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Show MaDnnmiitanim j by Nan Chalat Equipment overload has struck again I am looking for a sport that doesn't require any equipment. The closest thing I can think of is swimming, if you don't count the pool. In the meantime, I don't care if I'm left in the dust at the bottom of the trail-I'm not buying any more equipment ! I have a low tolerance for dealing with gadgets, a bad memory when it comes to getting get-ting all the right stuff together and little or no interest in the technology behind the latest toy. I have a shortage of patience when it comes to reading instructions and an even bigger problem with allocating a sports budget. I'd rather go out to lunch. This aversion to sports equipment probably wouldn't be a problem if I didn't live in Park City and if most of my best friends weren't athletes. But I do, and they are. So I have learned to interject the appropriate ap-propriate exclamations of approval when someone shows me the new Salomon binding, or a Campanolo deraileur. On the exterior I appear to be saying, "Oh, wow. Neat. That's amazing. I see how that works, right." But on the inside I am wondering won-dering what's playing at the movies. For me, skis are just a necessary evil for getting outside in the winter. As long as I can slide around in a quiet side canyon and my boots don't rub my heels, I'm happy. But as soon as someone tells me that maybe I need a ski with a little more camber, or that my touring skis just won't work on this particular par-ticular exposure, I'm not happy. It's bad enough to think about what color wax to use. During the summer I get along fairly well. I have a bicycle, although it's not an ultralight racer or a knobby-tired mountain bike (most of my friends have one of each). I don't have a Hobie Cat, a Windsurfer or golf clubs. But during the warmer months 1 can get away with fewer accessories and still have a good time. It's winter that I dread. Every winter I seem to reach an equipment equip-ment saturation point and each year it seems to strike a little earlier. One day I look at the skis in our closet, the alpine skis, the nordic skis, the boots, the snow shoes, the tall poles for touring and the short ones for telemarking and I just can't handle it. I know that if I reach in there for one thing the whole mess will fall over and I'll ... Well, you can see the problem. I am hopelessly out of step with the times. The Age of Aquarius has given way to the Age of Athletics and more leisure time means more time to work out. This year the Christmas catalogs were loaded with sports equipment. They offered a variety of universal gyms, isometric exer-cizers, exer-cizers, stationary bicycles, pedometers and pulse meters. Everyone, except me, seemed to be getting fit. But honestly, what would I do with a digital read-out rowing machine? I'm hoping that eventually my friends will come around to my point of view. Of course, I haven't seen most of them all winter. They've been too busy playing racquetball, going to aerobics and skiing. I've caught glimpses of them strapping equipment to their roof racks, dashing to and from the Athletic Club and registering at the races but we haven't had time to talk. They have long since given up on me as a lost cause. But I've heard grumblings. I've seen that look of exasperation, listened to the equipment equip-ment debates and sensed those familiar symptoms of equipment overload. Maybe someone will just go for a walk with me this weekend. |