The Head skis were well packaged and labeled with the personal specifications of the order and the boots were shiny and new. Both husband and son lovingly caressed their new skis and pranced around the house wearing boots that looked like they should have been attached to spacesuits. It was kind of weird, watching this display of manly sports equipment lust. But I suppose I get that way over new jewelry supplies. Oooohhhh, Sparkly!!

This very weekend they toddled off, new skis stuff in hand and spent 7 hours zipping down a cold mountain, during this winter’s worst freezing rainstorm no less. Why does anyone want to do that? They loved every wet cold minute of it. Both husband and son were amazed with how fast the skis were over the rented equipment they had previously used. My husband, who was pretty familiar with the skis of the past, made more than one comment about how fast his skis were and how sharp they turned – oh they can carve! I don’t really know what this means but I’m led to believe these are important factors. They were very happy with their new fast sharp sticks purchased from levelninesports.com. Practically giddy even as they talked about the near misses, almost wipeouts, hills they were able traverse and turns they could make on their new ski stuff. My husband was so thrilled with his new toys he asked me to tell the internet about levelninesports.com. I told him yes I would if he will just stops talking to me about skis.

I’m retaining the privilege of blaming levelninesports.com if my husband and son become ski bums.

Just sayin’