there's a brand new, state of the art skateboard park that just opened in the community of saanen. i think it's meant to keep the youth of saanen out of trouble and off the proverbial streets. it's a happening spot and since we arrived, our boys in particular have been like moths to the flame with that park. they are DYING to get in there. we, of course did not bring skateboards with us, nor did we ship them in the sea container whose arrival is still pending... eli and graydon took matters into their own hands last week and made some english posters announcing to the mostly german-speaking world that they are in the market for second-hand skateboards ("doesn't matter what brand, but they must be in good shape"). everyday, we have been checking the posters to see if anyone has ripped off any of the homemade tabs that they diligently crafted with scissors and wrote out by hand. after day one, there was a tab missing from one of the signs, but we haven't heard from a soul... fast forward to today when jeff and i decided to bite the bullet and drive 60km out of the valley (so much for living locally, but when it comes to shopping, resort towns don't offer the best deals) to a sizeable town in the french speaking canton called Bulle to find some skateboards for our well intentioned, but coming up short, sons. we planned to find used, but of course there weren't any and we got sucked into all the new, flashy ones at the store. language was a bit of an issue, but i muddled my way through with my rusty french and we went to have lunch while the shop built the boards. there was much excitement and anticipation to see the new rides after school. graydon had already won the toss to pick his first and he picked the one he liked. eli picked up his new board, turned it over and after a few minutes put it down and asked if we could return it. we scolded him for being ungrateful, but he complained that the pictures and sayings on the bottom were inappropriate and disgusting. so, we took a look and low and behold, it's covered with a cartoon of a hotdog holding a jackknife and there are all sorts of captions such as "biggest porno bargain in NY" + "pleasure unlimited, live + hot" + "make her hot! fast! this potent new sex formula". you get the idea.... eli refused to use it, full stop. he said it goes against everything he stands for and that he won't ride a "board covered in porn"....
hmmmm... how to handle this delicate situation? while we admire eli's ethics, we don't want to drive all the way back to Bulle to return it. thankfully, graydon is not as principled and offered to switch boards as long as we buy a can of spray paint and some stickers. eli has offered to help him to paint "graydon" on the board, graffiti-style... it was a lovely moment, graydy's generosity towards his brother and eli's relief that the mistake made by his loser parents wasn't going to stick to him. in the future, i think we'll be in charge of equipment we know and understand - skis, tennis racquets + bikes - and stay away from the ones that are way too rad for this mum and dad.
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